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- Biographies: Jamaica Kincaid, Marilyn Nelson, Clifford Ashley, Sylvia Earle, and Phillis Wheatley
- Audio: Harriet Beecher Stowe's The Pearl of Orr’s Island
- Video: Derek Walcott reads "Sea Grapes"
- Featured Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Tag Archives: Nonfiction
Gould, John W.
by Peter H. McCracken (2000) GOULD, JOHN W. (1814-1838). John W. Gould was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, the seventh son of an influential judge and educator James Gould. He was christened “John Gould” but added the middle initial “W.” in Continue reading text links
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Tagged 19th Century, Fiction, First-person narrative, Nonfiction, Piracy
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Fuller, Margaret
by Robert Beasecker (2000) FULLER, [SARAH] MARGARET (1810-1850). Born in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, Margaret Fuller was the eldest of nine children. Her father, a lawyer and congressman, educated her at home, and under his demanding regimen she developed her remarkable intellectual Continue reading text links
Ellsberg, Edward
by Robert Shenk (2000) ELLSBERG, EDWARD (1891-1983). Edward Ellsberg was a naval officer, diver, expert in ship salvage, and captivating storyteller. Graduating from the Naval Academy in 1914, Ellsberg served as a naval officer until 1926, when he went into Continue reading text links
Ellms, Charles
by Boyd Childress (2000) ELLMS, CHARLES (1805-1851). The elusive Charles Ellms was a Boston stationer who, after 1830, turned to popular writing and compiling almanacs. Little is known of Ellms, his birth, education, or even his death. Before he turned Continue reading text links
Posted in E
Tagged 19th Century, Maritime History, Nonfiction, Piracy
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Ellis, Edward Sylvester
by Donald P. Curtis (2000) ELLIS, EDWARD SYLVESTER (1840-1916). A prolific, versatile author, Edward Sylvester Ellis was born in Geneva, Ohio, near Lake Erie. While young, he moved to New Jersey, only later to return to the Great Lakes in Continue reading text links
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Tagged 19th Century, 20th Century, Fiction, Great Lakes, Nonfiction
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Eiseley, Loren
by William A. Sullivan (2000) EISELEY, LOREN C[OREY]. (1907-1977). Loren C. Eiseley, anthropologist, educator, and author, was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. He collected fossils as a child and began speculating on the evolution of humankind and the universe. His early Continue reading text links
Earle, Sylvia
by Barbara Krystal (2020) EARLE, SYLVIA ALICE. (1935- ). Marine biologist, ocean conservationist, underwater explorer, and author Sylvia Earle wrote in The World is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean’s Are One (2009): “Even if you never have the chance Continue reading text links
Posted in Articles, E
Tagged 20th Century, Gulf of Mexico, Indian Ocean, Nonfiction, Science/Nature
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Doner, Mary Frances
by Mary DeJong Obuchowski (2000) DONER, MARY FRANCES (1893-1985). Mary Frances Doner set many of her books near her birthplace, Port Huron, Michigan. She supplied around 250 short stories for pulp magazines early in her career and in the 1930s Continue reading text links
Posted in D
Tagged 20th Century, Great Lakes, Nonfiction, Passenger Travel, Short Story
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Curwood, James Oliver
by Ed Demerly (2000) CURWOOD, JAMES OLIVER (1878-1927). James Oliver Curwood, born in Owosso, Michigan, was a popular writer of nonfiction, romance and adventure fiction, and scripts for silent films. Although much of his fiction is set in the Canadian Continue reading text links
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Tagged 19th Century, 20th Century, Fiction, Great Lakes, Journalism, Multimedia/Multimodal, Nonfiction
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Cooper, James Fenimore
by Thomas Philbrick (2000) COOPER, JAMES FENIMORE (1789-1851). With The Pilot (1824) James Fenimore Cooper invented the sea novel, for the first time employing the dominant literary form of the nineteenth century as the vehicle for a fiction in which the Continue reading text links
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Tagged 18th Century, 19th Century, Coastal Life, Fiction, Navy/Coast Guard, Nonfiction, Whaling/Sealing
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Connell, Evan S., Jr.
