Lighthouses

The Lighthouse was then a silvery, misty-looking tower with a yellow eye that opened suddenly and softly in the evening.--Virginia Woolf, from To the LighthouseBeacons of brightness shining across foreboding and dangerous expanses of water, lighthouses have aided mariners for centuries, and offered them hope and solace. A visual celebration of these magnificent and romantic structures captures all their timeless grandeur, and follows their development from simple signal fires set high on hillsides to the 3rd century Pharos Light at the Port of Alexandria, to modern examples with advanced technology. Accompanying each dazzling image is a lyrical verse or notable literary excerpt, drawn from sources as varied as the ancient Roman poet Virgil, the novelist Sarah Orne Jewett, and President Theodore Roosevelt.From San Diego, California to New London, Connecticut; from Vancouver Island to South Africa; from the Grand Turks and Caicos to Mathieu, France, each beautiful lighthouse will catch your eye as surely as it caught the joyful attention of ships sailing to shore.An introduction by the founder of the Lighthouse Preservation Society offers a fascinating glimpse into the history of these much-loved structures.