Recommended Reading

Below is a listing of the best lighthouse books from an accuracy level both technical and historical.

The World’s Lighthouses before 1820 – D. Alan Stevenson (John Hopkins Press)
Everything there is to know lighthouse before the Fresnel lens

The Lighthouse Stevensons – Bell Bathurst
The story of the five Stevenson generations and their contributions to lighthouses.

America’s Lighthouses – F. Ross Holland
A very broad brush of the history of American Lighthouses – some errors

Lighthouses of New England – Malcolm Willoughby
1929 an accurate work

Famous American Lighthouses – Northeast Lights – Robert Bachand
History of lighthouses from Rhode Island to Cape May, NJ, well researched.

Kindly Lights – Southern New England LHs Sarah Gleason
A brief history of lighthouses of the region, well researched.

Any book by Candace and Louise Clifford (well researched) (Cypress Communications)
     - The Women Who Kept the Lights (human interest)
     - 19th Century Lighthouses (evolution of 19th cen. Architecture w/brief history)
     - Maine Lighthouses

Lighthouses & Lightships of the Gulf of Mexico – David Cipra
Well researched and the only work on the region.

Any book by Elinor DeWire (Florida Lighthouses, etc)

Guardians of the Golden Gate & Lighthouses of the Redwood Coast
Both by Ralph Shanks – Lighthouses of San Francisco Bay and those north of the Bay. Some errors

Famous American Lighthouses – Edward Rowe Snow
Fairly accurate

“Flavor of the Bean” human-interest books
     - Island Lighthouse Inn – Jeffery Burke
     - Lighthouse in My Life – Philmore Wass
     - Lighthouse Families – Cheryl Roberts (Crane Hill Publishers)

A Short Bright Flash – Theresa Levitt (W. W. Norton)
Excellent work on Augustin Fresnel and broad brush on the Lighthouse Service in America

The Lighthouse Handbook of New England – Jeremy D’Entremont
Excellent guide with accurate history