North Shore (Massachusetts)

North Shore
Region of Massachusetts
The North Shore region of Massachusetts
Country	United States
State	Massachusetts
Metropolitan Area	Greater Boston
Subregions	Merrimack Valley, Cape Ann

The North Shore is a region in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, loosely defined as the coastal area between Boston and New Hampshire. The region is made up both of a rocky coastline, dotted with marshes and wetlands, as well as several beaches and natural harbors. The North Shore is an important historical, cultural, and economic region of Massachusetts. It contains the cities of Salem, known worldwide as the site of the Salem Witch Trials; and Gloucester, site of Charles Olson's Maximus Poems, and of Sebastian Junger's 1997 creative nonfiction book The Perfect Storm and its 2000 film adaptation. Beverly was home to author John Updike until his death.

The region also prominently figures in the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne and H. P. Lovecraft, notably the latter's The Shadow over Innsmouth, as well as those of many New England poets, from T.S. Eliot to Robert Lowell. Martin Scorsese's 2010 feature film Shutter Island, set on a fictional Boston Harbor island, was partly shot on location on the North Shore. Kenneth Lonergan's acclaimed 2016 film Manchester by the Sea is set in the eponymous seaside town, and major portions of it were filmed in Gloucester, Beverly and other North Shore communities.