Elinor De Wire has been writing about lighthouses and their keepers since 1972. During that time she found that hundreds of lighthouse animals wandered into her research notes and photo collection. This book is the story of all these cold-nosed, whiskered, wooly, hoofed, horned, slithery, buzzing, feathered, and finned keepers of the lights. Where else would a dog learn to ring a fogbell; a cat go swimming and catch a fish for its supper; or a parrot cuss the storm winds rattling its cage? Who other than a lightkeeper would swim a cow home, tame a baby seal, adopt an orphan alligator, send messages via carrier pigeons, or imagine mermaids coming to visit? The Lightkeepers' Menagerie gathers together animal stories from lighthouses all around the world, tales of happiness and sadness, courage and cowardice, tragedy and comedy, even absurdity. Sometimes, fur, feathers, and fins tell the best tales.
Elinor DeWire has been researching, photographing, and writing about lighthouses since 1972. She has visited more than eight hundred sentinels in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, and Australia and is the author of fifteen books and more than 250 articles on the subject. Former Coast Guard historian, Dr. Robert Scheina, calls her "America's most prolific lighthouse author and a driving force behind the recent upsurge in interest in preserving lighthouses and the history and nostalgia surrounding them." DeWire has been honored for her work by the U.S. Lighthouse Society, the American Lighthouse Foundation, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the National League of American Pen Women. Two of her books have won the coveted Ben Franklin Award and the Coast Guard Book Award. DeWire also has written three books on amateur astronomy. She lives in the Puget Sound area of Washington and teaches at Olympic College.
Lighthouse Books by Elinor DeWire:
Guide to Florida Lighthouses
Guardians of the Lights: Stories of U.S. Lighthouse Keepers
The Lighthouse Keeper's Scrapbook
The Lightkeepers' Menagerie: Stories of Animals at Lighthouses
Lighthouses: Sentinels of the American Coast
Lighthouses of the Mid-Atlantic
Lighthouses of the South
Lighthouse Victuals & Verse
The Lighthouse Almanac
Sentries along the Shore
Field Guide to the Lighthouses of the New England Coast
The Lighthouses of Greece
The Lighthouse Activity Book for Kids
Florida Lighthouses for Kids
The DeWire Guide to Lighthouses of California, Oregon, & Washington
Astronomy/Sky Books:
Activities for Young Astronomers
Reach for the Sky
The Florida Night
Author Website:
www.ElinorDeWire.com
