“There was never an expression more closely associated with Long Beach Island than ‘six miles at sea.’ Because it belongs to a time and a way of life that grow farther from us with each year, I have chosen it as the title for this new collection of historical essays.”

Travel back in time to Edwardian Beach Haven; discover the origins of Barnegat Lighthouse; know the fortitude of the men of the U.S. Life Saving Service. Experience nature’s fury — the hurricane of ’44 and the March northeaster of ’62. Go gunning with the aristocrats of Philadelphia and New York on Barnegat and Little Egg Harbor bays; see “demon rum” smuggled ashore into local speakeasies during Prohibition; experience the adventure of driving the first automobile highways to the shore.

Six Miles at Sea and Eighteen Miles of History are two elegant companion books that explore much of the history of the Jersey Shore by focusing on the barrier island of Long Beach. The Shore of today may be strikingly different from that of a century ago, but it is images of the past — an innocent and wilder Shore — that cement our present-day bond with this place. Modern-day shore lovers will find their long-ago counterparts here.

These 11” x 8 1/2” landscape-format books are generously illustrated with historic photographs, old engravings, and maps. Most of the photographs are reproduced from original prints as duotones, and the hardcover books are luxuriously printed on matte stock.
( Twenty -two of the most compelling images from these two books are also available as postcards in book format - see Long Beach Island Historical Postcards.)

Both titles take us back to a unique place at the sea’s edge and the people who came to know and love it. The two books explore the same time and place but the topics differ. Together, they give us an opportunity to rediscover this beautiful, sometimes dangerous, more personal Shore of only a few generations ago. In two books rich with images and wonderful writing, we come to have a sense of place about the Shore that a summer vacation alone can never convey.

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John Bailey Lloyd was born in Johnstown, PA., and had been on Long Beach Island since 1942, when he was ten years old — in time to see old landmarks like the boardwalk, the Engleside Hotel and the vast emptiness of the Island as it once was. With time out for service in the Coast Guard, graduate school and some travel, he has spent nearly every summer here. In 1977 he and his wife, Jeanette, and their two sons became permanent residents and moved into the family's Victorian summer home in Beach Haven.

A graduate of Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Maryland, Mr. Lloyd had a master's degree in English from the University of Michigan and a master's in library science from Rutgers University. He worked in the reference department at the Ocean County Library in Toms River, and the Bishop Historical Library there.