This page features books about the Brimfield Shows and the Brimfield Area.

Larry Lowenthal, Historian & Author

Titanic Railroad: The Southern Atlantic

In 1910, when railroads were at the peak of their strength, the New Haven RR was challenged by the Canadian Grand Trunk RY, a bold rival drawing on British capital.  Its president Charles M Hays proposed a new rail line from Palmer MA to Providence RI as the eastern end of a transcontinental system.  This plan was fought by New Haven president and “Railroad Lord of New England” Charles S. Mellen, backed by J. P. Morgan’s financial power; and the resulting conflict, the last of New England’s railroad wars, became a defining incident of the Progressive era. When Hays boarded the steamship Titanic on its fateful voyage, work had not yet begun on the line, but in subsequent years sporadic construction scattered immense fills, deep rock cuts, and concrete abutments over 85 miles of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.  Mystery and myth surround this never-completed railroad.  Now after years of exhaustive research, the story is told, with over 200 rare construction photos and other illustrations, and detailed maps of the projected route.

Hell on the East River 

Glorious names like Concord, Saratoga, Valley Forge and Yorktown still ring in American history and are universally recognized. Far fewer people have heard about Wallabout Bay on the Brooklyn shore of the East River or know the terrible story of American sailors who were imprisoned there on wretched hulks like the Jersey. Probably more Americans died there than in all the battles of the War for Independence. The author, Larry Lowenthal, uses prisoners' own accounts to describe the agony of imprisonment. He analyzes the number of deaths, examines the reasons for the tragedy, and describes the 100-year struggle to erect the present Prison Ship Martyrs' monument in Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn. 

Trying to Do My Duty

In 1862, a volunteer company of men from Brimfield, Holland, Monson and Wales Massachusetts, answered the call to save the Union and served in North Carolina under their elected captain, Francis D. Lincoln, a Brimfield farmer. Nearly 150 years later, the letters Frank Lincoln wrote to his wife Rebecca back home, and those she wrote to him, came to light. This remarkable correspondence, edited by long-time Brimfield residents Larry and Koren Lowenthal, reveals the trials of men at war and far from home, and the lives and pain of the families they left behind. The frank and open relationship of the couple, their sensibility and sense of humor, and their sharp intellect illuminate a chapter of the nation's great struggle. 

Explore both the intimate world of small-town Massachusetts and the camp life of a volunteer company of men thrown into the turmoil of the Civil War through this rare collection of over 60 thoroughly annotated and thoroughly enjoyable letters. 

To order this book which is done in Black and White photos (125 Pages) please e-mail Angelo Dounoucos, adounoucos(at)aol.com. The pictures span a 10 year period of time and have captured the question of what are the Brimfield Antiques and Collectibles Show’s all about.  The book is a great coffee table book for your memories of the show.