The Watermen: Selections from Chesapeake
Regional History Maritime History Young Adult Nonfiction Wildlife Art Sporting Culture Nature & Environment Collectible Picture Book
The Watermen: Selections from Chesapeake is a scarce 1979 first-edition picture book that distills James Michener’s epic novel into 193 large-format pages of art and story focused on the duck hunters, decoy carvers, and boat builders of the Chesapeake Bay. Random House paired Michener’s vivid prose selections with 80 full-color and black-and-white waterfowl paintings, sketches, and decoy photographs by Maryland artist John Moll, creating a standalone volume that doubles as a gallery of Eastern Shore sporting art. Collectors who already own the 865-page novel will find this a focused, visual celebration of the watermen culture that made Chesapeake legendary.
Because the book was marketed to young adults as well as adults, it remains one of the few Michener titles that can be shared across generations: the text is accessible, the artwork is frame-worthy, and every spread explains how duck hunting, boat building, and decoy carving shaped the bay’s ecology and economy. The oversized hardcover format (11 × 9 inches) and intact dust jacket make it an impressive shelf piece, while the 80 illustrations give it crossover appeal for collectors of wildlife art, decoy antiques, and mid-Atlantic regional history.
This vintage 1979 copy is clean and tight with no writing, no ex-library markings, and no dog-eared pages—only light edge wear to the jacket and a small stamp on the bottom page edge, typical for a book that has spent four decades on private shelves. First-edition copies in any condition are increasingly hard to locate, especially with the original dust jacket still bright and protective. For Michener completists, Chesapeake Bay lovers, or anyone hunting a distinctive gift for a duck-hunting historian, The Watermen offers a beautiful, compact window into one of America’s great estuaries and the craftsmen who still call it home.
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