GIBSON, Gregory 1945-

PERSONAL: Born 1945, in MA; married; wife's name Annie; children: Galen (deceased), Brooks, Celia.

ADDRESSES: Home—Gloucester, MA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Warner Books, Inc., 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

CAREER: Antiquarian book dealer, 1976—. Worked as a dock repairer. Military service: U.S. Navy, shipfitter.

WRITINGS:

Gone Boy: A Walkabout, Kodansha International (New York, NY), 1999.

Demon of the Waters: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Whaleship Globe, illustrated by Erik Ronnberg and Gary Tonkin, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Gregory Gibson has been an antiquarian book dealer since 1976. On December 14, 1992, Gibson's oldest son Galen was shot by another student, Wayne Lo, as Lo went on a random shooting rampage throughout the campus of Simon's Rock College in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Gibson was angered to learn that a package of ammunition had gone through to the killer unchecked by the college's security and warnings of the shootings had gone unheard. In Gone Boy: A Walkabout, Gibson tells the story of his son's death and his journey to find out how and why this tragedy occurred. Gibson talked to everyone involved, including Simon's Rock administrators and students, the psychiatrists who evaluated Lo, Lo's parents, and the man who sold Lo the gun. "Gibson takes the reader down a harrowing path no parent should have to travel. He moves with grace and dignity, never exploiting the narrative's events in a sensational light," claimed Barry Johnson in an Austin Chronicle review. Booklist contributor James Klise called the book a "tender, compelling, and well-written memoir."

In 1984 Gibson acquired the 1820s journal of naval midshipman Augustus Strong. Strong, Gibson soon learned, was part of a team that rescued the remaining sailors from the ship the Globe, a Nantucket whaler. Gibson tells the tragic story of the Globe in Demon of the Waters: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Whaleship Globe. On December 15, 1822, the Globe set out in search of whales with Captain Thomas Worth in charge. On board as a crew member was Samuel Comstock. As the whaling season went on, men grew disgruntled because of the poor conditions and food. Comstock devised a plan in which he would kill the captain and take charge of the men and form his own kingdom on an island. On January 26, 1824, Comstock, with the help of a few other men, killed the captain and other officers on the ship. They landed on what is now known as Mili Atoll, and while there Comstock's conspirators felt he was trying to cheat them and they killed him. Six of the crewman were able to escape and sail away on the Globe. When Augustus Strong and his crew got to Mili Atoll to rescue the survivors, they found that only two out of the nine left on the island had not been killed by the island's natives.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Booklist, October 15, 1999, James Klise, review of Gone Boy: A Walkabout, p. 399; May 15, 2002, Gavin Quinn, review of Demon of the Waters: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Whaleship Globe, p. 1570.

Entertainment Weekly, October 29, 1999, Megan Harlan, review of Gone Boy, p. 106.

Library Journal, October 15, 1999, Robert C. Jones, review of Gone Boy, p. 85.

New Yorker, June 10, 2002, Leo Carey, "All Washed Up."

Publishers Weekly, September 20, 1999, review of Gone Boy, p. 62; November 1, 1999, review of Gone Boy, p. 49; April 1, 2002, review of Demon of the Waters, p. 66.

Time, October 4, 1999, Jack E. White, "Elegy for a Gone Boy: A Father Searches for Meaning in His Son's Murder," p. 90.

online

Austin Chronicle Online,http://www.austinchronicle.com/ (August 31, 2002), Barry Johnson, review of Gone Boy.

Curledup.com,http://www.curledup.com/ (August 31, 2002), review of Demons of the Waters.

Gone Boy Web site,http://www.goneboy.com (August 31, 2002).

New York Times on the Web,http://www.nytimes.com/ (August 27, 2002), Sara Wheeler, "Helter-Skelter on the High Seas"; Jason Zengerie, "Something Happened."

Seattle Times Online,http://www.seattletimes.com/ (August 31, 2002), Eric Sorensen, "Two Books Retell Old Seafaring Story."

South Coast Today,http://www.s-t.com/ (August 31, 2002), Joanna McQuillan Weeks, "Notorious Whaleship Mutiny Is Topic of Two Talks."

TW Bookmark,http://www.twbookmark.com/ (August 31, 2002).*