MIRIAM COFFIN or THE WHALE-FISHERMAN
By Joseph C. Hart with introduction by Nathaniel Philbrick
1995 cloth

A best-seller when first published in 1834 and a source for Melville's Moby-Dick, Joseph C. Hart's novel Miriam Coffin, or The Whale-Fishermen, is a Nantucket classic. Based on the life of the Tory "she-merchant" Kezia Coffin, this book presents a detailed picture of the island when it was the whaling capital of the world. (385 pp)