Meet the Authors: Anastas, Gibson and Philbrick

Peter Anastas, Gregory Gibson, and Rodman Philbrick will discuss a literary sense of place in their writings on Thursday, August 7, at 7:00 p.m. in the Rockport Public Library.

Anastas’s works include ‘Glooskap’s children: encounters with the Penobscot Indians of Maine’; ‘Landscape with boy’, a novella; ‘At the Cut,’ a memoir of Gloucester in the 1940s; ‘Broken trip’, a novel of Gloucester in the 1990s; and ‘No fortunes’, a novel set at Bowdoin College in the 1950s. He recently completed a sequel to his memoir ‘At the Cut’ to be called “From Gloucester out.” His blog, ‘A walker in the city’, may be found at www.peteranastas.blogspot.com. Fiction and nonfiction articles by Anastas have appeared in many literary publications.

Gregory Gibson’an antiquarian book dealer specializing in maritime books, documents, manuscripts and charts’says of his latest book, ‘Hubert’s Freaks’, that it ‘provided a wonderful opportunity to write about some of the characters that inhabit the old book world, as well as the ins and outs of the business.’ Gibson began writing after his oldest son was killed in a 1992 rampage shooting. In ‘Gone boy: a walkabout’ Gibson told of his son’s death and his journey to learn how and why the tragedy occurred. The success of that book led him to continue writing. When he acquired the journal of naval midshipman Augustus Strong, Gibson learned of a Nantucket whaler whose crew mutinied and murdered their officers. In ‘Demon of the Waters: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Whaleship Globe,’ Gibson related the events leading up to the arrival of Strong. He had come to rescue the survivors, but found only two of the nine men left after the Globe sailed had not been killed by the natives.

Rodman Philbrick has published mystery and suspense novels for adults as well as novels for young adult readers. ‘Freak the Mighty’ was made into the feature film ‘The Mighty’. His most recent novel, ‘The young man and the sea,’ draws upon his experiences as a boat builder, and his vivid memories of growing up in a small town on the coast of New England. Working from a theme made famous by Ernest Hemingway, the story follows the boy-against-the-sea adventure of twelve-year-old Skiff Beaman, who risks his life to save his family by venturing far offshore in a small boat in search of the fabled giant bluefin tuna. Philbrick says, “I believe that we have the ability to change our lives using our imaginations. Imagination is a muscle’the more you use it, the stronger it gets.”

This program is part of the Summer Literary Series jointly sponsored by the Friends of the Library, Toad Hall Bookstore, and the Rockport Public Library. The next event in this series will take place on Thursday, Aug. 14, at 7:30 p.m., when award-winning author Julia Glass will discuss her forthcoming book, ‘I see you everywhere’. All events are free and open to the public. The library is handicapped accessible.