Project Gutenberg 2025-04-17 Public domain in the USA. 233 Hay, John 1915 2011 Grose, David 1922 2016 63018198 The great beach First edition $aGarden City, New York :$bDoubleday & Company, Inc., $c1963. Steve Mattern and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net "The Great Beach" by John Hay is a nature-focused nonfiction book written in the mid-20th century. The work is a contemplative and richly descriptive account that explores the landscapes, ecology, history, and changing human relationship with Cape Cod’s Outer Beach. Hay draws on a blend of personal experience, natural observation, and historical reflection to evoke both the enduring wildness and the evolving presence of people along these shifting sands. The likely topic of the book is the intricate and awe-inspiring interaction between nature and humanity on the Cape, emphasizing transformation, impermanence, and the urgent need for respect and stewardship of wild places. The opening of "The Great Beach" sets the tone by recounting the arrival of the Pilgrims at Cape Cod and contrasting the harsh, wild coastline of the early 17th century with the modern, crowded, and “tamed” landscape of Hay’s own time. Hay introduces the Outer Beach as both an ancient, ever-changing natural feature and a symbol of broader American attitudes toward wilderness and land use. Through vivid anecdotes—including his own solitary, physically demanding hike along the beach and observations of its birds, animals, dunes, and tides—he immerses the reader in the constant processes of change: erosion, renewal, habitation, and abandonment. Interwoven with personal narrative, Hay introduces themes of environmental responsibility, the marvel and mystery of marine and dune ecosystems, and the tension between nature’s cycles and human development, preparing the reader for a deep exploration of the Cape as both a specific locality and a microcosm of larger environmental concerns. (This is an automatically generated summary.) 20241111055603hay 1963 US Reading ease score: 70.0 (8th & 9th grade). Neither easy nor difficult to read. en Cape Cod (Mass.) -- Description and travel Natural history -- Massachusetts -- Cape Cod F001 QH Text Category: Travel Writing Category: History - American Category: Nature/Gardening/Animals Category: Environmental Issues 285843 2025-09-30T05:33:45.644969 text/html 260865 2025-04-17T16:10:53 text/html 1813330 2025-09-30T05:33:54.809917 application/epub+zip 1811500 2025-09-30T05:33:48.881960 application/epub+zip 294064 2025-09-30T05:33:46.144934 application/epub+zip 5402125 2025-09-30T05:33:58.081911 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 5376347 2025-09-30T05:33:52.260928 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 264509 2025-09-30T05:33:45.290001 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 244706 2025-04-17T16:10:53 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 17366 2025-09-30T05:33:58.219886 application/rdf+xml 22022 2025-09-30T05:33:46.367943 image/jpeg 3612 2025-09-30T05:33:46.254934 image/jpeg 2141619 2025-09-30T05:33:45.697938 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog