author
Celia Thaxter
1835–1894
Drawn from a life shaped by sea wind, islands, and gardens, this 19th-century American writer turned the Isles of Shoals into lasting poetry and prose. Her work is especially loved for its vivid nature writing and its sense of closeness to the New England coast.
2 Audiobooks
Among the Isles of Shoals
by Celia Thaxter
An island garden
by Celia Thaxter
About the author
Born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1835, she spent much of her childhood on the Isles of Shoals, where her father worked first as a lighthouse keeper and later ran the Appledore House hotel. That island upbringing gave her the setting that would define much of her writing: the sea, the weather, the rocks, the flowers, and the rhythms of coastal life.
She became known as an American poet and prose writer whose books and poems often centered on the natural world and on island life. Sources agree that her best-known work includes Among the Isles of Shoals, and reference works describe her writing as especially focused on the ocean landscapes and memories of her youth.
She died in 1894, but her reputation endures through her richly observant descriptions of New England shore life. Readers who enjoy lyrical nature writing, regional history, and 19th-century American literature still find a great deal to love in her work.