Cape Cod Book Reviews

Finally, the ultimate Photo-Journalism book about Cape Cod

Kathryn Kleekamp met the challenge of writing a Cape Cod book to equal those went before
"Cape Cod and the Islands: Where Beauty and History Meet" is superb.

By Walter Brooks

As a young girl, Cape Cod painter and author Kathryn Kleekamp, grew up in an tall apartment building on a busy upper, east side New York City street.

Kathryn is self-taught and began her career seven years ago. This scene overlooking Round Cove in East Harwich is typical of her work and called "Where I want to be."

But one August when she was twelve her mother took her for a week's holiday to a cottage on the Atlantic shore in New Jersey where she sat on the porch in awe looking out at the vast majesty of the ocean.

You might say that week changed her life, because her painting and writing today reflect the wonder she must have felt on that long-gone day, but the metamorphosis didn't occur for almost half a century.

Kathryn had an education in biolgy, raised a family, a career as a clinical microbiologist at the Lahey Clinic until at 58 she began to paint.

While Mrs. Kleekamp's oils easily capture her emotional attachment to the sea, she has also written a text which eloquently pays homage to her love for Cape Cod and it's fragile environment.

Her new book is large (11'x9") does much more than show us her art which would deserve a book all by itself, but she has done something more remarkable. In fact, it's almost unique in the manner it combines art to history and Cape lore.

Prints are available at the following Cape Cod locations:
National Park Service Visitor Center, Eastham, Painted Daisies, East Sandwich, The Crooked Fence, Chatham, H. H. Snow's and Sons, Orleans.
The books are on sale at Brewster Book Store, Route 6-A, Brewster, My Sister's Gallery, Jarves Street, Sandwich, Titcomb's Book Shop, Route 6A East Sandwich, Where the Sidewalk Ends Book Shop. Main Street, Chatham, Market Street Book Shop, Steeple Street, Mashpee Commons, Mashpee, and from the author PO Box 1300, Sandwich, MA 02563, (508)833-1271.Please mail check for $29.99 and $3/book for shipping and handling.

Pleasing the eye, mind and palate

She has written short stories to surround her art and the art of others with a graceful terseness which equals any others in the field. This is not a coffee table book, although it could serve as one proudly. It is art and photography and antiques drawings with a page of text to explain the significance of each, and even a section of Cape Cod recipes.

The reader should visit her gallery or one of the shops and galleries which handle her art and this book in the sidebar on the right.

Any lover of our narrow land should rush to the bookstore listed to add this thing of beauty to his or her library.

This hardcover, 11 by 9-inches, volume has 176 pages with 159 images and illustrations, including 50 original oil paintings by the artist and many rare historic photos.

Despite its large size and original art, it sells for only $29.95 and is published by Schiffer Books, a firm famous for introducing new art and history volumes and well as Green titles, architecture, antiques and military history.

To whet your appetite Kathryn Kleekamp has kindly given us permission to share four chapters with you including three of her original painting created specifically for this booh:

The Cape Landscape,
Chapter One (p.14.)

Evening Marsh 2006, oil on canvas panel.

Marsh
"To feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines . . . to see the running of the old eels and the young shad to the sea, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be," Rachel Carson, Under the Sea Wind

Beach and ocean may first come to mind when considering the Cape Cod landscape, but the salt marshes surrounding the ocean's countless tributaries are the areas of true mystery and wonder. Those who find time to visit the marsh will discover a Zen-like calmness as languorous grasses dotted with sea lavender gently sway in the breeze, ducks paddle lazily on an open patch of water, a lone osprey circles overhead. Beyond the visual beauty, it's the unique ability of marsh plants and animals to tolerate vast extremes in natural conditions that is truly impressive. No other habitat in nature is more dramatic or stressful. Flowing ocean tides bring fluctuations in salinity and variable water inundation. Summer temperatures on the marsh can vary over 50 degrees in a few hours when the cool water retreats and the sun bakes the earth.

A salt marsh is formed by the arrival of a seed of grass called Spartina alterniflora. The grass grows and spreads by means of a subterranean rhizome system. As roots are formed, they become dense and encourage the deposition of sediment and decayed material. This begins to create a terrestrial land mass and as other salt tolerant grasses invade, the area grows and meadows form. Between these meadows are creeks that have an extremely abundant and diverse population of plants and sea creatures. Mussels grow readily and can be quite densely packed. The byssal threads or silky filaments secreted by these mollusks bind the sediment and further enhances the growth of Spartina. Another common salt marsh resident, the fiddler crab, also aids in Spartina growth by burrowing and aerating the sediment.

Marsh estuaries are the spawning grounds and nursery areas for 75% of commercial and recreational fish species such as striped bass, bluefish and flounder. Untold thousands of other tiny fish like mummichogs or sticklebacks who spend their lives in the marsh can be seen on closer observation. Hermit crabs scurry along the intertidal mudflats. Snails hold fast to their lodging at the base of the salty cord grass stems; sparrows and red-winged blackbirds nest in tidal marshes. Herons and snowy egrets visit the marsh attracted by the elaborate menu of seafood.

