'Weird' N.C. guidebook chronicles sea monster

Perhaps you've heard of Willie the Sea Serpent, who's terrorized the Lower Cape Fear at least since the explorer Verrazano sailed through in 1524.

Or perhaps not. A quick check of the "Monsters" file at the New Hanover County Public Library's local history room found no mention of Willie.

Still, "the Wilmington sea monster" rates two pages in Weird Carolinas: Your Travel Guide to North and South Carolina's Local Legends and Best-Kept Secrets by Roger Manley (New York: Sterling Publishing, $19.95).

Manley, the author of Dear Mr. Ripley, quotes a Union soldier in occupied Wilmington after the Civil War, who describes reports of "a long, snakelike creature," perhaps 40 feet long. The soldier, James Calden, goes on to write that the locals named it "Willie," in honor of Wilmington.

Manley also cites Verrazano's report that one of his men saw "a great snake resting upon the waves." He also finds a 1903 log entry from the SS Tresco, steaming east of Wilmington, reporting a "school of sharks followed by a huge sea monster."

Like many such believe-it-or-not collections, Weird Carolinas aims primarily for entertainment and is rather short on documentation, although Manley acknowledges a debt to such works as Jerry Bledsoe's North Carolina Curiosities, John Harden's Tar Heel Ghosts and William S. Powell's N.C. Gazetteer.

Manley also recounts the better-known tale of Nancy "Nance" Martin, buried at Wilmington's Oakdale Cemetery in a barrel of liquor. (She died at sea in 1857, and her corpse was placed in the cask for preservation in the days before refrigeration.) His account of the "curse" that allegedly haunts the Martin family's former home is at odds, however with Tony Wrenn's Wilmington, North Carolina. (Although, there was that other resident who hanged himself ...)

New in paperback

'The City is a Rising Tide' by Rebecca Lee (Simon & Schuster, $12). Lee - an associate professor of creative writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington - spins an elaborate tale of thwarted love, amid intrigue in Maoist China and dubious dealing at Manhattan-based non-profits. Marjorie Kehe of The Christian Science Monitor called this first novel "a slender gem" when it was released in hardcover last year. The paperback is scheduled to hit shelves July 17.

'Warlord: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy' by Ilario Pantano with Malcolm McConnell (Threshold Editions, $14). Pantano, a former second lieutenant in the U.S. Marines, divides his memoir between his service in Iraq and his subsequent Article 32 hearing at Camp Lejeune. Charged with murder in the deaths of two Iraqi prisoners, Pantano was cleared by a military judge in 2005. After resigning his commission, the former Goldman Sachs employee settled in the Wilmington area with his wife and children. Earlier this year, he joined the New Hanover County Sheriff's Department.

Postcards collected

A few weeks ago, Arcadia Publishing released Henson's wonderful Carolina Beach in its "Postcard History Series." On July 9, Arcadia will add a new spin: Wrightsville Beach, a book that comes in a box ($7.99).

In fact the little paperback - literally bound by a ribbon of paper - consists of reproductions of 15 vintage images from Cape Fear Beaches and Cape Fear Lost, two earlier Arcadia photo albums by Susan Taylor Block. The photos, complete with Block's inimitable commentary, are reproduced as postcards.

Ben Steelman: 343-2208

ben.steelman@starnewsonline.com