Chapter I: Front Matter

JOE LINCOLN
OF CAPE COD

_By_

JAMES WESTAWAY McCUE

_Published By_
THE CAPE COD PUBLISHERS
Silver Lake P. O., Mass.

Copyright 1949 by J. W. McCue

OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR

“Romantic Cape Cod”
“Ski Lure”
“Sea Fever”
“Cape Cod Doctor”
“Deep Harvest”
“Recipes From A Cape Cod Kitchen”
“A New England Journey”
“Cape Cod In Pictures”
“Cape Cod Holiday”
“Yankee Boy”
“The Captain’s Daughter”

Published by
THE CAPE COD PUBLISHERS
Silver Lake, Mass.
Printed in the United States of America
By the Round Printing & Publishing Co.
on Cape Cod

Cover and Photos

by

RICHARD KELSEY

Chatham

Acknowledgement is made by the author to THE BOSTON HERALD for
permission to use its files and biographical material used in the
preparation of this book.

JOSEPH C. LINCOLN

* * * * *

Joseph Lincoln was not only a novelist of wide reputation, but he was also a public benefactor. His success had in it something heartening and corrective. In the midst of work which appeals to the base and cynical in human life (American city life) his clean, wholesome, humorous stories of Cape Cod Sea Captains and their neighbors gave evidence of the fact that there was a huge public for decent, homely fiction. Just as the success of his play “Shavings” was evidence that there was a paying audience for decent and homely drama.

Lincoln’s books could be read aloud in the family circle with joy to all members of it. They made no pretense of being profound, or new, or “smart.” They were filled with characters and the humor which was once native to the Cape. Lincoln knew these Cape towns and their inhabitants as Irving Bacheller, another writer of the times, knew his men of the North Woods, for he was raised among them and lived in their neighborhood several months of each year. Joe Lincoln looked like one of them, like an old skipper, hearty, unassuming and kindly. The task which he set for himself was one which called for a keen sense of character, democracy of sentiment and a fancy which never--or very seldom--lost its hold on the solid ground of experience. His plots were sometimes negligible, but his characters, even when they seemed a bit repetitious, were a joy to his readers. His prosperity was well earned.