Phil Crossman’s Vinalhaven Observations is history and opinion by Tina Cohen

Phil Crossman has a new book out called Observations: A Maine Island, a Century of Newsletters and the Stories Found Between the Lines. His name and writing will be familiar to readers of The Working Waterfront and Island Journal over the years as well as his popular book, Away Happens (a literary success, nothing to do with its cover photograph of a barely life-jacketed man). Read more

From Away by Philip Conkling

To his everlasting regret, Phil Crossman, 73, was not born on Vinalhaven. He admits that he arrived on the island when he was already four, in the company of his mother and father and one of his three brothers—the other two not yet having been born, thus avoiding the stain on their birthright. Read more

Vinalhaven Calling Village Soup Column

Phil Crossman is an island native, or very close to it, the descendant of its original settlers. His mother penned the original Vinalhaven Calling column for The Courier-Gazette in the 50s and 60s. Phil is a regular columnist for the Island Institute and has published a collection of humorous essays under the title Away Happens, a book favorably reviewed by Richard Eder, a Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times reviewer. He owns and operates the Tidewater Motel on the island.

An eye that sees an island sharply, wryly

VINALHAVEN’S PHIL CROSSMAN’S LATEST BOOK COLLECTS ESSAYS, COLUMNS by Tina Cohen

A new collection of essays by Vinalhaven’s Phil Crossman features on its cover a bird’s eye view of the island’s Carver’s Harbor, with a bird whose eye is appropriately airborne. That bird is a crow, and not incidentally, the nickname of the book’s author, Phil Crossman.

Crows are smart and crafty, keen observers of their environment, and sometime-plunderers, ready to investigate potential prizes. What catches this crow’s eye?  The cover scene (a drone photograph by Adam Osgood) pictures a very humanized landscape, replete with ferry terminal, waterfront buildings and docks, Main Street, parking lots, in-town neighborhoods, and a harbor full of lobster boats. All that implied human activity suggests rich pickings for a crow, and an observer like Crossman. Read More