Golden Light: The 1878 Diary of Captain Thomas Rose Lake offers a first-hand view of 19th century life on the mid-Atlantic coast through the words of a young sea captain, Thomas Rose Lake. It is a maritime and social history unlike any other. From plainspoken entries in the captain's diary (laboriously written in the quiet of home and in the pitching aftercabin of a sloop) was born an exquisitely detailed, fascinating picture of a vanished America and a way of life. Expanded into its current form -- with enlightening essay footnotes by author James Kirk -- the book is a wondrous vehicle for travelling back to 1878. In what John T. Cunningham calls a treasure trove of New Jersey Shore happenings just after the Civil War, we set sail in the coasting trade from home port near Atlantic City to New York City and Virginia. At the center of Lake's life is the Golden Light, the coasting sloop that provided much of the family's living. The ship -- one of the trailer trucks of their age -- carried oysters to New York, but also New Jersey clams, fish oil, or potatoes and Virginia oysters. We are given accounts of Lake's days: working on the ship, planting, harvesting, working on the oyster platforms, or helping in the family store. And his social life: names of girl friends, oyster suppers, pick nicks, beach parties, trips by train to Philadelpfia, or his time in New York, where he attended the theatre or went up town to see the Fashens. This was the closing of the age of sail and the agrarian era in America, and in many ways the end of a national innocence. In its pages is the final cry of a way of life which, for better or worse, would return no more. As such, the diary is apoignant vignette -- an ambrotype faded at the edges but with the central portrait clear -- of a young man's happiness, simplicity, and struggle, writes Kirk. It must give us pause. Publication Date: February 2003