Nathaniel Philbrick is an American author and a winner of the National Book Award for his work of maritime history, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. He has written extensively about sailing. His works include The Passionate Sailor and Second Wind: A Sailfish Sailor's Odyssey. Philbrick is also the editor of Yaahting, A Parody. He is the director of the Egan Institute of Maritime Studies and is a research fellow at the Nantucket Historical Association. Philbrick is a former intercollegiate All American sailor and North American Sunfish champion. He has also written articles on sailing and American maritime history for Vanity Fair, The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe. In 2002, Philbrick was named the Nathaniel Bowditch Maritime Scholar of the Year by the American Merchant Marine Museum. He is presently at work on a book about the Battle of Little Big Horn.