It is only natural that one of East Hampton Town’s native sons would pen a novel like “Kings of the Coast: Montauk,” a young-adult novel available at BookHampton in East Hampton and on Amazon.
David Cataletto, a teacher of English and history at the East Hampton Middle School, town trustee, trustee of the Amagansett Life-Saving and Coast Guard Station Museum, member of the East Hampton Historical Society’s education committee, and part-time sea chantey man, has recently added author to his curriculum vitae.
His passion for education and his keen interest in local history merge in “Kings of the Coast,” a work of historical fiction set in mid-17th-century Long Island that tells a tale of adventure in which Indigenous tribes and Dutch and English settlers struggle to control the land.
“It’s also about the origin of Gardiner’s Island,” Cataletto said, and Lion Gardiner, “how he took over.” David Gardiner, his son, is a main character. Wyandanch, sachem of the Montauketts, and Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch director-general of New Netherland, are also featured.
“Hopefully, it’s a page-turning adventure,” Cataletto said. “I wanted to get kids excited about a fun story, but in the end they will have learned about this time in our history. Not many people know about that time period.”
“Kings of the Coast” is also a coming-of-age story, with Princess Storm Lily and Seahawk among the central characters who endure the struggles of the era, the former kidnapped by the Narragansetts at her wedding and taken to Rhode Island, the latter intent on rescuing her.
“I have been chipping away at night when everyone’s asleep for the last three or four years,” Cataletto said of his debut novel. “Finally, last year it was ‘let me get this done,’ and I put more time into it.” As a teacher and lover of history, “I knew this time period was dynamic, where the Dutch and English and native tribes were vying for control of East Hampton, of Long Island, and then started hearing different stories from Hugh King,” the East Hampton Town and Village historian, “and reading about the princess of the Montauketts, Wyandanch’s daughter. I thought, that’s such a cool story, and created my own historical fictional account.”
Most chapters are written from the first-person point of view of Seahawk, but several are in the voice of Princess Storm Lily. “I think about my students,” Cataletto said. “Half are female, and I want them to have a character they can connect to, not just a male protagonist. It’s empowering, because she steps up and becomes a leader.”
“Kings of the Coast” illustrates how Native Americans lived in harmony with nature, taking only the natural resources needed to sustain themselves. “Brother of thunder, keeper of the sea, we give thanks for the life taken,” it is said during a ceremony following a successful whale hunt. “Let this meat feed our people. Let this fire carry our gratitude. May we remember balance.”
David Gardiner, who with his father observes the ceremony, befriends the young Montauketts “and learns to become more respectful of the land,” Cataletto said. “I wanted that message put across, to be in tune with nature. As a trustee, that is what we try to do: Protect our lands, beaches, estuaries.”
“I love that culture,” he said, “and read all I can about the Montauketts, the Shinnecocks, the whole Northeast, and how in tune with nature they were. Now we just pillage it and think it’s ours to make money off of.”
The book fits the seventh-grade curriculum, which encompasses colonial America, Cataletto said. “The next step is to pitch it to the administration.”
In the meantime, on June 24 he gave a talk about Montauk’s history from the time of the Montauketts through Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders at the Montauk Library, where he signed and sold copies of his novel. He will be at the East Hampton Library’s annual Authors Night fund-raiser on Aug. 8 at Herrick Park.
More information about the book and its author is at davidcataletto.com.