Nathaniel Philbrick grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and earned
a BA in English from Brown University and an MA in America
Literature from Duke University, where he was a James B. Duke
Fellow. He was Brown University’s first Intercollegiate
All-American sailor in 1978, the same year he won the Sunfish North
Americans in Barrington, RI. After working as an editor at Sailing
World magazine, he wrote and edited several books about sailing,
including The Passionate Sailor, Second Wind, and Yaahting: A
Parody.
In 1986, Philbrick moved to Nantucket with his wife Melissa and
their two children. In 1994, he published his first book about the
island’s history, Away Off Shore, followed by a study of the
Nantucket’s native legacy, Abram’s Eyes. He was the founding
director of Nantucket’s Egan Maritime Institute and is still a
research fellow at the Nantucket Historical Association.
In 2000, Philbrick published the New York Times bestseller In the
Heart of the Sea, which won the National Book Award for nonfiction.
The book is the basis of the forthcoming Warner Bros. motion
picture “Heart of the Sea,” directed by Ron Howard and starring
Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson, Benjamin Walker,
Ben Wishaw, and Tom Holland, which is scheduled for release in
March, 2015. The book also inspired a 2001 Dateline special on NBC
as well as the 2010 two-hour PBS American Experience film “Into the
Deep” by Ric Burns.
His next book was Sea of Glory, published in 2003, which won the
Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Naval History Prize and the
Albion-Monroe Award from the National Maritime Historical Society.
The New York Times Bestseller Mayflower was a finalist for both the
2007 Pulitzer Prize in History and the Los Angeles Times Book
Award, won the Massachusetts Book Award for nonfiction, and was
named one the ten Best Books of 2006 by the New York Times Book
Review. Mayflower is currently in development as a limited series
on FX.
In 2010, he published the New York Times bestseller The Last Stand,
which was named a New York Times Notable book, a 2010 Montana Book
Award Honor Book, and a 2011 ALA Notable Book. Philbrick was an
on-camera consultant to the two-hour PBS American Experience film
“Custer’s Last Stand” by Stephen Ives. The book is currently being
adapted for a ten-hour, multi-part television series. The audio
book for Philbrick’s Why Read Moby-Dick? (2011) made the ALA's
Listen List in 2012 and was a finalist for the New England Society
Book Award.
Philbrick’s latest New York Times bestseller, Bunker Hill: A
City, a Siege, a Revolution, was published in 2013 and was awarded
both the 2013 New England Book Award for Non-Fiction and the 2014
New England Society Book Award. Bunker Hill won the 2014 book award
from the Society of Colonial Wars, and has been optioned by Warner
Bros. for feature film adaptation with Ben Affleck attached to
direct.
Philbrick has also received the Byrne Waterman Award from the
Kendall Whaling Museum, the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for
distinguished service from the USS Constitution Museum, the
Nathaniel Bowditch Award from the American Merchant Marine Museum,
the William Bradford Award from the Pilgrim Society, and the Boston
History Award from the Bostonian Society. He was named the 2011
Cushing Orator by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons
and has an honorary doctorate from the Massachusetts Maritime
Academy, where he delivered the commencement address in 2009.
Philbrick’s writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, the New York Times
Book Review, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and
the Boston Globe. He has appeared on the Today Show, the Morning
Show, Dateline, PBS’s American Experience, C-SPAN, and NPR. He and
his wife still live on Nantucket.
"Fascinating...One of our country's great adventure stories...when
it comes to extremes, In the Heart of the Sea is right there."--The
Wall Street Journal
"A book that gets in your bones...Philbrick has created an eerie
thriller from a centuries old tale....Scrupulously researched and
eloquently written...it would have earned Melville's
admiration."--The New York Times Book Review
"Spellbinding."--Time"[Told] with verve and authenticity...a
classic tale of the sea."--San Francisco Chronicle"Nathaniel
Philbrick has taken one of the most horrifying stories in maritime
history and turned it into a classic....One of the most chilling
books I have ever read."--Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect
Storm
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