Nathaniel Philbrick
Nathaniel Philbrick
Nathaniel Philbrickis an American author and a member of the Philbrick literary family. He won the year 2000 National Book Award for his maritime history, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. His 2006 Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War was named one of The New York Times' ten best books of the year and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
CountryUnited States of America
Nathaniel Philbrick quotes about
came fighting good liberty oppressive revolution versus
Many of us came away from our youth thinking that the story of the Revolution was that the Americans were patriots fighting the oppressive British. It was kind of good versus evil, liberty versus tyranny. When you get into it, you find that it was much more complicated.
actual event face historical house maintained matter visit whether
One of the questions I face when working on a book about a historical event is whether I should visit the actual place that I'm writing about. No matter how scrupulously maintained a historic house or battlefield may be, it is nothing like it was in the long-ago past.
cockpit
Whatever you read, there's no better place to read than the cockpit or the berth of a boat. It's kind of like being in a womb.
art
I'll watch anything, from action to art films.
history narrative
As an author of narrative history, I read a lot of history books.
english fascinated former history literature
As a former English major, I have always been fascinated by the connections between literature and history.
history
If you live on Nantucket, you can't avoid its history, and 'Moby Dick' is the way most of us get into Nantucket's history.
particular
'Moby-Dick' has a remarkable way of resonating with whatever is going on in the world at that particular moment.
approach cosmic great lesson life overall ways
The great lesson I get from 'Moby-Dick' is that when the times are bad, when there is great foreboding, there are still ways to go about living. It's through Ishmael that I find a kind of overall cosmic approach to a meaningful life in this meaningless world.
archives consider english happens history learned major rather writer
I consider myself a writer who happens to write about history, rather than a historian. I was an English major in college. What I've learned about history is in the field, so to speak. Going into the archives and working with it directly.
though
Even though I hadn't read a word of it, I grew up hating 'Moby-Dick.'
earth essentials existed history instead midst planet space western whale
Instead of being a page-turner, 'Moby-Dick' is a repository of American history and culture and the essentials of Western literature. The book is so encyclopedic that space aliens could use it to re-create the whale fishery as it once existed on the planet Earth in the midst of the 19th century.
best civilization facing future greatest literate manual novel survival
For me, 'Moby-Dick' is more than the greatest American novel ever written; it is a metaphysical survival manual - the best guidebook there is for a literate man or woman facing an impenetrable unknown: the future of civilization in this storm-tossed 21st century.
early love teenage
As long as I can remember, I've been writing - first poems, then stories, and by my early teenage years I was also in love with sailing.