Stephen Cronin

The Island: a Young Boy's Journey to Manhood on Matinicus Island Stephen Cronin

By the age of 11 Stephen Cronin was more trouble than his widowed mother could handle. He was becoming a "tough"-running the streets of Rockland with his pals, skipping school and refusing to respond to even the strongest threats. After much soul searching, his mother sent him to live with an elderly couple farming on Matinicus Island, isolated from the rest of Maine by 20 miles of cold Atlantic Ocean. In his autobiography Stephen recounts the slide into delinquency on the streets of Rockport, his arrival on Matinicus Island and the next six years living under the patient tutelage of "Grandfather" and "Grandmother" Hall. Viewed as an outsider, Stephen struggles to learn the island culture, earn his keep and fit in within a community whose values are different from those he developed to survive in a big city. Stephen Cronin complied his autobiography at the age of 88. His memories are windows into the challenges of rural life in maritime Maine in the mid 1800's, as well as testament to the eternal power of love to rescue a child.