Safeguarding Those at Sea ~ Lighthouses
Chapter Seven (p.97.)

Caption: Sandy Neck Light, 2007, oil on canvas.

In the early 1800s, Barnstable Harbor was an active trade and fishing port. The first light station, built on the west side of the harbor in 1827, consisted of a wooden lantern on the roof of a keeper's house. Its fixed light welcomed Barnstable fishermen from nine miles out on Cape Cod Bay. It shone for three decades until replaced by the brick tower (painted white) that stands today. Although lighthouse keepers were for the most part men, many brave women undertook the role; usually after a husband or father died. In the winter of 1862, keeper Thomas Baxter was struggling to navigate his dory through the ice clogged waters of Barnstable harbor when he badly injured his leg. After it became gangrenous and led to death, his wife Lucy took over his responsibilities. She was an able caretaker from 1862 to 1867 while raising her three children in the keeper's house.

The Outermost House
(Chapter One: The Cape Landscape)

   The Outermost House, oil on canvas.

"Nature is a part of our humanity, and without some awareness and
experience of that divine mystery man ceases to be man."
Henry Beston, The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod

There have always been individuals who isolated themselves from the modern world and sought inspiration and restoration by living in a beach cottage.

Cape Cod has produced many fine authors who have shared such an experience. Among these, two stand out.

In 1926, writer and naturalist Henry Beston built a simple two-room dwelling on a cliff overlooking the outer beach in Eastham.

He intended to spend a couple of weeks there but later wrote, "The fortnight ending, I lingered on, and as the year lengthened into autumn, the beauty and mystery of this earth and outer sea so possessed and held me that I could not go."

Beston considered himself a "writer/naturalist" and is thought to be one of the fathers of the modern environmental movement. His book,

The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod, was an inspirational force in the creation of the Cape Cod National Seashore.

In his foreword to the eleventh printing of the book he wrote, "Bird migrations, the rising of the winter stars out of the breakers and the east, night and storm, the solitude of a January day, the glistening of dune grass in midsummer, all this is to be found between the covers even as today it is still to be seen."

Driven by the relation of nature to the human spirit he tells us, "Nature is a part of our humanity, and without some awareness and experience of that divine mystery man ceases to be man."

Years later, after beach erosion forced its move, the Fo'c‘sle (Beston's name for his cottage) was relocated inland. Nan Waldron Turner was another who was drawn to the natural world and spent the equal of a year there counting her visits over sixteen years beginning in 1961.

She chronicled her experiences in Journey to the Outermost House. Nan's daughter, Les Waldron, shared her own recollections of staying in the house (personal communication with Kathryn)

Outermost wasn't just a cottage. It had a different purpose...a very different reason for being. It was a courageous little safe-harbor far along a spit of sand with no electricity or amenities save hand pump and gas lights.

One chose to stay there (without cell phones) knowing there was not imminent rescue or neighbor to call. The house, and its guests endured, baked by the sun, plagued by insects, beaten by rain, ice, tides and pelting sand.

It was the symbol of modest human presence slipped into the raw world of natural wonder...humbling to say the least.

Thankfully, both books endure. The Outermost House was washed out to sea in the great blizzard of 1978.

Cape Wind
(Chapter Eight: Realizing Dreams)

   Simulation of the Nantucket wind Farm as seen from Cotuit, MA. Courtesy Jim Gordon

In the early 19th century windmills were spread over the entire Cape landscape. They ground corn and were used extensively to pump sea water for hundreds of salt works vital to the Cape economy.

Jim Gordon, an experienced power plant developer, and 21st century visionary would like to see the return of wind power.

By harnessing the forceful winds of Nantucket Sound on the southern border of Cape Cod, he realizes the potential of generating clean, renewable electricity.

His company, Cape Wind Associates, announced a plan to build America's first offshore wind farm in 2001. The project can provide 75% of the electrical needs of the Cape and Islands.

One hundred and thirty slender turbines generating on average170 megawatts and a peak output of 420 megawatts of renewable power would be spread a half mile apart over 24 square miles.

Gordon relates, "While this project is only a first step, it's a significant one toward lowering United States' dependence on foreign oil.

Also important, it would reduce harmful air pollution that otherwise would come from oil and coal burning power plants."

The wind farm will avoid carbon dioxide emissions by almost a million tons per year by replacing fossil fuels.

Unlike the 1800s when there were no permitting requirements to put up a windmill, Cape Wind has undergone seven years of investigation by at least fifteen local, state and federal permitting agencies.

Dozens of environmental groups including the Conservation Law Foundation, Greenpeace and the Union of Concerned Scientists support the project.

Although polls indicate most people are in favor of wind power and clean energy, a powerful group of citizens on Cape Cod and the Islands are concerned about visual appearance and property values.

They have formed a group to oppose the project. Thousands of others have organized to support the project's merits. It's a very divisive issue locally and as the drama plays out only time will reveal the outcome of Jim Gordon's dream.