How Emily's Lobster Takes Us to Cape Cod, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Edward Hopper
Cape Cod’s Historic Literary Past
This is the first of a long series of letters revisiting our latest winter/spring road trip odyssey.
As a solitary who happily wraps himself in quietude, I am blessed by the exchange of letters with a handful of thoughtful correspondents.
In a letter this morning, one fellow touched on the focus of these next posts—Cape Cod—as if reading my mind.
He wrote, "Each year, I pick out my favorite post(s) from your winter journey, and it seems each year my favorites are from Cape Cod. This year is no exception. You seem to have a very special affinity, connection, and understanding with Cape Cod. Although your words from every place you visit are shared with joy and happiness, your words from the Cape are different. There is a deeper meaning and feeling to your time there that is easy to see."
I am an imaginary traveler. While I observe what is around me and sink into Nature's present state, I often imagine that we are traveling in days of old, long before overdevelopment and gentrification.
Each summer, I dream of Cape Cod, not for what it is, but for what it must have been like in less crowded times when it was an affordable place for struggling bohemians to nurture creative dreams.
During our winter visits, I entertain these fantasies with soft eyes, especially on the Outer Cape, in places like Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown.
In January, with a population anywhere from only a third to a fourth of summer's peopling, it's easy. We are cast back to the days when Thoreau walked the Great Beach with Ellery Channing, Jr., or Henry Beston built and lived in his "Fo'castle," better known as the Outermost House, right where the Pilgrims first arrived in the Mayflower, or writers such as Eugene O'Neil, Jackson Kerouac, Tennessee Williams scribbled in the ramshackle dune shacks of PTown.
"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.”
~ Henry Beston, The Outermost House
I delved deeper this past trip than in past years since the theme of this coddiwomple was on great American storytellers. With Samwise and Emily, I explored the dunes, beaches, and beech forests where many a pen was inspired. The ghosts were so thick I could feel them breathing; I could imagine their youthful dreams.
Due to December's flood, when our favorite trails were ruined by water up to my chest, our planned five days on Cape Cod became seventeen. We stayed in a hotel and two rentals when we launched our coddiwomple earlier than expected.
On the Outer Cape, we were thrust into literary history in a place that was a center for great minds more than anywhere else we visited. That includes Concord (Thoreau, Emerson, Alcott, and Hawthorne), the Monterey Peninsula (Steinbeck, Robert Louis Stevenson, Doc Ricketts, Joseph Campbell, and artists such as Salvador Dali and Ansel Adams), and the San Francisco area (Jack London, Thomas Starr King, John Muir, and Mark Twain).
The Cape differs from these other spots thanks to the nearness of the natural world. One Cape author, who would become a United States President, created the Cape Cod National Seashore. John F. Kennedy was largely motivated to do this by Beston's Outermost House and the work of yet another Cape author—Rachel Carson.
The history not only infuses the soul; it jumps off the page, and I find myself standing in reverence of the past.
Recently, I wrote to James Landry, who owns Provincetown's Paws and Whiskers with his husband, John. I have never met James, but I graduated high school with his sister, Jean. (We've only been to the store when John is there.)
We've shopped in the store each of the last two winters, and Emily gets to pick out a toy. Last year, she chose a whale, and six months ago, she was thrilled to pick out a lobster.
I had been daydreaming about our winter walks among the dunes when Emily came squeaking into the room with her Provincetown lobster in her mouth. It was her way of telling me, "Enough writing, let's walk!"
Later that day, I mailed a card to James and asked if he planned on having a garden again this year. Within minutes, I received a text from James with photos of his newly expanded garden beds. Talk of synchronicity!
But it gets better.
Shortly after, I was reading about the artist Edward Hopper. I did not realize he summered in Truro—where James and John live. The article spoke about how Hopper was inspired in his painting by Ralph Waldo Emerson's writing on self-reliance and the infinitude of the common man.
Hopper also states that his best-known work, Nighthawks, was inspired by Hemingway's short story, The Killers.
These are the intertwined histories that excite me the most. The timing of my connection with James and the memories of our explorations on the Outer Cape is the kind of magic that ignites my passion for these stories and reminds us that there are times when there is a deeper meaning to coincidence.
In the coming months, you'll see how often our paths intersected with Emerson, Thoreau, O'Neil, Kerouac, and, yes, even Mary Oliver repeatedly during our 18,000 miles on the road. So many of the authors we followed left breadcrumbs for us to follow, leading us to other writers, poets, painters, and sculptors. The outcome far surpassed my most hopeful imaginings.
More about Edward Hopper’s love of the Outer Cape can be found here.
Places we stayed on Cape Cod
Hampton Inn & Suites Cape Cod-West Yarmouth
An excellent stay for five nights with superb off-season rates. We were there for Christmas, and the lobby was decorated. Each guest received a treat bag on Christmas morning hanging from the room’s door knob like a Christmas stocking. Loved the staff! (Link)
Our rating 5/5 stars.
Pam’s Place in Barnstable
Wow! You’ll not find a better dog-friendly rental anywhere. Pam is kind and caring, and we loved staying there. The unit had everything we could have wished for, including a fenced yard. (Link)
Our rating 5/5 stars
Provincetown Condo
Location! The rental was fine but not as nice as the photos. But it offered us an increasingly rare opportunity to spend a week at a reasonable off-season rate in Provincetown. (Link)
Our rating 4/5 stars.
Thank you Tom, Emily, and Samwise for sharing the gorgeous pictures and journey to the Cape, so amazing! Emily loves her lobster I can tell, made me smile!🥰
Loved the pictures. I hope one day to visit the Cape in off-season since I’m retired. My favorite picture is Emily and the lobster. As always thank you for sharing