Maryland's Vanishing Lives

In this grand little book, most fittingly illustrated by photographer Edwin Remsberg's portraits, readers will learn and chuckle and keep turning pages for more and more of these slightly oddball Marylanders. Sherwood is an old-school reporter, weaned on digging up human-interest stories rather than political smears. It's a delight to find his brand of journalism-informative, surprising, charming, and fun-alive and well in Maryland's Vanishing Lives. -- Edwards Park, Contributing Editor, Smithsonian Magazine

In this collection of sixty-six short profiles, illustrated with memorable photographs by Edwin Remsberg, Sherwood preserves for posterity the lives of Marylanders who hang on to values and skills that are quickly disappearing.For more than two years, John Sherwood roamed Maryland's small towns and city neighborhoods, traveled Appalachian back roads, and sailed the Chesapeake looking for people whose work or way of life recalled the state's rich and varied tradition. Maryland's Vanishing Lives is his vivid account of the people he met on those journeys. Working in a country store or an old-time movie house, on a small tobacco farm or a weathered skipjack, Sherwood's subjects interest us as people, as stubborn survivors who have watched-sometimes defiantly, sometimes wistfully-as the world moved on. These Marylanders' stories poignantly show what happens to family businesses and ordinary folk in the face of new technology, suburban sprawl, franchise outlets, and changing tastes. But Maryland's Vanishing Lives is also an engaging celebration of pride and craft, and the ability to survive. In this collection of sixty-six short profiles, illustrated with memorable photographs by Edwin Remsberg, Sherwood preserves for posterity the lives of Marylanders who hang on to values and skills that are quickly disappearing.