author
Alice Brayton
1878–1972
A New England local historian with a gift for preserving place and memory, this early-20th-century writer left behind vivid books about Fall River, Portsmouth, and Rhode Island's colonial past. She is also remembered for shaping the remarkable Green Animals topiary garden in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.
1 Audiobook
Trading in Scrabbletown
by Alice Brayton
About the author
Born in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1878, Alice Brayton spent much of her life connected to coastal New England. She later made her permanent home in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, at the family estate that became known as Green Animals, where her enthusiasm for gardening and design helped turn the property into one of the region's best-known topiary gardens.
She wrote several works of local history and biography, including Trading in Scrabbletown, George Berkeley in Newport, Life on the Stream, and The Burying Place of Governor Arnold. Her books show a strong interest in the people, landscapes, and layered stories of southeastern New England.
Brayton died in 1972. Today she is remembered not only as an author, but also as a careful keeper of regional history whose writing and preservation work helped save small but meaningful pieces of the past.