Years ago, when Lisa Sherman took a part-time summer job at the Edgartown Library shelving books, she did not anticipate how this short break from her harried New York city lifestyle would play a large part in her future. This past fall, more than a decade later, Ms. Sherman became the head librarian at the Aquinnah Public Library. But we are getting ahead of the story.

After William Styron died, his wife Rose was cleaning up their Connecticut house in preparation for it to be sold when she discovered an enormous pile of letters in her husband’s old writing room. The letters had been sent to him from family, friends, colleagues, old girlfriends, literary luminaries, nearly everyone he had come in contact with during his long career.

Grace Episcopal Church in Vineyard Haven is inviting one and all to its annual Community Christmas Dinner held from noon until 2 p.m. on Christmas Day. The traditional feast includes roast turkey and ham with plenty of side dishes, sweets and pies. Volunteers prepare and serve the food, which is donated by Grace Church parishioners and Island businesses.

Doug Smith had a vision. It involved pancakes. Before Mr. Smith, 38, moved to the Vineyard full-time six years ago, he and his girlfriend often took weekend trips up to Maine, exploring the small towns that dotted the coast. But no matter the town, “there was always this great breakfast joint that had a line out the door,” Mr. Smith recalled. The breakfast spots served up stacks of thick, fluffy pancakes and savory plates of eggs Benedict to hungry patrons who lingered over great coffee at wooden tables — the picture of New England rustic.

There could be as many as 592 pipes playing at the West Tisbury Congregational Church on Sunday, Dec. 16, at the 50th anniversary celebration of the church organ beginning at 3 p.m. And among those in the audience will be the man who built the organ, Fritz Noack, of Noack Organ Company, now located in Georgetown. Mr. Noack was 25 years old then and this was his fourth original organ.

The Martha’s Vineyard Center for the Visual Arts will present a sampling of work created by this year’s 13 grant recipients. The show takes place this weekend, Saturday, Dec. 15, and Sunday, Dec. 16, from noon to 4 p.m.