Five Fair Rivers
(Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996)

Days on the river move in gentle, dreamy currents. Mornings are cool and clear. A great blue heron fishes for breakfast in a few inches of water a boat length away. Crabbers bait their pots in the Warwick river.
De Gast takes readers past shores littered with summer cottages, into country stores, and past Back Creek, Jail Point, and Goat Island. He reflects with humor and warmth on the people he meets around the rivers' reaches and bends—from watermen to the chief of the Mattaponi Indians. He captures the beauty of unspoiled stretches of marsh, shore, and isle; the luxury of dry socks; and the pungence of the air surrounding the West Point, Virginia, paper plant. Five Fair Rivers offers an adventure that will appeal equally to sailors and armchair travelers alike.