Crab's Hole

Book excerpt: The Literary House Press at Washington College publishes a range of general interest books and scholarly monographs. Its publications present literary, scientific, historic, journalistic, environmental, and public policy writings of the Chesapeake Bay region. As publisher for Washington College, the press also publishes scholarly monographs written by faculty or taken from lecture series at the college. In addition, Literary House Press publishes works of literary merit without regard to subject or setting. Through the voice of their mother, the author of this enchanting memoir, the Jander family speaks to us across half-a-century about a world that is no more. Running water, indoor plumbing, and electricity were little more than dreams when the Jander family settled on tiny Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay. To leave the pressures of urban life behind, the Janders moved to the island during World War II and remained there as the children grew up and departed. Anne Jander began her memoir in 1943 and completed it in 1952. She died ten years later, and her family decided, after another thirty years, to seek its publication.