Spring: The Briefest Season (Seasons on Island)

By Bob Barsanti

I have been writing about Nantucket for almost twenty years. Each year, in the spring, I would think that I might be done with this and should start writing about the Berkshires or Vermont, but the island kept calling me back. Almost all of these essays embrace that cold and gray grace. Nantucket, in spite of our best efforts, returns to its essential elements of wind, sand, and water. It exists as an island in the sea of time, fogged in and misted over by the present, but fundamentally unchanged under the surface. Unfortunately, people only briefly scurry about on the surface. I have written two or three hundred essays about the island, most of which were published in Yesterday's Island . At one point, you couldn't wait for a slice of pizza or get a cup of coffee without being a few unread feet from one of my pieces. As the years have piled up, I put out one collection of essays in 2010, bit otherwise let the rest of them pile up on my hard drive. So, I feel the time is right to re-release the best of my essays. Most of the essays have lasted past their sell-by date. I may reference Denby Real Estate or David Ortiz, but it still smells fresh. More than that, the essays came from a different time on island that wasn't all that different. They have become historical notes, with people and places that have left the walking world and only live in memory. But year round living has never been particularly easy, either fifty years ago, twenty years ago, or today. The island remains, as do all of the worries and concerns. Nantucket's ability to address pressing problems in a timely way remains as potent as ever.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0F5MNQDRT
• ISBN13: 9798280442399
• Release Date: April 2025
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 150 Pages
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.3" x 6.0"