Almost forty years after artist Alice Steer Wilson (1926-2001) wrote a message on the back of one of her paintings, this book offers an intimate view of her art. She enjoyed an undisputed role in the renaissance of Cape May, New Jersey. Known as "Mrs. Cape May," Wilson painted en plein air to capture the changing light on Victorian cottages, inns and hotels. She was hailed as a patron of preservationists and a colorist who conveyed the intrinsic character of a seaside resort fallen on hard times. This catalogue presents over 220 images from her career and invites the reader into an intimate view of the painter's life. It is the first publication of this scope, from the inside view of the artist's daughter and collaborator, the writer Janice Wilson Stridick. 128 pages, 229 illustrations, 208 in color

"For the better part of two centuries, at least, the story of the Jersey Devil has been part of the culture of Southern New Jersey. A fire-breathing monster with the head of a horse, bat wings and the body of a kangaroo, the creature is said to be the thirteenth child of Mother Leeds, born in 1735, when the unfortunate woman put a curse on her future offspring. Informed at a tender age by his BeBop (his grandmother) that he is distantly related to the beast, Bill Sprouse goes looking for the story behind the story of his family's connection to the famous monster. The result is part memoir, part travelogue and part a raucous tour of three-hundred years of New Jersey history. The domestic life of the Jersey Devil traces the origins of the Jersey Devil legend to an obscure pamphlet war that sent the Leeds family to Leeds Point at the end of the seventeenth century, with the family patriarch, Daniel Leeds, branded Satan's Harbinger in the process. If follows the story through its connection with the residents of the Pine Barrens (the famous Pineys), who were said to live in fear of the beast, and, finally, it examines the legend in its modern iterations: X-files episodes are made about the monster, a pro hockey team is named after it, and residents of Galloway Township attempt to adopt the creature as the official town mascot. The domestic life of the Jersey Devil is a book about suburban identity, and about one suburbanite's attempt to come to terms with his family history in the most unlikely of places."--

Elegant remnants of the Victorian era grace almost every corner of Cape May. Wealthy locals built opulent homes like the Emlen Physick Estate and the George Allen House, while grand hotels like Congress Hall and the Chalfonte welcomed visitors from around the country. Even presidents came for the healthful sea air and distinguished venues. Yet the gaieties of these well-heeled patrons were shadowed by strictly defined social roles. Men and women--upper class, as well as cooks and servants--had vastly different experiences in this resort town. Local historian Robert Heinly explores all aspects of this world. Peer into the upstairs and downstairs of these majestic homes to discover what life was like in Victorian Cape May.