KING, Dean

PERSONAL:

Born in Richmond, VA; married; wife's name Jessica; children: four daughters.

ADDRESSES:

Home—6419 Three Chopt Rd., Richmond, VA 23226. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Little, Brown and Company, 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

CAREER:

Author and journalist. Worked in publishing industry in London, England, and New York, NY.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with others) The Penny Pincher's Almanac Handbook for Modern Frugality, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1992.

A Sea of Words: A Lexicon and Companion for Patrick O'Brian's Seafaring Tales, introductory essays by John B. Hattendorf and J. Worth Estes, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 1995.

(With Jessica King) Paper Clips to Printers: The Cost-cutting Sourcebook for Your Home Office, foreword by Stephen M. Pollan, Penguin Books (New York, NY), 1996.

(With John B. Hattendorf) Harbors and High Seas: An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 1996.

(Editor, with John B. Hattendorf) Every Man Will Do His Duty: An Anthology of Firsthand Accounts from the Age of Nelson, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 1997.

(Editor, with Jessica King and Jonathan Pearlroth) Cancer Combat: Cancer Survivors Share Their Guerrilla Tactics to Help You Win the Fight of Your Life, foreword by Samuel Waxman, after-word by Walter Lawrence, Jr., Bantam Books (New York, NY), 1998.

Patrick O'Brian: A Life Revealed (biography), Henry Holt (New York, NY), 2000.

Skeletons on the Sahara: A True Story of Survival, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 2004.

Contributor to periodicals, including New York Times, Outside, Esquire, and Travel & Leisure. Editor of "Heart of Oak Sea Classics" series.

SIDELIGHTS:

Dean King has relied on his love of nautical history and literature—especially the historical, seafaring novels of the late Patrick O'Brian—to write several books with nautical themes, including an unauthorized biography of O'Brian. But before he tackled O'Brian's life, King focused on the author's novels, which tell tales of the British Royal Navy during Napoleonic times. In A Sea of Words: A Lexicon and Companion for Patrick O'Brian's Seafaring Tales, King provides a comprehensive lexicon of definitions of nautical terms, as well historical accounts of people and events that shaped the era. Writing in the Economist, a reviewer noted that King's book addresses "O'Brian's love of language and his love of knowledge, principally but not exclusively maritime, historical and scientific." The reviewer, however, felt that the book "is a better lexicon than companion" and noted that "it is devoted to an analysis of the crucial threads of language and learning, rather than to providing a commentary on the rich patterns that O'Brian weaves with them." Writing in the Chicago Tribune, Harry Wessel called the book "just about indispensable" for true fans of O'Brian.

In Harbors and High Seas: An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian, King and collaborator John B. Hattendorf provide readers of O'Brian's "Aubrey-Maturin" novels with a detailed atlas and maps that show the routes taken in the first seventeen books of O'Brian's "Aubrey-Maturin" nautical adventure series. The maps also include special graphics and drawings of ports and forts that play a role in the novels. A Booklist contributor called the work "a novelty spinoff" that is "by fans for fans." In his Chicago Tribune review, Wessel noted that the book, which also contains synopses of the novels' plots, "comes in handy if you're reading the series over a number of years and need a quick reminder of past plots."

Although keeping with his maritime interests, King shifted his focus away from O'Brian for Every Man Will Do His Duty: An Anthology of Firsthand Accounts from the Age of Nelson. This time King, collaborating as editor with Hattendorf, provides a collection of contemporary, first-person accounts concerning the golden age of fighting sail, which took place from 1793 to 1815. Among the events described are the First of June, Cape St. Vincent, and Trafalgar sea battles, as well as a dual between warships from the United States and Macedonia. Some of the accounts also discuss in detail the life of a sailor in the Royal Navy, such as work on a press gang. Included are several maps, as well as summaries for each of the reprinted accounts. Frank Snyder, writing in the Naval War College Review, commented that "the reader may come away from this book with a renewed respect for the skill of the novelist who creates for us the 'reality' of an earlier age." Library Journal contributor David Lee Poremba noted that the volume contains "just enough narrative to link the passages." In a critique in History: Review of New Books, John Beeler called the book "a highly readable and entertaining volume."

King left the nautical realm briefly to work as a coeditor with Jessica King and Jonathan Pearlroth on the book Cancer Combat: Cancer Survivors Share Their Guerrilla Tactics to Help You Win the Fight of Your Life. The editors, all of whom have battled cancer, provide a comprehensive survey of the options available for newly diagnosed cancer patients, discussing such issues as diagnosis, hospital care, therapies, telling others about one's disease, dealing with fear, and how to rebuild one's life after the cancer goes into remission. The book also includes anecdotes and tips from more than one hundred cancer survivors, and the information is arranged in a chronological order that mirrors the patient's progress from diagnosis to treatment to remission. A Publishers Weekly contributor noted that the book "eloquently illustrates the broad sweep of the disease and the even broader range of coping mechanisms." Janet M. Coggan, writing in Library Journal, commented that "the stories collected here will inspire those readers feeling isolated and wanting to know how others handled this situation."

