St. John People

Book excerpt: The 25th Anniversary edition of St. John People is as diverse and interesting as the rainbow-hued Virgin Island residents that populate it's 290 pages--from Pappy Sewer to Elvis Yearwood and Guy Benjamin; from Ethel McCully to Cid Hamling and Ernest Matthias; from Andromeada Childs to Herman Sprauve, Gerda Marsh, and Herman Prince. What does St. John have to do with the birth of the Atomic Bomb? Read Nancy Gibney's enthralling profile of local lay-about Robert Oppenheimer to find out. Who was John Anderson and why did he write the Night of the Silent Drum? Ruth Lowe, author of "St. John Backtime", will tell you. What caused a young senator-to-be Theovald Moorehead to request a discharge from his Naval career, rush back to St. John, and begin his fight against the National Park's plan to 'relocate' the local population to Green Valley (Fish Bay)? Local journalist Amy Roberts will be happy to inform you. Why was the original title of the most famous book ever written about St. John--"I Did it with Donkeys"--rejected by its New York publisher? When was Coral Bay the 'big city' on St. John? Which St. John artist/craftsperson has a piece in the Smithsonian Collection? How did Kitty Oppenheimer's sailboat end up in Panama? What happened in 1733? What's the local legend about those red rocks on Mary's Point? What local sailing inkslinger drove the POTUS crazy by sailing back and forth in front of Caneel Bay with "While Nixon Lazes, Indochina Blazes" painted on his gaff-rigged sails? Interested in artists? Les Anderson and Karen Samuel couldn't be stylistically more different--and yet both couldn't be more passionate about their love of this tiny island and its smiling people. Are you wondering about the different writing styles of such local literary talents as Amy Roberts, Dana Harrison, Shurna Rabsatt, Lito Valls, Lynda Lohr, Susan Barry, Doris Jadan, Gilbert Sprauve, Erva Denham, Guy Benjamin, and/or Cap'n Fatty? Russian opera singers? Freedom riders? Crazy sea gypsies? Vogue magazine? Who was the Bionic Creole? What professor with a doctorate in linguistics from Princeton speaks fluent French and was bahn here? What's the connection between the East End and Walt Disney's "Fantasia"? Whose 'Backyard' was it? What famous St. Johnian vowed she'd never be a waitress nor a secretary--then fell in love with Love City so much she did one for years in order to afford a lifetime of the other? It's all in the newly updated St. John People--a 'must-read' for local folks, long term residents, and short-term visitors alike.