The Postmaster
By Joseph C. Lincoln. Introduction by Colin Heston
In The Postmaster, Joseph Crosby Lincoln returns to the familiar sandy lanes and salt-scented breezes of his beloved Cape Cod to offer another deeply affectionate, character-driven tale of small-town life, personal redemption, and the timeless conflict between past obligations and future hopes. First published in 1925, this novel is a fine example of Lincoln’s mature period—a work that blends gentle satire with human warmth and rural wisdom. It is a story steeped in Yankee resilience, full of familiar Cape archetypes, yet touched with unexpected emotional depth and psychological insight. At its heart, The Postmaster is a tale of a man caught between two worlds—between the public role he fulfills and the private burdens he carries. It explores questions of personal identity, civic duty, and the cost of maintaining appearances in a tightly-knit, ever-observant New England village. As with so many of Lincoln’s best works, it is in the quiet, often comic collisions of personality and principle that the story finds its strength.
The Postmaster was originally published in 1925 and was well received by contemporary readers, many of whom found solace and delight in Lincoln’s steadfast moral compass and reliable narrative pleasures—especially at a time when American literature was increasingly experimental or urban-centered. Though never adapted into a film or widely anthologized, The Postmaster has endured as a minor classic among Lincoln’s loyal readers and fans of traditional New England fiction. It is a novel that rewards patient reading. While its plot unfolds at a deliberate pace, it gradually reveals a world in which small actions matter deeply, and where moral courage is measured not in grand gestures but in quiet, sustained integrity. Sylvanus Cahoon, in his modesty, becomes a figure of quiet heroism, and Lincoln once again proves himself a master of the intimate epic—a teller of tales in which the heart of America is found not in cities or battlefields, but in small towns, honest labor, and lives lived with quiet conviction.
For readers seeking charm with substance, humor with humanity, and a vision of American life both nostalgic and ethically serious, The Postmaster offers all this and more. This edition has been reformatted, designed, abridged and annotated by renowned novelist and story writer Colin Heston to remove errors and other distracting content that occurred in the original edition, making the book more accessible for the present day reader.
Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2025. 147p.