Tom Horton

Take a literary tour of Maryland's Eastern Shore. Originally published in 1944 as part of the prestigious Rivers of America series, this second edition brings an American classic back into print and into the hands of a new generation. Author Hulbert Footner tells the story of Maryland’s Eastern Shore through his colorful narratives of 17 fascinating rivers. His story begins from the day European settlers landed and encountered the Indigenous peoples and continues to the early 20th century. Each river has its own story, character, and beauty, lovingly described during his travels. Footner writes in vivid, glowing prose about the Eastern Shore's people, customs, towns, and houses. He speaks of its politics and economics. The region is rich with American history, from the Revolution, War of 1812, and Civil War to the trade of enslaved Africans and the oyster wars over its great natural resource. And Footner captures it all. Text and illustrations are faithfully reproduced from the original edition, augmented by a biographical sketch written by Footner’s granddaughter and a foreword by noted nature writer Tom Horton. This book is a must-have for those devoted to the character and culture of this coastal region, with its eclectic small towns and pristine natural beauty.

Seven essays and over 150 photographs explore the Choptank's natural and human history, biology, and culture. This book of more than 150 vibrant photographs and seven essays depicts the natural history, human history, science, and culture of the Delmarva Peninsula’s largest river. Explore the Choptank River—from its beginnings at upstream springs and farm ditches to its broad estuary below Cambridge, Maryland—discover its inhabitants, and learn about the impact of human activity on the natural environment. Generations of watermen and farmers, oystermen and oyster shuckers, crabbers and crab pickers, commercial fishermen, and a “turkler” are just a few of the folks you'll become acquainted with. Additionally, retired biologist and aquatic scientist Nick Carter, water quality scientist Tom Fisher, and oyster captain Wade Murphy offer tales of wonder and sacrifice while also warning us of the consequences of overpopulation and wasteful habits. Learn how we can restore the river, reduce pollution, conserve food and fuel, and protect this special place for all of time.

Once again marrying photography with prose, longtime collaborators David W. Harp and Tom Horton capture the natural beauty and rich history of the Nanticoke River, one of the Chesapeake's least known waterways. Despite rampant development and agricultural abuse, the Nanticoke remains one of the most pristine rivers of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, looking much as it did when Captain John Smith first sailed its waters four hundred years ago. While parts of the river drain stormwater off the flat fields of the Delmarva Peninsula, most of the Nanticoke serves no purpose except natural beauty. Its meandering waters and fertile wetlands sustain a remarkable diversity of life. The Nanticoke is home to beavers, otters, woodpeckers, freshwater fish and shellfish, watergrasses, bog orchids, bald cypresses, and the rare Atlantic white cedar. More than one hundred color photographs reveal unspoiled waters rarely glimpsed other than by Native Americans, tugboat captains, naturalists, and commercial waterman. The Nanticoke makes clear the urgency of preserving this vital but fragile ecosystem.

He has captured in full the life of the island. Washington Post Book World

In 1991, Island Press published Turning the Tide, a unique and accessible examination of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. The book took an indepth look at the Bay’s vital signs to gauge the overall health of its entire ecosystem and to assess what had been done and what remained to be done to clean up the Bay. This new edition of Turning the Tide addresses new developments of the past decade and examines the factors that will have the most significant effects on the health of the Bay in the coming years.With new case studies and updated maps, charts, and graphs, the book builds on the analytical power of ten years of experience to offer a new perspective, along with clear, science-based recommendations for the future. For all those who want to know not only how much must be done to save the Bay but what they can do and how they can make a difference, Turning the Tide is an essential source of information.

Those who know and love the Chesapeake will find the bay they treasure on the pages of Water's Way: Life along the Chesapeake. The story of one of North America's most fascinating regions unfolds through the sensitive photographs and prose of two men who have studied the Chesapeake all their lives. Photographer David W. Harp and writer Tom Horton vividly portray how, as Horton writes, "the edges where land and water meet charm us all, from watermen to watercolorists and beachcombers to duck hunters." Water's Way will guide you to "those rare, hidden nooks of the bay country where nature still appears as glorious and untrammeled as it did a thousand years ago." It will also take you to less hidden, but equally intriguing sites within the Chesapeake's reach as Harp and Horton depict the worlds of both nature and humans. An intimate knowledge of and an unwavering reverence for the bay pervade Water's Way. Harp and Horton are as attuned to the romance that still clings to the Chesapeake as they are to the realities that inspire and threaten it. In a time when the region faces tremendous changes and challenges, Water's Way is neither strident nor sentimental. Rather, it is suffused with the fundamental respect for the bay which Harp and Horton see as key to its survival.

Originally published in hardback, this book about the Chesapeake is now available in paperback from Johns Hopkins. The author, Tom Horton, is a native of Maryland's Eastern Shore, and has written about the environment for the past 15 years in the "Baltimore Sun". His stories of oysters and sea nettle, elms and rivers, barrier islands and blue crabs, farmers and watermen, always reach beyond the local to the most universal of subjects.