Tom Dresser, the author of 18 published books about Martha’s Vineyard and another on the way, has chronicled history for much of his life. Dresser’s first foray began at 11 in 1958: “My brother, two neighbors, and I started the Springdale News, a handwritten, four-page monthly newspaper. We kept doing it for a hundred months, until I went off to college at Boston University. We had about 300 subscribers, and printed it in our game room.”
Writing and history have run through Dresser’s various careers. As a third-grade teacher for 10 years, he says, “I thought writing was very important, so I did a newsletter with the kids.” After he left education in 1980, Dresser went into nursing home administration. During the next two decades, he had families of residents write biographies at the facilities where he worked, including Windemere when he moved to the Vineyard in 1997.
One of his subsequent pursuits was leading bus tours around the Island. In 2005, he produced a booklet based on his experience, “Tommy’s Tour of the Vineyard.”
All the while, Dresser wrote for both Island newspapers and participated in many different writing groups, trying his hand at playwriting, poetry, magazine writing, and even fiction. Interestingly, it was the latter that led him to become the Island’s most prolific historian.
Dresser says, “I really wanted to write fiction. I thought I could imagine a story and put it together. I struggled with about eight different teachers.” One of these was author, columnist, and bookseller Stan Hart. Dresser remembers, “He said, ‘Tom, your fiction is like cardboard characters. They don’t stand up. They just fall right down. There’s no meat or substance to them.’”
Another teacher, mystery novelist Cynthia Riggs, likewise took him aside. “She said, ‘You can do better if you stay with nonfiction.’ She told me about this beautiful young actress who was murdered on Martha’s Vineyard in 1920 in Edgartown, and that they never caught the person who did it.” Dresser took Riggs at her word, but upon research, he says, “I discovered the beautiful young actress was 72 years old, with her hair all in rollers, and her teeth in a jar, who was murdered right near the East Chop Beach Club in the 1940s. And they had a very good idea of who the guy was who murdered her.” Dresser wrote up the corrected version of the story, which landed him back in nonfiction.
He connected with his current publisher, the History Press, when it reached out to Riggs and author John Hough, asking for a recommendation for a historian writing about the Island. They recommended Dresser, who submitted the mystery manuscript, and “Mystery on the Vineyard: Politics, Passion, and Scandal on East Chop” was published in 2008.
Dresser thought it was a one-off. Eighteen books later, he has covered many topics, including tourism, music, the Wampanoag tribe, women, and African Americans on the Island. The latter of these has sold some 8,000 copies.
These days, Dresser notes, “I can basically name the book that I want to write. But what’s even better is when someone suggests [a topic] to me.” His books about whaling and the American Revolution on the Vineyard are examples.
Once Dresser has his subject, he mines various sources for his research, including articles from the Gazette, archives at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, and books from the towns’ libraries. Whenever possible, he interviews people with firsthand knowledge, and consults experts. For his newest book, “Historic Storms of Martha’s Vineyard,” Dresser reached out to paleotempestologist Jeff Donnelly, who works at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
Dresser’s aim with this new book was to cover 400 years of recorded storm history, starting in the 1600s. He had originally believed the 1938 hurricane was the earliest of note: “When I found out about the 1635 one, that was a big deal.” This was the Great Colonial Hurricane, which struck Narragansett Bay and then swung east to pummel the Pilgrim settlements. Dresser writes, “Wind gusts were estimated at 130 miles per hour, and the storm surge approached 20 feet along the Massachusetts coastline.”
Dresser’s book goes on to cover storms in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries: “I had to decide which were the most dramatic. I lined up the possibilities, and selected 10 storms that were very impressive, and you had enough information to write about them.”
“Historic Storms of Martha’s Vineyard” details each storm; accompanying archival photographs immediately convey the depth of the damage each one wrought. Dresser discusses six storms in the 20th century, filling the chapters with Islanders’ memories. One way he secured them was by posting on Facebook, asking people to share their memories of Hurricane Bob in 1991. “I must have gotten 50 or 60 responses,” he recalls. One person described so many trees knocked down on Middle Road that the incessant sound of chainsaws was overwhelming.
Asked what happens if he discovers mistakes after the book comes out, Dresser says it doesn’t happen often: “It’s mostly when I write what I know at the time, and then things change after publication. This happened with the culinary book, which I wrote with my wife Joyce, where three things in the book factually changed between the time we submitted it for publication and when it came out.” Interestingly, one was that their son-in-law, who had worked at Life at Humphrey’s, had moved on to a new job as a chef at the West Tisbury School by the time “Culinary History of Martha’s Vineyard” was published in 2024. “When you don’t know something that’s going to happen, it’s beyond your power to make changes,” he points out.
Because History Press usually has small print runs, Dresser can correct spelling errors and name changes in subsequent editions: “But to be honest, I don’t think I’ve had to do that more than two or three times. It gets edited, reviewed, and proofread.
“I never planned to write 19 books,” says Dresser. “I enjoy the writing and the publication process. Then you have to promote it. I have book talks coming out of my ears for ‘Historic Storms of Martha’s Vineyard.’ Sometimes two in a day — but it’s a fun problem. [After all,] it doesn’t do any good if it sits on my shelf.”
Tom Dresser’s books are available at Edgartown Books, Bunch of Grapes, and the Cottage Museum in the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association Campgrounds, as well as his website, tomdresser.com. Dresser will discuss and sign copies of “Historic Storms of Martha’s Vineyard” on April 30 at 3 pm at the Aquinnah library; May 1 at 11:30 am at the Chilmark library;
May 7 at 6 pm at the Edgartown library; and through July at other venues.