Expanded, with an artistic color cover, improved reproductions and newly discovered historic photos, this
30th Anniversary Edition is a fitting tribute to the legacy of John Bailey Lloyd.
In its pages you will travel back to Edwardian Beach Haven, discover the origins of Barnegat Lighthouse, and know the fortitude of the men of the U.S. Lifesaving Service. You'll experience nature's fury -- the hurricane of '44 and the March northeaster of '62 -- and learn how the Island's shifting southern end has changed -- with a ''new inlet,'' ''old inlet,'' and a disappeared Tucker's Island.
You'll know how and where bootleggers smuggled alcohol ashore during Prohibition, and delight in the Island's favorite watering holes ''When Beer Was Ten Cents A Glass.'' You'll learn about an eccentric Barnegat Light resident and the U.S. Supreme Court.
''In the Days of the Dune Hoppers,'' during World War II, a largely forgotten period on the Island, hotels boarded soldiers, the military patrolled beaches on horseback, and oceanside blackouts were mandatory. ''Ducks, Guns, and Money on Old Barnegat Bay'' explores the era of adventurous aristocratic men drawn to this shore.
You'll learn about town names (Beach Arlington, Long Beach City, Peahala, ''Harvey Cedars or Harvest Cedars?''), summers of baseball and the famous Roger ''Doc'' Cramer. The Lucy Evelyn, a schooner that was as much an attraction as Barnegat Lighthouse, is fondly remembered.
In this loving history: Travel the first automobile highways to the Shore or take the train to one of the grand old hotels. You'll even learn the origin of that enduring phrase, ''Six Miles At Sea.''
The late John Bailey Lloyd's lyrical and pioneering writing about Long Beach Island has been the inspiration for many books about Jersey Shore history. Here is the source -- providing a true sense of place. His three elegant companion books explore much of the history of the Shore with a focus on LBI. The Island of today is strikingly different from that of a century ago but here are images of an innocent and wilder past that cement our present-day bond with this place.
Modern-day Shore lovers will find their long-ago counterparts here. These books give us an opportunity to rediscover a unique place at the sea's edge -- a beautiful, sometimes dangerous, more personal LBI and the people who came to know and love it.
John Bailey Lloyd was an author, librarian, newspaper columnist, speaker, and historian on Long Beach Island, at the New Jersey Shore. He died in 2003 at age 71. Frequently referred to as ''Long Beach Island's historian,'' although no such official position existed, he was employed as a reference librarian in the Ocean County Library System. His passion was for local history and as an engaging speaker, he gave weekly talks on shore history at standing-room-only programs in his home town of Beach Haven for two decades. He wrote a widely-read column and historical features for the Island's newspapers, which were equally popular with residents and summer visitors on the resort island.
Mr. Lloyd authored three best-selling books, including Eighteen Miles of History, and Two Centuries of History. The books focused on Long Beach Island, but captured much of the history of the entire New Jersey Shore. He also wrote two biographical introductions to other books, including The Tides of Barnegat, by F. Hopkinson Smith, and a short story included in Shore Stories, a literary anthology. He provided material and the basis for three historical videos, including programs about the Barnegat Lighthouse and the Lost Resort of Sea Haven: Tucker's Island.
Born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1932, he had been on Long Beach Island since he was ten years old -- in time to see old landmarks like the Beach Haven boardwalk, the Engleside Hotel and the vast emptiness of the Island as it once was. With time out for service in the Coast Guard, graduate school and some travel, he spent nearly every summer on the Island. In 1977 his family became permanent residents and moved into their Beach Haven summer home -- a roomy, three-story Victorian built in 1879. The home, as much a museum and gallery as any historical museum, received John's constant attention and he delighted in showing visitors photographs and artifacts. An inveterate reader all his life, the walls and rafters of every room were lined with his collection of books.
Excerpts, the author's bibliography, and additional information about John Bailey Lloyd's books can be found at the publisher's website.
