Kent Island: The Land That Once Was Eden

by Janet Freedman

A story of family, place, and time before the Chesapeake Bay Bridge paved over a way of life with a six-lane highway. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0938420844
• ISBN13: 9780938420842
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Maryland Historical Society
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Power in Memory

This book is a wonderful tapestry of history and memory that makes for a warm, enjoyable read, despite its message: what is lost. From Native American Matapeake Indians to Baltimore's great fire, and the "second" Bay Bridge construction, the history reveals the natural resources, economy, and community values of early Kent Island, and its present reality of tract housing, expressways, and strip malls. Freedman's microcosm of Kent Island is a macro for what's happening all over the U.S. Character and charm are no more. We live in vinyl boxes and shop the same chains. As you drive around your town, have you ever really looked to see how ugly most of the landscape is? Try it. The book's images are quite extraordinary though. The author's memories and cherished photos of family and place possess an honesty that reached out for my own distinct early memories, and begged me to appreciate them. She also reinforced my appetite for finding value and beauty in simple things and ways that deserve human note and care. A few of my favorite parts of the book: Recipes Served on the Porch, My Mother's Coat, and the twelve days of Christmas. This book was personally enriching for me, and it's a wake-up call for those of us who've known a finer quality of life. We do know better. Janet Freedman came right out and said it.

History and memory merge in this absorbing book

Janet Freedman seamlessly blends history and personal remembrances in this charming account of family and place. Her grandmother's farm and the surrounding area are brought to life through the memories of a child, the commentary of family and friends, and detailed research. One need not be familiar with Kent Island to feel a stir of nostalgia for the simpler times she describes.No romanticized sentiment is found here. Hardships are made clear ("the shocking cold of January linoleum" in an unheated bedroom, for example, or a coat handed down through six children), but they are tempered with descriptions of the bounty provided by land and water and the reassurance of routine. The security offered by close family ties is evident throughout.Emphasis is placed on accurate and fond description of the region, though recent comers might be hard pressed to reconcile the dirt roads and general stores of Freedman's childhood with the asphalt and strip malls of today's Kent Island. A selection of period photographs augments the author's colorful prose, giving a visual record of structures that have fallen vicitim to "progress" and the people who helped shape this story.Sadly, the book's poignancy is derived from what we've lost; the concept of controlled development has come too late to save much of Kent Island's appeal. Freedman's work will stand as a testament to what was and a warning of how quickly such things can be lost.

Kent Island...Another Victim to Megapolis

I read with interest Janet Freedman's book, KENT ISLAND and was saddened by the great loss of American landscape, folkways and individual freedom that goes along with the vast real estate grab that has been occurring everywhere on the East Coast of the United States during the last 50 years. Except for a few state and federal parks, the coastline is completely owned by the wealthy. Where there were once families and communities engaged in agriculture or seafood harvesting we now have a blight of ticky-tacky housing and high rise hotels. Where there were once farmers and watermen working the land and the water there are now yachtsmen and other pleasure boat owners filling our bays and inlets to such an extent that nobody can derive any pleasure from fishing or sailing.Wherein lies the "pleasure"? And its not just the coastline. Here in Pennsylvania, truck farmers and orchard owners daily give way to the lucrative offers of land speculators. Soon we will be getting all our fruit from Chile or Peru because all the excellent arable land in the northeastern U.S. will have been turned into suburbia. GARY WHITTLE

Being There

I've never been to Kent Island but am familiar with the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Janet Freedman brings Kent Island and its history alive in her book. I can 'see' her family and the landscape. I can 'smell' the shore and its inhabitants. I can 'hear' the wildlife. I've recently taken several literature classes at our local college and have come to appreciate the importance of listening to individuals as they relate their own personal history. Janet's book is like listening to an oral history account of a time that might easily disappear from memory if not recorded now.Her book makes me want to stop at Kent Island, not just bypass it while traveling to some other location. I want to be able to experience what she experienced in what truly seems a lost Eden.Thanks Janet Freedman for bring your past to life!

Poetic Beauty

Freedman captures the historical saddness and lost beauty found all over the United States. Anyone can relate to the loss of heritage and land to corporate explosion. She brings to light the need to remember a simpler time. I loved this book.