Brewster Book Store: Garden Gathering & Author Talk Series: Don Wilding in conversation with Sally Cabot Gunning

Live in Brewster Book Store’s “Secret Garden”! Join us as author Don Wilding discusses his newest release, Cape Cod and the Portland Gale of 1898, with author and President of the Brewster Historical Society Sally Cabot Gunning. ABOUT THE BOOK CAPE COD AND THE PORTLAND GALE OF 1898 On the night of November 26, 1898, with a killer storm of historic proportions approaching, the steamer Portland set out from Boston. By the following night, the winter hurricane had sent the vessel to the depths of Massachusetts Bay off Cape Cod, claiming nearly two hundred lives. On the Cape, a few dozen victims of the Portland disaster washed ashore, while ships piled up in harbors, high tides swept away railroad tracks and the landscape and beaches were changed forever. Several Cape Cod mariners went to sea and never returned, caught in the gale’s evil clutches. Local author Don Wilding revisits this disaster and the heroic deeds of the U.S. Life-Saving Service and the Cape’s citizenry in what came to be known as “the Portland Gale.” ABOUT THE AUTHORS - DON WILDING Since the start of the millennium, Don Wilding has been telling stories of Cape Cod Outer Beach history through lectures, video, and the written word. Don is the author of four books on Cape Cod history: “Henry Beston’s Cape Cod: How ‘The Outermost House’ Inspired a National Seashore,” "A Brief History of Eastham: On the Outer Beach of Cape Cod," and "Shipwrecks of Cape Cod: Stories of Triumph & Tragedy." His fourth book, "Cape Cod and the Portland Gale of 1898," is scheduled to be published on May 22. Don has worked as a Cape tour guide and is a regular speaker on Cape Cod lore in Massachusetts and across New England. He was an award-winning newspaper editor, writer, and designer in Massachusetts for 36 years, including a recent stint as a contributing history columnist and photographer for Cape newspapers. Don has also been an instructor of Cape Cod history courses for the Open University of Wellfleet and Nauset Community Education. - SALLY GUNNING A lifelong resident of New England, Sally Cabot Gunning has immersed herself in its history from a young age. She is the author of six critically acclaimed historically themed novels: The Widow’s War, Bound, The Rebellion of Jane Clarke, Benjamin Franklin’s Bastard, Monticello: A Daughter and Her Father, and her latest novel, released June 2021, Painting the Light. Elected fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society and president of The Brewster Historical Society, she has created numerous historical tours of her village. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, LitHub, and an assortment of short story anthologies. She lives with her husband in Brewster Massachusetts.