What’s New?
- 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: video
Safina, Carl
by Rachel Earnhardt (2017) SAFINA, CARL (1955-). Carl Safina is a biologist, author, activist, and educator. Born on May 23, 1955, in Brooklyn, NY, Safina spent his childhood fishing, breeding pigeons, and playing music. In high school, he participated in Continue reading text links
Yang, Jeffrey
by Jaehyun Jeong (2015) YANG, JEFFREY (1974-) Jeffrey Yang is an American poet, translator, and editor best known for his books of poetry An Aquarium (2008) and Vanishing-Line (2011). Born in Escondido, California, Yang attended the University of California San Diego. With an initial interest Continue reading text links
Posted in Y
Tagged 21st Century, Atlantic Ocean, audio, Exploration, Middle Passage and Enslavement, Pacific Ocean, Poetry, Race/Ethnicity and the Sea, Science/Nature, video
Comments Off on Yang, Jeffrey
Wilson, August
by Sarah Dohan (2016) WILSON, AUGUST (1945-2005). August Wilson, a prominent American playwright, was born Frederick August Kittel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on April 27, 1945 to Frederick Kittel, a German baker, and Daisy Wilson Kittel, an African American cleaning woman. Continue reading text links
Posted in W
Tagged 20th Century, Atlantic Ocean, audio, Middle Passage and Enslavement, Plays, Race/Ethnicity and the Sea, video
Leave a comment
Walcott, Derek
by Jill B. Gidmark (2000) WALCOTT, DEREK [ALTON] (1930-2017). Winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize in literature, Derek Walcott identifies in his life and work two primary inspirations: the Caribbean Sea and his mixed-race heritage. Born and raised in the harbor Continue reading text links
Posted in W
Tagged 20th Century, Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean, Fishing, Plays, Poetry, Race/Ethnicity and the Sea, Science/Nature, video, Whaling/Sealing
Comments Off on Walcott, Derek
Sobel, Dava
by Marija Miklavčič (2020) SOBEL, DAVA (1947 – ). Dava Sobel grew up in the Bronx, NY, and received her college degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton. A journalist and science writer, Sobel has written Continue reading text links
Posted in S
Tagged 20th Century, 21st Century, Atlantic Ocean, Merchant Marine, Navy/Coast Guard, Nonfiction, Science/Nature, video
Leave a comment
Slocum, Joshua
by Haskell Springer (2000; rev. 2021) SLOCUM, JOSHUA (1844-1909). Joshua Slocum, the first singlehanded circumnavigator and author of the classic Sailing Alone Around the World (1900), was born in Nova Scotia. At about sixteen he left home to work as a Continue reading text links
Posted in S
Tagged 19th Century, 20th Century, Atlantic Ocean, audio, First-person narrative, Fishing, Merchant Marine, Navy/Coast Guard, Pacific Ocean, Recreation, video
Comments Off on Slocum, Joshua
Oliver, Mary
by Ted Olson (2000, rev. ed. 2019) OLIVER, MARY (1935-2019). A popular and highly acclaimed American poet, recipient of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, Mary Oliver composed numerous lyric poems set on coastal Cape Cod. Born in Continue reading text links
Posted in O
Tagged 20th Century, audio, Coastal Life, Poetry, Science/Nature, video
Comments Off on Oliver, Mary
Nelson, Marilyn
by Kelly Bushnell and Christian Loriel Lucas (2022) NELSON (WANIEK), MARILYN (1946—). Poet and translator Marilyn Nelson (Waniek) was born in Cleveland in 1946. She received her BA from the University of California, Davis, her MA from the University of Continue reading text links
Mitchell, Joseph
by Eleanore MacLean (2014) MITCHELL, JOSEPH (1908-1996). Joseph Mitchell grew up in Fairmont, North Carolina, a farming town in the state’s coastal plains. In 1929 Mitchell moved to New York City and began his career working as a crime reporter and Continue reading text links
Posted in M
Tagged 20th Century, Fiction, Fishing, Multimedia/Multimodal, Nonfiction, Short Story, video
Leave a comment
Melville, Herman
by Mary K. Bercaw Edwards (2000) MELVILLE, HERMAN (1819-1891). More than any other American author, Herman Melville used the sea as setting and concept to create great literature. With broad-ranging and deep philosophical interests, his books are far more than adventure Continue reading text links
Posted in M
Tagged 19th Century, Antarctic, audio, Class/Labor and the Sea, Fiction, Merchant Marine, Navy/Coast Guard, Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, Race/Ethnicity and the Sea, video, Whaling/Sealing
Comments Off on Melville, Herman
Le Guin, Ursula K.