by Jeffrey Cass (2000) CONNELL, EVAN S[HELBY]., JR (1924-2013). Born in Kansas City and educated at Dartmouth, Columbia, and Stanford, Evan S. Connell Jr. remains best known for his novels Mrs. Bridge (1959) and Mr. Bridge (1969). Connell wrote the screenplay of the 1990 Continue reading text links
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Tagged 20th Century, Fiction, Multimedia/Multimodal, Navy/Coast Guard, Nonfiction, Poetry, War
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Colcord, Lincoln Ross
by Parker Bishop Albee Jr. (2000) COLCORD, LINCOLN ROSS (1883-1947). Lincoln Ross Colcord, author of sea fiction and maritime historian, was born at sea aboard the bark Charlotte A. Littlefield, commanded by his father, Lincoln Alden Colcord of Searsport, Maine. Colcord Continue reading text links
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Tagged 19th Century, 20th Century, Fiction, Journalism, Maritime History, Nonfiction, Poetry
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Codman, John (“Captain Ringbolt”)
by Lisa Franchetti (2000) [CODMAN, JOHN], “CAPTAIN RINGBOLT” (1814-1900). John Codman, a well-traveled sea captain and writer, was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1814. A pastor’s son, he enjoyed listening to lengthy theological discussions with visiting clergymen, but he realized Continue reading text links
Catherwood, Mary Hartwell
by Kenneth A. Robb (2000) CATHERWOOD, MARY HARTWELL (1847-1902). Mary Hartwell Catherwood began her career with realistic stories of the midwest frontier but focused on stories of the French in early America after her novel The Romance of Dollard (1888). This interest Continue reading text links
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Tagged 19th Century, Fiction, Great Lakes, Maritime History, Nonfiction
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Carlisle, Henry Coffin
by Dennis Berthold (2000) CARLISLE, HENRY COFFIN (1926-2011). Born in San Francisco, Henry Coffin Carlisle served in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1944 to 1946, earned a B.A. and M.A. at Stanford University in 1950 and 1953, and entered the Continue reading text links
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Tagged 20th Century, Fiction, Journalism, Navy/Coast Guard, Nonfiction, Whaling/Sealing
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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
Posted in B
Tagged 19th Century, 20th Century, Fiction, Multimedia/Multimodal, Navy/Coast Guard, Nonfiction
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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
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
Posted in B
Tagged 18th Century, 19th Century, Children's Writing, Exploration, Nonfiction, Science/Nature
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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
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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Tagged 20th Century, First-person narrative, Navy/Coast Guard, Nonfiction, War
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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
Posted in B
Tagged 20th Century, Atlantic Ocean, cruise ships, Fiction, Nonfiction, Recreation (beaches, Science/Nature, Short Story, small boat sailing
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Baldwin, Bates (John Edward Jennings, Jr.)
Posted in B
Tagged 20th Century, Exploration, Fiction, Maritime History, Navy/Coast Guard, Nonfiction, Short Story
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Ames, Nathaniel
by Hugh Egan (2000) AMES, NATHANIEL (1805-1835). Son of the Federalist statesman Fisher Ames and grandson of a famous colonial almanac publisher, Nathaniel Ames was a blueblood who went to sea and later wrote about it. In this way he Continue reading text links
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Tagged 19th Century, Fiction, First-person narrative, Merchant Marine, Navy/Coast Guard, Nonfiction
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Aiken, Conrad
by John T. Shawcross (2000) [AIKEN, CONRAD POTTER], “SAMUEL JEAKE JR.” (1889-1973). A friend and contemporary of T. S. Eliot, Conrad Aiken divided his time between England and the United States before settling in Massachusetts in 1947. He used the Continue reading text links
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Tagged 20th Century, Fiction, Nonfiction, Plays, Poetry, Short Story
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