Award-winning author Jim Nelson. (Photo courtesy Jim Nelson)
The year is 1632. The scene is Pemaquid, the capital of the prosperous fur trade in Maine. Lurking off the peninsula with three ships is a brazen marauder who will soon become known as “the dread pirate.” Find out what happens next when Maine native and award-winning author Jim Nelson presents “The Pirate Dixie Bull” on Sunday, Aug. 20 at 7 p.m. at The Congregational Church in Bristol. His talk will be the final installment of the Old Bristol Historical Society’s summer speaker series.
Born and raised in Lewiston, Nelson graduated from UCLA’s film school. Despite living and working in southern California, there was a damp, drizzly November in his soul, inspiring him to follow Melville’s cure to see the watery part of the world. After six years on board traditional sailing ships, he launched a full-time writing career in 1994. Since then he has written more than 25 works of maritime fiction and history.
Nelson is the winner or the American Library Association/William Young Boyd Award and the Naval Order’s Samuel Eliot Morison Award. He has lectured all over the country and appeared on the Discovery Channel, History Channel, National Geographic and BookTV. He currently lives in Harpswell with his former shipmate, now wife, Lisa, and two of their four children.
The presentation is free to Old Bristol Historical Society members and $5 for nonmembers.
