Among the green-trimmed houses on High street in Edgartown, Norman Bridwell’s home sticks out. The shutters and doors are bright red. And in the window hangs a paper-sized illustration of a familiar dog —a big, red dog to be exact.

“Red has been good to me,” said Mr. Bridwell (84) at his home last week.

John Hersey was a master at both fiction and nonfiction writing. He wrote more than 20 books, including Hiroshima, a short but searing account of the effects of the atomic bomb as seen through the eyes of six survivors. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his novel A Bell for Adano.

Paper is so embedded in daily life as to be almost invisible. It is a transmitter. The message it bears, whether a scribbled note or a printed contract, is the focal point.

Turn over any rock, wander down a new hiking path, take a closer look at a shell. Nature is full of surprises and the pages of the book Moraine to Marsh reveal just that. This field guide to Martha’s Vineyard is often tucked away on many Island bookshelves, maybe caked with mud or dust, a cherished and often-turned-to friend. But 25 years after its publication, the book is no longer in print, and just a few treasured copies remain.