Photo: not stated, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Edward Everett Hale was born in Boston in 1822, into a family of writers and public figures. He became a Unitarian minister and a prolific author.
His best-known story, “The Man Without a Country,” appeared in 1863, during the Civil War. It tells of a soldier who curses the United States and is sentenced to spend his life at sea, never hearing his country’s name. It was widely read as a call for loyalty to the Union.
Matunuck
For many years Hale spent his summers in Matunuck, in South Kingstown, where his family had a house near the shore. He wrote there and hosted friends and relatives, and he wrote about the area’s farms, ponds and people.
Later years
Hale was a public figure in Boston, involved in social causes and charities. In 1903 he became chaplain of the U.S. Senate, a role he held until his death in 1909.
Matunuck today is better known for its beaches, surf breaks and Theatre-by-the-Sea, but Hale is part of a long line of writers and artists who found quiet summers in South County.
