Nearly twenty years after it was first published, Along the Great South Bay continues to be the definitive source of Great South Bay history, recounting a century in which New York's most affluent families came to enjoy the cool summer breezes of the Atlantic Ocean and the boating, fishing, and bird shooting for which the area was renowned. Newly released in paperback as an illustrated edition, Along the Great South Bay now includes 182 photographs and maps, bringing back to life the tantalizing tale of an era long gone, but no longer forgotten.

Here are stories about Fire Islands pirates, ghosts, shipwrecks and treasure chests of buried gold and silver. One tale relates the story of the possibility of the Viking discovery of Fire Island; another describes the torture of the islands slave trade prison. There is a story of unrequited love in the smoldering aftermath of an important Revolutionary War battle and another of German submarine saboteurs of World War II. If you like horror and suspense, history and mystery, or if you simply enjoy Fire Island and the Great South Bay and want to take home a piece of it home with you, then you will love this anthology. These stories will kindle your interest in visiting new beach locations and spur your imagination with thoughts of what was, and what might well have been. Even if you have never visited the area before, these tales of universal human experience are bound to fascinate. You are certain to want to share 13 Legends of Fire Island and the Great South Bay with friends, after you can put it down, that is.

Jared Sydney Torrance originally founded Torrance in 1912 as an industrial city. But the land and its surrounding South Bay region thrived through agricultural activities, beginning in 1784 on the Rancho San Pedro. Farming activities continued after Ben Weston became the first one to buy land from the Dominguez family's rancho in 1847. Farming remained an important part of city commerce in the transition to a thriving Los Angeles County suburb in the late 1950s. Throughout those early years, family farmers contributed to the city's economy by raising cattle, pigs, and turkeys, as well as sugar beets, alfalfa, beans, hay, oats, barley, and flowers, and operating dairy farms. Other South Bay cities also relied on agriculture for economic growth, including Carson, once home to a thriving cut-flower farm industry, and Gardena, the one-time berry capital of Southern California, as well as the Palos Verdes Peninsula, where dry farming was a successful industry.