Nathaniel Philbrick was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Pittsburgh. He went on to study English at Brown University and became Brown's first All-American sailor, winning the Sunfish North Americans. After getting his MA in American Literature from Duke University, he worked as an editor for Sailing World magazine and wrote and edited several books about sailing, including The Passionate Sailor, Second Wind, and Yachting: A Parody.
He moved to Nantucket in 1986 and published his first book about the island's history in 1994, Away Off Shore, which was followed by Abram's Eyes, a study of the Nantucket's native legacy. He was the founding director of Nantucket's Egan Maritime...
