• About 'Wrightsville Beach'

    • WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH: THE LUMINOUS ISLAND
    Available in both Hardcover ($19.95 retail) and Paperback ($13.95 retail)
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       SOON AFTER CROSSING THE DRAWBRIDGE" from the mainland, you'll reach a fork in the road and face your first decision at Wrightsville Beach. Bearing left will take you to the famous Johnnie Mercer's Fishing Pier and near the site where a giant sperm whale named Trouble once washed ashore and refused to leave. Bearing right will take you to the classic downtown and points south, including the Coast Guard station and the site of the late, great Lumina Pavillion.

       "Wrightsville Beach" is Ray McAllister's homage to a special place, a book that captures not only Wrightsville's history but its heart. Along the way, he shares stories of fire ands and hurricanes and beach trolleys and Big Bands.

       Through all the changes, Wrightsville has never forgotten the hospitality that made it such a destination in the first place. Just ask the airplane full of Pennsyvlanians who fled here to escape one of American's first manmade disasters. Or the thousands who continue to come for happier reasons today.

       "Wrightsville Beach: The Luminous Island" is the follow-up to the critically acclaimed "Topsail Island: Mayberry by the Sea," which went into four printings (two hardcover, two paperback) in its first four months of release.

    Press Release (.pdf file)

    CONTENTS
    Map
    Preface
    Chapter One The Luminous Island
    Chapter Two The Pirates and Money Island
    Chapter Three The Mystery of the Blockade Runner
    Chapter Four 'Another Atlantic City'
    Chapter Five The Storm of 1899
    Chapter Six Lumina
    Chapter Seven Shell Island and a Separate Paradise
    Chapter Eight Trouble Washes Ashore
    Chapter Nine The Great Fire of 1934
    Chapter Ten Emerging from the Ashes
    Chapter Eleven The Island Goes Dark
    Chapter Twelve Escaping Donora's Deadly Smog
    Chapter Thirteen Hazel Crashes In
    Chapter Fourteen The Lights Go Out at Lumina
    Chapter Fifteen Holding Back the Sea
    Chapter Sixteen Wrightsville Today
    Chapter Seventeen Fishing Piers and the Waters Beyond
    Chapter Eighteen Guarding the Coast
    Chapter Nineteen Loop Around the Past
    Chapter Twenty Wrightsville Tomorrow
    Acknowledgments
    Bibliography
    Index