Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People, 1602-1890

Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People, 1602-1890

by Nathaniel Philbrick
Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People, 1602-1890

Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People, 1602-1890

by Nathaniel Philbrick

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Overview

A book about a tiny island with a huge history, from the New York Times bestselling author of Valiant Ambition and In the Hurricane's Eye.

“For everyone who loves Nantucket Island this is the indispensable book.” —Russell Baker

In his first book of history, Nathaniel Philbrick reveals the people and the stories behind what was once the whaling capital of the world. Beyond its charm, quaint local traditions, and whaling yarns, Philbrick explores the origins of Nantucket in this comprehensive history. From the English settlers who thought they were purchasing a “Native American ghost town” but actually found a fully realized society, through the rise and fall of the then thriving whaling industry, the story of Nantucket is a truly unique chapter of American history.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781101528549
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date: 04/26/2011
Sold by: Penguin Group
Format: eBook
Pages: 352
Sales rank: 463,783
File size: 1 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Nathaniel Philbrick grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and earned a BA in English from Brown University and an MA in America Literature from Duke University, where he was a James B. Duke Fellow. He was Brown University’s first Intercollegiate All-American sailor in 1978, the same year he won the Sunfish North Americans in Barrington, RI. After working as an editor at Sailing World magazine, he wrote and edited several books about sailing, including The Passionate Sailor, Second Wind, and Yaahting: A Parody.  
 
In 1986, Philbrick moved to Nantucket with his wife Melissa and their two children. In 1994, he published his first book about the island’s history, Away Off Shore, followed by a study of the Nantucket’s native legacy, Abram’s Eyes. He was the founding director of Nantucket’s Egan Maritime Institute and is still a research fellow at the Nantucket Historical Association. 

In 2000, Philbrick published the New York Times bestseller In the Heart of the Sea, which won the National Book Award for nonfiction. The book is the basis of the forthcoming Warner Bros. motion picture “Heart of the Sea,” directed by Ron Howard and starring Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson, Benjamin Walker, Ben Wishaw, and Tom Holland, which is scheduled for release in March, 2015. The book also inspired a 2001 Dateline special on NBC as well as the 2010 two-hour PBS American Experience film “Into the Deep” by Ric Burns.
 
His next book was Sea of Glory, published in 2003, which won the Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Naval History Prize and the Albion-Monroe Award from the National Maritime Historical Society. The New York Times Bestseller Mayflower was a finalist for both the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in History and the Los Angeles Times Book Award, won the Massachusetts Book Award for nonfiction, and was named one the ten Best Books of 2006 by the New York Times Book Review. Mayflower is currently in development as a limited series on FX.
 
In 2010, he published the New York Times bestseller The Last Stand, which was named a New York Times Notable book, a 2010 Montana Book Award Honor Book, and a 2011 ALA Notable Book. Philbrick was an on-camera consultant to the two-hour PBS American Experience film “Custer’s Last Stand” by Stephen Ives. The book is currently being adapted for a ten-hour, multi-part television series. The audio book for Philbrick’s Why Read Moby-Dick? (2011) made the ALA's Listen List in 2012 and was a finalist for the New England Society Book Award.
 
Philbrick’s latest New York Times bestseller, Bunker Hill:  A City, a Siege, a Revolution, was published in 2013 and was awarded both the 2013 New England Book Award for Non-Fiction and the 2014 New England Society Book Award. Bunker Hill won the 2014 book award from the Society of Colonial Wars, and has been optioned by Warner Bros. for feature film adaptation with Ben Affleck attached to direct.
 
Philbrick has also received the Byrne Waterman Award from the Kendall Whaling Museum, the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for distinguished service from the USS Constitution Museum, the Nathaniel Bowditch Award from the American Merchant Marine Museum, the William Bradford Award from the Pilgrim Society, and the Boston History Award from the Bostonian Society. He was named the 2011 Cushing Orator by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and has an honorary doctorate from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, where he delivered the commencement address in 2009.
 
Philbrick’s writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, the New York Times Book Review, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe. He has appeared on the Today Show, the Morning Show, Dateline, PBS’s American Experience, C-SPAN, and NPR. He and his wife still live on Nantucket.

Hometown:

Nantucket, Massachusetts

Date of Birth:

June 11, 1956

Place of Birth:

Boston, Massachusetts

Education:

B.A., Brown University, 1978; M.A., Duke University

Table of Contents

Prefaceix
IAn Island and Its Altar1
IINative Origins: Mashop, Roqua, Wonoma and Autopscot13
IIIThomas Macy's Great Escape21
IVTristram Coffin, Country Squire29
V"An Island Full of Indians": King Philip, John Gibbs, and Peter Folger39
VIGardner versus Coffin: The Revolt53
VIIThe Whaling Legacy of Ichabod Paddock65
VIIIMary Starbuck, High Priestess of the Company Store77
IXRichard Macy, the Master Builder89
XOf God, Indians, and Getting By: The Hireling, Timothy White99
XIPeleg Folger, the Poet Whaleman111
XIIKezia Coffin's Revolutionary Rise and Fall123
XIIIThe "Removals": From Jethro Coffin to William Rotch135
XIVA "Nest of Love" No Longer: William Coffin and the Bank, Commons, and School Wars145
XVThe Golden Boy and the Dark Man: Obed Starbuck and George Pollard161
XVIAbsalom Boston and Abram Quary: "Of Color" on the Grey Lady177
XVIIMaria Mitchell, the Provincial Cosmopolitan189
XVIIIF. C. Sanford, the Mythmaker203
Epilogue215
Notes219
Acknowledgments263
Index265
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