Call 860.572.5322
for tickets.

The Maritime Author Series is co-sponsored by the Museum's Library Fellows. For more information about the organization, contact Paul J. O'Pecko, Library Director, at collections@mysticseaport.org.

Maritime Author Series

Wednesdays: January 30, February 27, March 27 and April 24, 2013
5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
The River Room, Latitude 41° Restaurant

Meet the authors firsthand and hear their stories about how their books came to be written. Enjoy a wine and cheese reception and one lucky raffle winner will take home a free copy of the author's book!

Tickets: $15 per program (non-member: $20 per program) Call 860.572.5322 for tickets.

Past Presenters

April 24: Richard E. Hyman, Frogmen

In his personal account of expeditions with legendary French explorer Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau and the crew of the research vessel Calypso, Richard Hyman takes us behind the scenes, inside the ship and under the sea. The story is an inspiring true adventure of a young man who pays homage to one of the greatest explorers and visionaries of all time. Cousteau was a two-time Academy Award winner, received 40 Emmy nominations and created 100 films. Richard's experience with Cousteau began in 1973 when he was 18 and had just graduated from Weston High School in CT. His onboard experiences included diving in the Florida springs alongside manatees, studying stone crabs off the panhandle and lobsters off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, and along the 180-mile Belize Barrier Reef to film the spawning of thousands of grouper. His shipboard experiences also included meeting John Denver, who later wrote the song, Calypso. For more information, please visit www.richardehyman.com.

March 27: Stephen Flynn, Ph.D.
The Edge of Disaster: Rebuilding a Resilient Nation (2007) and America the Vulnerable (2004)

Dr. Stephen Flynn is a Professor of Political Science and the Founding Co-Director of the George J. Kostas Research Institute for Homeland Security at Northeastern University. Prior to arriving at Northeastern, he served as President of the Center for National Policy and spent a decade as a senior fellow for National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Flynn served in the Coast Guard on active duty for 20 years, including two tours as commanding officer at sea, and as a member of the faculty at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. His two books are currently only available by electronic version, but Dr. Flynn will bring a few of his own original copies for those who wish to purchase them. This will be a special occasion to meet and hear one of the foremost authorities on global maritime security discuss some of the current risks we face from the sea and how we can best manage those risks. Click here for more information.

February 27: Michael Tougias
The Finest Hours

Michael Tougias is an award-winning author of 19 books, including this tale of the Coast Guard's most daring rescue, which chronicles a rescue of two sinking oil tankers off Cape Cod in February of 1952. A ferocious Nor'easter storm split both tankers in half. Men were trapped on the severed bows and sterns, and all four sections were sinking in 60-foot waves. Thus began a life and death drama of survival, heroism, and a series of tragic mistakes. Towering waves, blinding snow, and one of the most dangerous shoals in the world, the dreaded Chatham Bar, known as "the graveyard of the Atlantic," created havoc in attempting to rescue the seamen. The spellbinding tale is overflowing with breathtaking scenes as boats capsize, bows and sterns crash into one another, and men hurl themselves into the raging sea in their terrifying battle for survival. For more information, please visit www.michaeltougias.com.

January 30: Eric Jay Dolin
When America First Met China

Brilliantly illuminating one of the least understood areas of American history, bestselling author Eric Jay Dolin (author of Leviathan and Fur, Fortune and Empire) now traces our fraught relationship with China back to its roots: the unforgiving 19th-century seas that separated a brash, rising naval power from a battered ancient empire. The story is insightful for our time as it sheds light on our modern relationship with China. Indeed, the furious trade in furs, opium, and bêche-de-mer -- a rare sea cucumber delicacy -- might have inspired America's emerging economy, but it also sparked an ecological and human rights catastrophe of such epic proportions, the reverberations can still be felt today. Peopled with fascinating characters -- from the "Financier of the Revolution" Robert Morris to the Chinese emperor Qianlong, who considered foreigners inferior beings -- this page-turning saga of pirates and politicians, coolies and concubines becomes a must read for any fan of Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower or Mark Kurlansky's Cod. For more information, please visit www.ericjaydolin.com.