James L. Nelson
On Monday, July 23 at 7:30 p.m., the Friends of Colonial Pemaquid group will continue its 2018 Monday-night lecture series with an evening program titled “Not Just a Man’s World: Women Pirates of the 18th Century,” presented by James L. Nelson.
It’s been 300 years since the end of the Golden Age of Piracy, and in that time more silly legends than facts have sprung up regarding that history. Writer and historian Nelson, author of the novel “The Only Life That Mattered,” will talk about a genuine story of two women pirates, Anne Bonny and Mary Read. The lecture is free to members and $5 for nonmembers.
Nelson was born and raised in 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, he 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 onboard traditional sailing ships before launching a writing career in 1994.
Nelson has since written more than 20 works of maritime fiction and history. He is the winner of the American Library Association/William Young Boyd Award and the Naval Order’s Samuel Eliot Morison Award. Nelson has lectured all over the U.S. and appeared on the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, and BookTV. He currently lives in Harpswell, with his former shipmate and now-wife, Lisa, and three of their four children.
Attendees are invited to take advantage of the lecture-night dinner special at The Contented Sole restaurant on lecture nights. There will be a 15 percent discount off the menu price for all food items consumed in the restaurant from 5:30-7:30 p.m. The discount is not extended to bar and drink items.
The lecture called “Defenses Along the Kennebec: Four Forts One Story” will be held on Monday, July 30.
For more information about the Friends of Colonial Pemaquid, a volunteer organization now in its 25th year, go to friendsofcolonialpemaquid.org. The group is on Facebook at facebook.com/pemaquidharbor/?modal=admin_todo_tour.
