Peter Benchley — Jaws. The novel that became Steven Spielberg's 1975 film, much of it shot in and around Menemsha. The fictional Amity is essentially Martha's Vineyard with the names changed.
Geraldine Brooks — Caleb's Crossing. A novelisation of the life of Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk, the first Wampanoag — and first Native American — to graduate from Harvard, in 1665. Brooks lives on the Vineyard and the landscape of the novel is the island's own.
Skip Finley — Whaling Captains of Color. Edgartown was a whaling port through the nineteenth century, and a higher percentage of Black and Native American men served as captains and officers than in any other part of the New England industry. Finley, a Vineyard resident, tells their story.
Tony Horwitz — Confederates in the Attic and Spying on the South. Horwitz, who died in 2019, lived in West Tisbury for many years; his books are not about the island but his voice — wry, curious, generous — is the Vineyard's at its best.
Susan Klein — The Vineyard We Knew. An oral history of the island in the 1940s and 1950s, before the tourist boom, told by year-rounders. Useful counter-current to the celebrity-summer narrative.