James L. Nelson was born and raised in Lewiston, Maine and graduated from UCLA with a degree in motion picture/television production. Finding that despite being in Southern California, it was a damp, drizzly November in his soul, Jim took the cure Melville recommended and decided to sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. For six years he worked on board traditional sailing ships before he turned thirty and realised it would be easier to write about sailing rather than actually doing it. His career as a writer began in 1994 and he has since written works of maritime fiction and history. He is the winner or the American Library Association/William Young Boyd Award and the Naval Order's Samuel Eliot Morison Award. Nelson has lectured all over the country and appeared on the Discovery Channel, History Channel and BookTV. He currently lives in Harpswell, Maine, with his former shipmate, now wife Lisa and their four children.
He has written three historic naval fiction series and is also the writer of non-fiction books about early American naval activities.
The Revolution at Sea Saga is about Isaac Biddlecomb. It starts in 1775 with Biddlecomb as a merchant captain, but the American War of Independance sees him in the fledgling US Navy.
The Brethren of the Coast trilogy is about Thomas Marlowe, an American Privateer in the early years of the colonies.
The Samuel Bowater series is about the Confederate Navy and the age of early steam iron warships during the American Civil War.
Age of Sail: Fiction
AOS Naval Fiction |
||
| Series: Revolution at Sea Saga (Isaac Biddlecomb) | ||
| Year | Book | Comment |
| 1775 | By Force of Arms | Biddlecomb is captured by a mad English captain |
| 1775 | The Maddest Idea | Biddlecomb is sent in search of gunpowder |
| 1776 | The Continental Risque | In command of the brig-of-war Charlemagne Biddlecomb heads for Bermuda |
| 1776 | Lords of the Ocean | Biddlecomb must transport Dr Benjamin Franklin to France |
| 1777 | All the Brave Fellows | Biddlecomb must rescue the new frigate Falmouth |
| 1777 | The Falmouth Frigate | Biddlecomb is trapped in a desolate harbor |
| The French Prize | Isaac's son finds himself taking command of the merchant vessel Abigail bound for Barbados | |
| Series: The Brethren of the Coast trilogy (Thomas Marlowe) | ||
| Year | Book | Comment |
| 1701 | The Guardship | Marlowe an ex-pirate is given command of the Virginia colony's guardship |
| 1702 | The Blackbirder | Marlowe must go after an old friend who slaughtered a slave ship's crew. |
| 1706 | The Pirate Round | Marlowe heads for the Indian Ocean |
| Series: Samuel Bowater | ||
| Year | Book | Comment |
| 1861 | Glory in the Name | Lt. Samuel Bowater USN, a native of Charleston SC, accepts a commission in the nascent Confederate Navy, |
| 1862 | Thieves of Mercy | Having survived the bloody Battle of New Orleans Bowater has orders to take command of an ironclad warship being built in Memphis |
AOS Pirate Fiction |
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| Series: Blood, Steel, and Empire | ||
| Year | Book | Comment |
| The Buccaneer Coast | When a deadly hurricane sweeps through the Caribbean, it up-ends the buccaneers’ rough existence | |
| The Tortuga Plantation | A powerful fleet sent from Seville comes to route the buccaneers | |
| Series: n/a | ||
| Year | Book | Comment |
| The Only Life That Mattered | The Short and Merry Lives of Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and Calico Jack Rackam | |
Non-Fiction
AOS Naval Non-Fiction |
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| Series: n/a | ||
| Year | Book | Comment |
| Benedict Arnold's Navy | The Ragtag Fleet that Lost the Battle of Lake Champlain But Won the American Revolution | |
| George Washington's Secret Navy | How the American Revolution Went to Sea | |
| George Washington's Great Gamble | And the Sea Battle That Won the American Revolution | |
| Reign of Iron | The Story of the First Battling Ironclads, the Monitor and the Merrimack | |
The author’s official web site is jameslnelson.com