Category Archives: B

Baldwin, Bates (John Edward Jennings, Jr.)

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Ballou, Maturin Murray (“Lieut. Murray,” “Frank Forester”)

by Mary Malloy (2000) [BALLOU, MATURIN MURRAY], “LIEUT. MURRAY,” “FRANK FORESTER” (1820-1895). An influential publisher of American periodicals, Maturin Murray Ballou was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He traveled extensively and entered the literary world by writing descriptive letters of his Continue reading & text links

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Barker, Benjamin

by Dean DeFino (2000) BARKER, BENJAMIN (1817-18??). Beyond birth records in Salem, Massachusetts, the only documents that survive of Benjamin Barker are twenty short novels published under that name between 1845 and 1847 and one in 1855. Those with authors’ Continue reading & text links

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Barnes, James

by Richard J. Williamson (2000) BARNES, JAMES (1866-1936). Author of books about naval history and naval wartime campaigns, as well as juvenile works on naval leaders, Colonel James Barnes was a prolific writer, historian, journalist, and naval officer. His depiction of Continue reading & text links

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Barrett, Andrea

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Barth, John

by Julius Rowan Raper (2000) BARTH, JOHN [SUMMONS] (1930- ). There is a great deal of water in the fiction of John Barth, as one would expect of a writer who was born in Cambridge on the eastern shore of Continue reading & text links

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Bassett, Wilbur

Wander-Ships: Folk Stories of the Sea with Notes upon Their Origin (1917) Continue reading & text links

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Bates, Katharine Lee

“The Titanic” in The Retinue and Other Poems (1912) Continue reading & text links

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Bates, Martha E. Cram

by Robert Beasecker (2000) BATES, MARTHA E. CRAM (1839-1905). Scant biographical detail exists concerning M.E.C. Bates. She was born in Northville, Michigan, and attended the State Normal School, now Eastern Michigan University. It appears that she taught school for at Continue reading & text links

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Beach, Edward Latimer Jr.

by Robert Shenk (2000) BEACH, EDWARD LATIMER [JR] (1918-2002). As his father had done, Edward L. Beach [Jr.] spent a career as a naval officer and wrote many books on naval topics. Three of these are excellent novels about submarines. Continue reading & text links

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Beach, Edward Latimer Sr.

by C. Herbert Gilliland (2000) BEACH, EDWARD LATIMER, SR. (1867-1943). Edward Latimer Beach Sr., novelist, was born 30 June 1867 in Toledo, Ohio. Graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1888, he took part in the Battle of Manila Bay Continue reading & text links

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Beebe, William

by R. D. Madison (2000) BEEBE, WILLIAM [CHARLES] (1877-1962). William Beebe was born in Brooklyn and attended Columbia University, where he earned his B.S. in 1898. He led more than sixty scientific expeditions, many of them intentionally maritime. Influenced especially Continue reading & text links

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Behrman, S. N.

by David R. Pellegrini (2000) BEHRMAN, S[AMUEL]. N[ATHANIEL]. (1893-1973). The prolific playwright S. N. Behrman was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, into dire poverty; his entry into professional theatre was rapid, and by the mid-1920s he was already a notable literary Continue reading & text links

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Benchley, Peter

by Dennis Berthold (2000) BENCHLEY, PETER [BRADFORD] (1940-2006). Born in New York City, Peter Benchley earned a B.A. at Harvard in 1961 and took up a career in travel writing, journalism, and government. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps Continue reading & text links

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Berry, Don

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Berryman, John

by Thomas R. Brooks (2000) BERRYMAN, JOHN (1914-1972). Born John Smith in Oklahoma, John Berryman assumed the name of his stepfather after his own father committed suicide. Berryman’s best-known work is the poetic sequence of 77 Dream Songs, published in 1964, Continue reading & text links

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Beston, Henry

by Joseph Flibbert (2000) BESTON [SHEAHAN], HENRY (1888-1968). Born Henry Boston Sheahan in Quincy, Massachusetts, Henry Beston is the author of about a dozen books, including The Outermost House. A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod (1928). In Continue reading & text links

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Binns, Archie

by Matthew Evertson (2000) BINNS, ARCHIE [FRED] (1899-1971). Archie Binns, novelist and historian of the northwestern United States, is best known for his critically acclaimed novel Lightship (1934). Based partly on Binns’ own experiences at age eighteen aboard the Umatilla Reef Lightship off Cape Continue reading & text links

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Bird, Robert Montgomery

The Adventures of Robin Day (1877) Continue reading & text links

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Bishop, Elizabeth

by Hugh Egan (2000) BISHOP, ELIZABETH (1911-1979). Elizabeth Bishop, American poet for whom the coastlines of North and South America served as powerful sources of inspiration, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her father died when she was eight months old, Continue reading & text links

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Bishop, John Peale

by Boyd Childress (2000) BISHOP, JOHN PEALE (1892-1944). A colleague and friend of such literary giants as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edmond Wilson, Ernest Hemingway, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Allen Tate, John Peale Bishop was a secondary figure in letters, Continue reading & text links

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Blatchford, John

by Daniel E. Williams (2000) BLATCHFORD, JOHN (1762-1794). John Blatchford’s account of his voyages is one of the more extraordinary sea narratives from the American Revolution. First published in 1788 and soon republished in at least half a dozen other Continue reading & text links

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Bowditch, Nathaniel

by Daniel Finamore (2000) BOWDITCH, NATHANIEL (1773-1838). Mathematician, navigator, and astronomer, Nathaniel Bowditch authored the book that since 1802 has been the standard reference for celestial navigators worldwide. Schooled only to age ten, Bowditch taught himself mathematics and several foreign Continue reading & text links

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Bowman, James F.

