"It was on Cape Cod during fall a few years back, after the century fell but before the towers did, that I began paying a series of visits to the writer John Hay." With this opening line in The Prophet of Dry Hill, David Gessner sets the tone for a quest that is both personal and transcendent. Like "Call me Ishmael," this sentence also lets us know that we are in the hands of a writer with a strong grip on the helm. It's safe to lean back and relax into the journey. Someone to look up to. Photo: iStockphoto. …