To her books Miss Forbes brings a deep and delving delight in the past, a feeling for the New England character by turns shrewd and romantic, and the pepper and salt of everyday living which she translates so accurately into another century.

The Running of the Tide is the story of Salem in the early 1800's when the ships bound out of the skimpy, silted harbor (no vessel larger than four hundred tons could get into it), in their trade with Russia, the West Indies, China, and India, were making it the wealthiest port in the world. (p. 98)

The Salem which Miss Forbes has painted for us is the Salem ashore, not afloat…. The feminine, the distaff side of the town is revealed in a hundred deft touches, and when the ships return and the men walk in we see them high-lighted as it were against the emotion...