A survivor’s story survives the test of time
Titus Tidewater, written and illustrated by Suzy Verrier, who owns North Creek Farm in Phippsburg with Kai Jacob, has been re-published by Maine’s Islandport Press. Verrier, now 63, wrote the children’s book when she was 27, living in an apartment on New York City’s upper West Side and pining for Maine. She had grown up playing along the coast at Perkins Cove, near Ogunquit, and felt closed in by city life.
At the time, Verrier was working as an apprentice illustrator for Doubleday. The firm was so impressed with Titus Tidewater it published 35,000 copies, an unheard of number for a children’s book at the time, Verrier says. The printing sold out.
The story, based on Verrier’s childhood adventures at Perkins Cove with her younger brother, Michael, follows the life of a lobster named Titus, who when the story opens, is basking in his summer routine on the beautiful Maine coast. But then, alas, Titus enters a lobster trap to help a damsel in distress and becomes entangled himself. When the trap is pulled, he ends up in a basket with a pile of other lobsters (the lady was undersize) and is taken to a lobster pound (in real life, Johnny’s Pound in Ogunquit). Titus is saved from the cooking pot by a young girl and boy who buy him to keep as a pet in a tidal pool with other sea creatures they’ve collected. A few days later, a full moon tide sets all of the pets free, and Titus happily returns to his old haunts.
Verrier, who attended Boston Museum Art School and Philadelphia Museum College of Arts, wrote the book and created its delightful coastal scenes at night after work at Doubleday. She decided to paint the illustrations on rice paper because she wanted a “watery, bleeding effect.” When the book was first published, she received a Society of Illustrators Award for its colorful illustrations. In 1997, her original paintings were featured with other Maine illustrators’ work at a major show in the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland.
First published in 1970, the long-lived Titus Tidewater was re-published by Down East Press in 1997. That printing also sold out. This new edition by Islandport Press includes brief paragraphs giving lobster facts that complement the text on many of the pages.
The story of Titus, a survivor, has survived the test of time. It is wonderful that this re-printing makes it possible for a new generation of young people to enjoy his adventures and savor Verrier’s evocative illustrations.
