The Salem Gazette

Many people in town know that I have been writing a regular column in the The Salem Gazette called "Naumkeag Notations" -- it's similar to other regular writing gigs I've had most of my life, in that I write about cultural history, performing arts history, and often if not always find a tie-in with a region's cultural or heritage tourism persona.

"Naumkeag" was the original, Native American, name of the city, renamed "Salem" -- "City of Peace" by the first European settlers.

I've researched and written about all kinds of fun things, from "Salem's Psychic Past" ( a really interesting exploration of 19th-century occult and spirtualism activities) to evaluating famous architect Samuel McIntire as a musician, to the permutations of the Wizard of Oz stories in Salem,  and many times about famous musicians, writers, composers (Arthur Foote), theatrical activities, and so on. 

Most of my writing is based on my own archival research--and I do most of my research at the amazing world-renowned town archive,  The Phillips Library. It is simply my home away from home. http://pem.org/museum/library.php

You can find the newspaper online at: http://www.townonline.com/salem/ 

I also write feature articles for the newspaper, mostly about arts, and culture, and some other topics as well. 

I'm coming up on my first-year anniversary with the paper. And, although The Salem Gazette in its current incarnation isn't much older than a year (just by a few months) its historical roots go very deep into the city, for it was one of the earliest newspapers to publish continuously in the city.

If you have a chance, please read us at the Gazette. We're very committed to community!

And, if you're interested, I have written many articles, for many years, for newspapers and magazines. If you'd like to read some of my past articles, drop me a line and I'll send you a url where you can do just that.