by Dennis Berthold (2000) LE GUIN, URSULA K[ROEBER]. (1929-2018). Born in Berkeley, California, Ursula K. Le Guin earned her B.A. at Radcliffe College in 1951 and her M.A. in French and Renaissance literature at Columbia University in 1952. Author of over Continue reading text links
Posted in L
Tagged 20th Century, 21st Century, Atlantic Ocean, Children's Writing, Coastal Life, Fiction, Gender/Sexuality and the Sea, Pacific Ocean, Science Fiction, Short Story, video, Women Protagonists
Comments Off on Le Guin, Ursula K.
Kincaid, Jamaica
by Olivia Raymond (2022) KINCAID, JAMAICA (1949 – ). Jamaica Kincaid is an award-winning author and essayist of Caribbean descent. Born Elaine Potter Richardson in St. John’s on the island of Antigua, she moved to the United States in 1965 at Continue reading text links
Johnson, Irving
by Mary K. Bercaw Edwards (2000) JOHNSON, IRVING [McCLURE] (1905-1991). Irving Johnson grew up on a farm in the Connecticut River valley of Massachusetts. Inspired by Jack London’s novels, he had an unswerving desire to go to sea and work with Continue reading text links
Posted in J
Tagged 20th Century, Atlantic Ocean, Multimedia/Multimodal, Navy/Coast Guard, Nonfiction, video
Comments Off on Johnson, Irving
Hemingway, Ernest Miller
by Bickford Sylvester (2000) HEMINGWAY, ERNEST MILLER (1899-1961). Ernest Hemingway, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in fiction (1952) and the Nobel Prize in literature (1954), grew up in Oak Park, Illinois. Except when rough water forced them to go by Continue reading text links
Posted in H
Tagged 20th Century, Caribbean, Exploration, Fiction, Fishing, Great Lakes, Nonfiction, Short Story, video
Comments Off on Hemingway, Ernest Miller
Equiano, Olaudah
by Arnold Schmidt (2000, rev. 2021) EQUIANO, OLAUDAH (1745-1797). By the time he died at the end of the eighteenth century, mariner, author, and abolitionist Olaudah Equiano had likely become the wealthiest and most famous Black man in the Atlantic Continue reading text links
Posted in E
Tagged 18th Century, Arctic, Atlantic Ocean, audio, Caribbean, First-person narrative, Gulf of Mexico, Merchant Marine, Middle Passage and Enslavement, Navy/Coast Guard, Race/Ethnicity and the Sea, video, War
Comments Off on Equiano, Olaudah
Dey, Richard
by Leah Feldman (2013) DEY, RICHARD (1945-) is an American poet born in 1945 who writes of New England and the West Indies. As a teenager he sailed in the Schooner Tabor Boy out of Marion, Massachusetts. After serving in Continue reading text links
Posted in D
Tagged 20th Century, Caribbean, Maritime History, Poetry, video
Comments Off on Dey, Richard
Dana, Richard Henry, Jr.
by Hugh Egan (2000) DANA, RICHARD HENRY, JR. (1815-1882). Son of a genteel poet and member of a prominent Boston family, Richard Henry Dana Jr. gained literary fame by turning his back on his Brahmin upbringing, sailing aboard a merchant Continue reading text links
Posted in D
Tagged 19th Century, audio, First-person narrative, Passenger Travel, Science/Nature, video
Comments Off on Dana, Richard Henry, Jr.
Carson, Rachel
by Betsy S. Hilbert (2000) CARSON, RACHEL [LOUISE] (1907-1964). Though Rachel Carson’s fame as an environmental writer rests on the warnings about pesticide pollution in her last book, Silent Spring (1962), her previous three books on the sea established her reputation. Under the Continue reading text links
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
Posted in B
Tagged 20th Century, Caribbean, Fiction, Island Life, Journalism, Science/Nature, video
Comments Off on Benchley, Peter
Audubon, John James
by R.D Madison (2000) AUDUBON, JOHN JAMES (1785-1851). Born in Haiti and raised in France, John James Audubon became the world’s premier bird artist with the publication of The Birds of America (1827-1838). Audubon accompanied his life-size drawings with five volumes of Continue reading text links
Posted in A
Tagged 19th Century, First-person narrative, Multimedia/Multimodal, video
Comments Off on Audubon, John James