The Island Home; or, The Young Castaways (1853) Continue reading & text links

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Boyer, Dwight

by David D. Anderson (2000) BOYER, DWIGHT (1912-1977). A journalist, photographer, and feature writer for the Toledo Blade, 1944-1954, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, 1954-1977, Dwight Boyer grew up and spent his professional life on the south shore of Lake Erie. He Continue reading & text links

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Brackenridge, Henry Marie

by Philip Barnard (2000) BRACKENRIDGE, HENRY MARIE (1786-1871). Henry Marie Brackenridge, writer, lawyer, legislator, and diplomat, was born in Pittsburgh, the son of well-known writer and jurist Hugh Henry Brackenridge. Most of Brackenridge’s career was devoted to legal work and Continue reading & text links

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Bradbury, Ray

by Jonathan R. Eller (2000) BRADBURY, RAY [DOUGLAS] (1920-2012). Ray Bradbury, prolific author of twenty story collections and eight novels evolving out of more than 340 published short stories, was born in Waukegan, Illinois. He has lived in Los Angeles Continue reading & text links

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Brady, Cyrus Townsend

by C. Herbert Gilliland (2000) BRADY, CYRUS [TOWNSEND] (1861-1920). Author of some seventy volumes of fiction and nonfiction, some having to do with seagoing or naval heroes, Cyrus Brady was born 20 December 1861 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Graduating from the Continue reading & text links

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Brewer, Lucy

by Margherita M. Desy (2000) “BREWER, LUCY.” Lucy Brewer is the pseudonym of either Nathaniel Coverly Jr. (1775?-1824), an early nineteenth-century Boston broadside and pamphlet publisher, or a writer in his employ, Nathaniel Hill Wright (1787-1824). Brewer’s The Adventures of Continue reading & text links

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Bridge, Horatio

by John B. Hattendorf (2000) BRIDGE, HORATIO (1806-1893). A naval officer, Horatio Bridge is most famous for his close friendship with Nathaniel Hawthorne, for whom he found a publisher for Twice-told Tales (1837) and to whom Hawthorne dedicated The Snow Image (1851). Born in Continue reading & text links

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Briggs, Charles Frederick

by Gail H. Coffler (2000) BRIGGS, CHARLES FREDERICK (1804-1877). Born a Nantucket Yankee (his mother was a Coffin), Charles Frederick Briggs was a real sailor before he became a professional writer. Though he would later turn to the magazines to Continue reading & text links

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Brinkley, William Clark

by James F. Millinger (2000) BRINKLEY, WILLIAM CLARK (1917-1993). Two of William Clark Brinkley’s books, Don’t Go Near the Water (1956) and The Ninety and Nine (1966), are based on his four years of experience in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Don’t Continue reading & text links

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Brooks, Kenneth F., Jr.

by Mira Dock (2000) BROOKS, KENNETH F., JR (1921-1962). Kenneth F. Brooks Jr., a decorated World War II pilot living near Washington, D.C., spent his childhood summers on his uncle’s sailboat in the Chesapeake Bay and continues to sail. In Continue reading & text links

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Browne, J. Ross

by Sally C. Hoople (2000) BROWNE, JOHN ROSS (1821-1875). Author of Etchings of a Whaling Cruise (1846), J. Ross Browne was born in Beggars Bush, Ireland, and emigrated to America when he was twelve years old. In 1838 Browne journeyed on a Continue reading & text links

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Bryant, William Cullen

by Joseph Flibbert (2000) BRYANT, WILLIAM CULLEN (1794-1878). William Cullen Bryant was born and raised in the back country of western Massachusetts, where an early talent for versifying displayed in religious, sentimental, and satiric poems culminated in the publication in Continue reading & text links

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Buckley, William F., Jr.

by Robert C. Foulke (2000) BUCKLEY, WILLIAM F[RANK]., Jr. (1925-2008). William F. Buckley Jr., prolific journalist, author, and editor of National Review, is also a passionate sailor. Those two worlds join in a trilogy of narratives about monthlong ocean cruises Continue reading & text links

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Buntline, Ned (Edward Zane Carroll Judson)

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Burland, Brian

by Richard J. King BURLAND, BRIAN [BERKELEY] (1931-2010). Born in Bermuda, educated in England and Canada, and living a good part of his life in the United States, Brian Burland has written several maritime novels. Son of a yacht builder, Continue reading & text links

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Burts, Robert

by Peter H. McCracken BURTS, ROBERT (17??-1839). Robert Burts was born in Maryland and entered the navy in 1833 as a midshipman. He sailed to the Mediterranean on the sloop Ontario, but upon return in 1836 he began a string Continue reading & text links

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Byles, Mather

by John T. Shawcross BYLES, MATHER (1707-1788). Congregational minister, sermonizer, and poet, Mather Byles was the grandson of Increase Mather. Among his publications are two notable volumes, Poems on Several Occasions (1744) and Poems. The Conflagration. . . The God of Tempest and Continue reading & text links

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