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
particular
'Moby-Dick' has a remarkable way of resonating with whatever is going on in the world at that particular moment.
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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.
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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.'
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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.
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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.
business
Whaling was the oil business of its day.
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In the years to come, the combination of climate change and population growth could have a devastating effect on the planet and, needless to say, on humanity.
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A survival tale peels away the niceties and comforts of civilization. Suddenly, all the technology and education in the world means nothing. I think all of us wonder while reading a survival tale, 'What would I have done in this situation? Would I have made it?'
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I watch a lot of bad TV. I spend my entire day reading and writing, and after dinner my idea of fun is just to watch a lot of bad TV. That's how I relax and stay in touch with modern culture.
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As Herman Melville wrote of that seagoing monster of a man Captain Ahab, “All mortal greatness is but disease.
wall ocean inspiration
People think I live here on Nantucket and just gaze at the ocean, getting my inspiration. Not so. I work in my basement and gaze out onto a single window that shows me a cement wall. This is a profession, and it's important to have professionalism about the writing.
writing stuff way
Something like going to get the newspaper can increase your writing efficiency by taking you away from the material. When I'm doing other things, writing stuff will be swirling around in my head, and sometimes I'll see a new way into the material.