Feather White: A 1970s Memoir: Commercial Fishing Out of Provincetown and the Backwoods Counterculture Movement in Nova Scotia

From the decks of off-shore scallop boats in the North Atlantic to the backwoods of the Maritime Provinces, Feather White chronicles a young man's emergence from an alcoholic family and his search for his missing pieces. His quest leads to building a hand-made log cabin in Nova Scotia in 1974 during what was still the height of the back-to-nature movement of the 60s. Throughout the province there were enclaves of young people beyond the power lines in pursuit of a better life, building cabins and learning the old ways from elderly neighbors and farmers. On his way to pick apples to finance a cabin winter during fall of 1977, the author instead finds himself aboard a fishing vessel in one of the east coast's most beautiful and quirky ports, Provincetown, Massachusetts. The memoir charts the excruciating journey from ostracized half-share greenhorn to respected crew member. It relates several death-cheating experiences at sea, alcohol-clouded misadventures of rowdy crew, and how he used dogged determination and humor to succeed when many around him wanted nothing but failure. Battling storms, both at sea and of the human variety, learning a perilous trade and finding solace by a crackling fire in a remote cabin, he must make peace with what drove him there.

About the Author :
Mickey Maguire has had such varied life experiences, he was actually advised by a potential employer to merely state, "Jack of All Trades" on the previous jobs section of his psychiatric social worker employment application. Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, he has been an off-shore scallop boat deckhand out of Provincetown, Cape Cod, ship's cook (a job he swears provided his most pertinent social work training), farmworker, and blacksmith's apprentice in Nova Scotia where he built his own log cabin in 1974, banjo player for touring and recording bluegrass band James Reams & The Barnstormers and New Jersey's String Fever, a working actor in New York City and Screen Actors Guild member, guitar player in a swing and country trio and, for thirty-three years, Assistant Program Director for the St. Francis Residences, a residential program providing permanent housing for homeless mentally ill individuals in Manhattan.Graduating with an English Major from Rowan University (formerly Glassboro State College), Mickey balanced his education with the acquisition of land in Nova Scotia and building his hand-made log cabin. Throughout his artistic and philanthropic pursuits, Mickey has been a writer. Beginning with his first love, poetry, and shifting to articles, he has placed humorous pieces in trade magazine National Fisherman, Banjo Newsletter Magazine as well as a cover article in that publication on banjo legend Walter Hensley. Feather White was written with a great deal of reliance on the copious journal notes he kept during the 1970s.

Review :
"I have read Mickey Maguire's manuscript "Feather White," which combines the supple frontier poetry of the Alaskan bard Robert Service, the shelter of the hand-hewn log cabin Maguire built himself in Nova Scotia, and the recollected adventure of life aboard commercial fishing vessels. His voice has the mesmerizing power of howling wind heard while warmed by flames from wood one has chopped himself." -Christopher Busa, Founder, Provincetown Arts Magazine "In my mind, Feather White is one of the great coming-of-age stories. We join the author as a youth. He passes through many crucibles-starting, then leaving, college and landing a job on a fishing boat where he learns life lessons (like how to stay alive in one of the world's most dangerous jobs). His experiences on boats are treacherous, and his descriptions are so vivid that we can smell the salt water and the fish in the hold below, as he dodges the scallop dredge that could take a man's head off in rolling seas. He describes numerous life-and-death encounters. Mickey describes his tough upbringing in an alcoholic family. We follow his growth as he becomes independent and sees how his difficult family situation affects his views on the world. He matures and becomes self-aware enough over years and many relationships to finally have a strong and committed married life. Through life's ups and downs, he finds refuge in a remote log cabin built with his own hands. In Feather White, we watch him grow and do the work it takes to live and learn to be a man. As a publisher for over 36 years, I wish I could publish this book, but alas, I just sold my company. A great read is on board for anyone who buys Feather White." -Mark (Ridley) Enslow, Former President of Enslow Publishers, Inc.