Over the Bridge

Joseph C. Lincoln...The essence of Old Cape Cod.

Joseph Lincoln was born in Brewster in 1870. He was the son of a Sea Captain who died when he was just ten months old. He grew up on the Cape and spent his summers exploring the sand dunes, inlets, kettle ponds and cranberry bogs all over Cape Cod.

Throughout his travels on the Cape, he got acquainted with many of the Cape's local inhabitants, such as the fishermen, the lighthouse keepers, postmasters, general store owners and sea captains.

This upbringing greatly influenced the characters in his novels. Lincoln began writing short stories for newspapers and magazines. These stories were set around Cape Cod surroundings, and eventually were printed in The Saturday Evening Post. His first novel, Cap'n Eri, brought Lincoln immediate fame and notoriety. His novels were written and published throughout the early 1900's. Over time he wrote over forty novels, roughly one a year.

Some of his critics have said his stories wax poetic, his characters seemingly repetitious, yet Lincoln's stories capture a bygone era in a manner that leaves his readers in a state of good humored, good natured well being.

His stories instantly transport you to Cape Cod in the 1800's, where seafaring was a way of life. Where the small villages were the center of the universe for the Cape's inhabitants. His descriptions of the salt marshes, scrub pines, poplar trees, the roaring surf, as well as the sights and smells of the Cape bring you back to a simpler place in time. To Lincoln, the smell of the salt meadows, the bayberry and pungent pines were intoxicating to him. The "the mighty surge and thunder of the surf along the shore" were part of his very existence.

Lincoln's character development was masterful. But it came easy to him. He wrote about the people he grew up with and experienced on the Cape. Each of his characters and the humor they possessed all were native to Cape Cod.

Lincoln said:

"In writing of a Cape Cod town or village, although I purposely refrain from describing it as any one town in particular, I have tried conscientiously to give the characteristics of Cape Cod towns I am acquainted with. The promontories and inlets and hills and marshes in 'my' Cape Cod may not be found where I have located them, but I have tried very hard to make them like those which are on the real Cape. I have endeavored always to be true to type, and in writing of the old deep-sea captain, the coasting skipper, the longshoreman or the people of the Cape villages, I have done my best to portray each as I have seen and known specimens of his or her kind."

A poem he wrote called "Winter Nights at Home" gives you a sense of his truly unique Cape perspective:

"A stretch of hill and valley, swathed thick in robes of white,
The buildings blots of blackness, the windows gems of light,
A moon, now clear, now hidden, as in its headlong race
The north wind drags the cloud wrack in tatters o'er its face; 

Mailed twigs that click and clatter upon the tossing tree,
And, like a giant's chanting, the deep voice of the sea
As 'mid the stranded ice cakes the bursting breakers foam-
The old familiar picture- a winter night at home."

In his own words, "I like the Cape marshes with their different greens and the cranberry bogs with their lavender shades. There is a serenity of life there and a friendliness that is nurtured by the peaceful surroundings. I love Cape Cod." Me too.