Jaws: Memories from Martha's Vineyard (Updated and Revised Edition)

The 1st account of the making of Jaws to focus on the production’s local participants, featuring 100s of never-before-seen photos, accounts and anecdotes, and a Foreword by Steven Spielberg.

Updated with new material for the film’s 50th anniversary. You’re gonna need a bigger coffee table!

The filming of Jaws was a landmark event in the history of both movies and the quaint New England island of Martha’s Vineyard, where the geographic isolation necessitated hiring 100s of locals to work as cast and crew. Among them were many professional and amateur photographers with full access to the production. 

Memories compiles their photos and stories for the 1st time into a unique compendium. Movie buffs, SFX enthusiasts, and fans of Jaws will thrill in this definitive volume’s special features:

• Updated edition includes +100 new photos, most previously unseen and many in colour, new interview material with local cast and crew, and an Afterword by Wendy Benchley, wife of Jaws author Peter Benchley.
• Foreword by Steven Spielberg.
• 100s of previously unpublished photos taken by local participants and bystanders, and a detailed account of how the filmmakers chose Martha’s Vineyard as their shooting location.
• Recollections of local crew and cast, including Lee Fierro (Mrs. Kintner), Chris Crawford, real-life captain of the Orca, and Craig Kingsbury, the inspiration for Robert Shaw’s portrayal of maniacal shark hunter Quint.
• Newly illustrated schematics by Jaws Production Designer Joe Alves, explaining the intricacies of the revolutionary sea sled fin mechanism, and his original 1974 storyboards.
• Insight on adapting Jaws from page to screen from Screenwriter Carl Gottlieb, Location Casting Director Shari Rhodes, and more.

Matt Taylor is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, where he studied early American history. Jaws: Memories from Martha’s Vineyard, his first publication, is the culmination of a lifelong passion for art, film, and New England history. He is a fifteenth-generation resident of Martha’s Vineyard, where he lives with his wife and children.

Steven Spielberg is an award-winning Hollywood movie director.