Martha’s Vineyard Outdoors
Fishing, Hunting
and Avoiding Divorce
on a Small Island
Martha’s Vineyard Island is a well known summer vacation spot. In this collection of columns, former Martha’s Vineyard Times editor Nelson Sigelman describes an island preoccupation, less notorious than tourism but even more obsessive, rooted in fishing, hunting and waterfowling traditions that shaped the island’s character well before a mechanical shark named Bruce and presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama attracted slavish media attention to a 100-square mile speck off the coast of Massachusetts.
“The pleasures of Nelson Sigelman’s distinctive voice held this non-fishing, non-hunting, feminist, tree-hugging pinko spellbound from the first essay to the very last.”
— Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize winning author, Martha’s Vineyard resident.
"Martha's Vineyard Outdoors" — a collection of hunting and fishing columns produced by Sigelman for The Martha's Vineyard Times, a weekly newspaper that he joined in 1989 — is charming, perceptive, poignant and idiosyncratic. A passionate outdoorsman who is ever-curious and often humorous, he made friends swiftly and became immersed in the Vineyard's history as a haven for those who hunt and fish.”
— Nelson Bryant, retired outdoor columnist for the New York Times
“These are not tall tales. Nelson’s columns are securely and fondly anchored in small events and ordinary folk, among the fishermen and hunters and their loved ones, that he has gotten to know close up. In these stories there are smiles, tears, hits and misses. They are all real and warmly told.”
— Doug Cabral, Island newspaperman, editor and author
"Nelson is a natural storyteller who has brought alive so much of the character, people and pastimes of the island. I loved reading this book."
— Kay Goldstein, author, longtime Chilmark seasonal resident