In Patrick O'Brian: A Life Revealed, King turns from O'Brian's novels to the man himself. The biography tells the story of a relative recluse who, as noted by John Derbyshire in the National Post, "constructed an elaborate fiction about his early life and maintained it to the very end." As a result, King had to ferret out the truth, hindered by O'Brian's refusal to cooperate. Nevertheless, through research and interviews with relatives and editors, King provides a comprehensive look at a man who published his first novel at the age of fifteen, changed his name from Russ to O'Brian, and appeared to have formed only one close attachment in his entire life, which was with his second wife. King also discusses O'Brian's novels, including plot summaries, publishing histories, and reviews. Scott Veale of the New York Times Book Review thought that King does "his best to reveal his subject's creative process and identify his many inspirations" but ultimately felt that the author "fails to crack his subject's protective shell." Europe contributor Peter Gwin noted, "Undoubtedly, some O'Brian devotees will deride King's book as an opportunistic airing of the author's dirty laundry." But Gwin went on to add, "Nevertheless, one senses that King is trying to present an accurate and fair picture of the author." In his review in the National Post, Derbyshire commented that "King has produced an excellent biography of a solitary, elusive and rather prickly man."

Although a drastic departure in setting, King's next book, Skeletons on the Sahara: A True Story of Survival, still has a nautical theme in that it tells the true story of a group of sailors who became shipwrecked on the North African coast. Specifically, King tells the tale of the shipwrecked crew of the American merchant brig Commerce, which became grounded on the Moroccan coast in 1815. The ship's captain and crew were captured by Arab nomads and enslaved. Exposed to horrible conditions and badly mistreated, five of the twelve died in captivity before being ransomed. King bases much of his book, which includes a retracing of the sea and land routes followed by the men, on memoirs by the ship's captain, James Riley, and crew-member Archibald Robbins. Writing in America, Robert Walch called the book "a gut-wrenching adventure tale," and noted, "by combining firsthand accounts of the ordeal by Riley and Robbins with some of his own on-site research, King has created a moving and literary account of this ill-fated voyage." Los Angeles Times contributor Anthony Day commented, "Dean King retells this narrative with great skill … which will fascinate the modern reader." Writing in Kirkus Reviews, a contributor called King's book "a jaw-dropping story kept on edge, along with the reader: exquisite and excruciating screw-turning."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

America, June 21, 2004, Robert Walch, review of Skeletons on the Sahara: A True Story of Survival, p. 26.

Booklist, June 1, 1996, Gilbert Taylor, review of Harbors and High Seas: An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Aubrey-Maturin Novels of PatrickO'Brian, p. 1666; December 15, 1997, Whitney Scott, review of Cancer Combat: Cancer Survivors Share Their Guerrilla Tactics to Help You Win the Fight of Your Life, p. 674; January 1, 2000, Gilbert Taylor, review of Patrick O'Brian: A Life Revealed, p. 832.

Chicago Tribune, January 16, 1997, Harry Wessel, reviews of A Sea of Words: A Lexicon and Companion for Patrick O'Brian's Seafaring Tales and Harbors and High Seas: An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian, p. 3.

Economist, July 1, 1995, review of A Sea of Words, p. 80.

Entertainment Weekly, February 20, 2004, Daniel Fierman, review of Skeletons on the Sahara, p. 69.

Europe, March, 2000, Peter Gwin, review of Patrick O'Brian, p. 29.

History: Review of New Books, spring, 1998, John Beeler, review of Every Man Will Do His Duty: An Anthology of Firsthand Accounts from the Age of Nelson, p. 151.

Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 2003, review of Skeletons on the Sahara, p. 1300.

Library Journal, April 1, 1997, David Lee Poremba, review of Every Man Will Do His Duty, p. 105; January, 1998, Janet M. Coggan, review of Cancer Combat, p. 126; February 15, 2000, Robert Kelly, review of Patrick O'Brian, p. 162; February 15, 2004, Jim Thorsen, review of Skeletons on the Sahara, p. 140.

Los Angeles Times, April 27, 2000, John Balzar, review of Patrick O'Brian, p. 3; April 2, 2004 Anthony Day, review of Skeletons on the Sahara, section E, p. 18.

National Post, May 6, 2000, John Derbyshire, review of Patrick O'Brian, p. 25.

Naval War College Review, autumn, 1998, Frank Snyder, review of Every Man Will Do His Duty, p. 160.

New York Times Book Review, March 5, 2000, Scott Veale, review of Patrick O'Brian, p. 39.

People, March 29, 2004, Ron Givens, review of Skeletons on the Sahara, p. 55.

Publishers Weekly, November 17, 1997, review of Cancer Combat, p. 57; March 20, 2000, review of Patrick O'Brian, p. 79; November 17, 2003, review of Skeletons on the Sahara, p. 52.

Time, March 1, 2004, Lev Grossman, review of Skeletons on the Sahara, p. 73.

Times Literary Supplement, October 27, 2000, Derrek Hines, review of Patrick O'Brian.

Whole Earth Review, fall, 1995, review of A Sea of Words, p. 82.

ONLINE

Bluewater Books & Charts Web site,http://www.bluewaterweb.com/ (September 28, 2004), Vivien P. Godfrey, "A Meeting with Patrick O'Brian Biographer."

National Geographic Adventure Online,http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ (September 28, 2004), interview with King.*