Nantucket Summers

Nantucket Summers is the fascinating story of a family, a very special house and life on an enchanting wind-swept island some 30 miles off the coast of Massachusetts. Here in 1887, Dr. Charles Oliver of Philadelphia built Sunnycliffe in the tiny town of Siasconset to become among the first summer residents of Nantucket.

Here is a glimpse of the island as it used to be. Here, too, is the story of the men, women and children who lived in a rambling, shingled cottage of 'Sconset's North Bluff.         Their outlook and activities reflect the different cultures of their times. Nantucket Summers introduces you to three generations of family members. It tells the story of their hopes and dreams, joys and satisfactions, as well as their sadness, disappointments and defeats. The voices are mainly those of the women whose lives span the time between the Civil War and World War II when the nation came of age. 

The author, a member of the family and a 48-year summer resident herself, recalls her own rich memories of island life in the late 1920's through 1976. Other voices round out a picture of what the long and lazy days of summer were like before Nantucket became a popular destination for tourists and a building site for now thousands of new vacation homes.