Richard King returns to the Herreshoff Marine Museum to speak about his new book Sailing Alone: A Surprising History of Isolation and Survival at Sea. King weaves the story of his own solo Atlantic crossing (aboard a 28′ Pearson Triton, likely built right here at this boatyard) with the history of mariners who have crossed oceans alone, beginning in the late 1700s. Sailing Alone focuses on mariners’ personal motivations and the social pressures and contemporary technologies that influenced their adventures. Meanwhile he examines their relationship and observations of the marine world from their small, quiet platforms at sea. Rich is a lively presenter, they’ll be spectacular historical photographs, and he personalizes every book signing with one of his own color illustrations!

Richard J. King is the author of five books of nonfiction about our relationship with the global ocean, including most recently Sailing Alone: A History. He wrote Ahab’s Rolling Sea: A Natural History of Moby-Dick, lauded in Science, Nature, and American Scholar; Lobster, which was acclaimed by the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal; and The Devil’s Cormorant: A Natural History, which was short-listed for the ASLE Creative Book Award and rated as one of the top five science books of 2013 by Library Journal.

Rich is also the author of a variety of popular and scholarly articles, reviews, and interviews in a range of magazines and academic journals. He has illustrated two children’s books, What is a Sea Dog? and Women and the Sea and also Ruth! He writes and illustrates a quarterly column titled “Animals in Sea History” for Sea History magazine, was the Series Editor for “Seafaring America,” and was the founding editor of the online reference “Searchable Sea Literature.”

Rich earned his PhD in writing and sea literature from the University of St. Andrews. He has been sailing on tall ships for over thirty years, traveling throughout the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as both a teacher and a sailor. He is a visiting associate professor with the Sea Education Association (Woods Hole, MA) and a research associate with the Literature Department at the University of California Santa Cruz.

In 2007, he sailed alone across the Atlantic in a 28′ sloop from Portland, Maine, to Lisbon, Portugal (he was aiming for Scotland). He lives in Santa Cruz, CA, with his spouse and child. Rich is represented by Russell Galen.