New Book: George Washington’s Secret Navy

George Washington’s Secret Navy: How the American Revolution Went to Sea, by James L. Nelson has been selected as the 2009 recipient of the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for excellence in naval literature.  The book is published by McGraw-Hill Professional.
 
Presented annually by the Naval Order of the United States, the Morison Award is given to the author “who by his published writings has made a substantial contribution to the preservation of the history and traditions of the United States Navy.”
 
In making the announcement, William Schmidt, Commander of the New York Commandery of the Naval Order said, “This book illuminates a series of little known yet crucial events during the early stages of the American Revolution. It sheds new and badly needed light on the naval component of the War of Independence, a subject often neglected by historians.”
 
The book’s editor, Jon Eaton, said, “As James L. Nelson’s editor for George Washington’s Secret Navy, I’m delighted by the book’s selection for The Samuel Eliot Morison Award. I count myself one of the most enthusiastic among Jim’s legion of fans. He combines a first-class researcher’s instincts for archival sleuthing with the story-telling flair developed in his popular novels of the sailing navies and the first-hand knowledge of the sea absorbed from his work as a ship’s rigger and tall-ship sailor. He knows how to find a great story and how to tell it. I worked with Jim on his previous book, Benedict Arnold’s Navy (2006), as well, and will have the great pleasure of working with him again on his forthcoming book (due in 2010) about the land-and-sea battles at Yorktown that finally decided the American Revolution. He makes an editor’s job easy. I could not be more proud to publish his trilogy of Revolutionary naval histories.”
 
Author Nelson will be presented with the award at a black-tie ceremony in New York on November 2nd, 2009.

(www.jameslnelson.com)