Against Darkness and Storm: Lighthouses of the Northeast

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

This is a detailed, well-researched, and well-presented look at the
history, development, and technology of lighthouses, with emphasis on
the lights and lighthouse keepers of Canada’s East Coast. Thurston’s
text nicely balances facts and anecdotes, and succeeds in keeping the
reader involved as it covers the past and present of nearly 30
lighthouses. Dozens of other lighthouses are briefly mentioned in a
comprehensive chapter that examines lighthouse keepers and the isolation
and hardships they traditionally endured.

The text is supplemented and enhanced by a generous portfolio of nearly
100 professional-quality color photos by well-known Maritime
photographer Wayne Barrett, who captures the mood of the windswept coast
and the nearly mystical quality of the light piercing the fog or
darkness. Barrett’s photos show a variety of architectural designs,
Victorian and modern, and do an excellent job of depicting the
lighthouses’ isolated and often dramatically beautiful settings.

This book will appeal to anyone interested in things nautical or in
fine photography; it should be in every local-history collection in
eastern Canada.