An Old Town by the Sea was published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. in 1893. The book is a brief, elegant portrait of Portsmouth, New Hampshire — the town Aldrich had fictionalized as “Rivermouth” in The Story of a Bad Boy and to which he returned throughout his life and work.
Aldrich combines personal memory with local history and topographical description. He traces the town’s history from its colonial origins through the Revolution, the maritime prosperity of the early republic, the decline of shipping, and the quiet dignity of a town that has become picturesque rather than commercial. The old houses, the harbor, the churches, the elm-shaded streets — all are described with the precision and affection of someone who knows them intimately.
The book belongs to a genre popular in the late nineteenth century: the literary town portrait, in which a writer of established reputation offers a personally-inflected account of a place they love. Aldrich’s version is distinguished by the quality of his prose — his sentences are musical and exact — and by the depth of personal feeling underlying the apparently detached descriptive manner.
An Old Town by the Sea also functions as a work of preservation: Aldrich was conscious that the town he described was changing, that the older buildings were being demolished and the older ways of life were disappearing. His portrait fixes a particular moment in the town’s existence and gives it literary permanence.
Collecting An Old Town by the Sea
First edition (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1893): Cloth binding, typically in blue or green.
Market values:
- First edition, fine: $30–$75
- Very good: $10–$30