The lighthouse on a lonely point of land has become a romantic symbol of a bygone era when ships plied the seas without the aid of modern technology. In this concise history of the development of the lighthouse system in New England, Sarah Gleason brings to life this fascinating navigational era.

Kindly Lights chronicles the history of the lights from the early days of the colonies, when lighthouses were built shoddily and haphazardly, usually soon after an all-too-predictable shipwreck, to the mid-nineteenth century when a national lighthouse system was established. In one compelling chapter, the author uncovers the story of David Melville, who conducted a remarkable experiment in gas lighting at Rhode Island's Beavertail lighthouse in 1817/18. It was to be a short-lived trial; Melville's innovations were resisted by Nantucket whalers fearful of losing their lucrative lighthouse oil market and by federal inspector Winslow Lewis, who plays a part in Melville's failure, as he did in so much of the history of the new nation's attempts to build a rational and technically sound lighthouse system.

Kindly Lights includes an illustrated catalog of lights listing all inactive and active lights of southern New England, making it a practical as well as an armchair guide for the lighthouse devotee. In the last chapter we learn of the keepers themselves and of their families: of Newport's Ida Lewis, who became a national heroine for her oarsmanship and bravery and who, when asked how she kept her watch every night, replied, "The light is my child, and I know when it needs me, even if I sleep." Through voices such as these Willett Clark's, Myrtle Corbishly's, George Nemetz's, and many others'--stories of unthinkable isolation, hardship, and dedication unfold.