Nathaniel Philbrick grew raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Brown University with a BA in English and Duke University with an MA in American Literature, where he was a James B. Duke Scholar. Fellow at Duke University. In 1978, he won the Sunfish North Americans in Barrington, Rhode Island, and became Brown University's first Intercollegiate All-American sailor. He wrote and edited several books about sailing after working as an editor at Sailing World magazine, including The Passionate Sailor, Second Wind, and Yaahting: A Parody. At the Heart of the Sea, a New York Times bestseller that received the National Book Award for nonfiction, was released by Philbrick in 2000.

The Warner Bros. film is based on the book. Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson, Benjamin Walker, Ben Wishaw, and Tom Holland feature in the film Heart of the Sea, directed by Ron Howard. The book was also the inspiration for an NBC Dateline broadcast in 2001 and Ric Burns' Read More chevron_right

Nathaniel Philbrick grew raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Brown University with a BA in English and Duke University with an MA in American Literature, where he was a James B. Duke Scholar. Fellow at Duke University. In 1978, he won the Sunfish North Americans in Barrington, Rhode Island, and became Brown University's first Intercollegiate All-American sailor. He wrote and edited several books about sailing after working as an editor at Sailing World magazine, including The Passionate Sailor, Second Wind, and Yaahting: A Parody. At the Heart of the Sea, a New York Times bestseller that received the National Book Award for nonfiction, was released by Philbrick in 2000.

The Warner Bros. film is based on the book. Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson, Benjamin Walker, Ben Wishaw, and Tom Holland feature in the film Heart of the Sea, directed by Ron Howard. The book was also the inspiration for an NBC Dateline broadcast in 2001 and Ric Burns' two-hour PBS American Experience film Into the Deep in 2010. Vanity Fair, The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe have all published Philbrick's work.

On the Today show, The Morning Show, Dateline, PBS's American Experience, C-SPAN, and NPR, he has appeared. He and his wife reside on the island of Nantucket.