author
N. (Nathaniel) Ames
1796–1835
Best known for salty, vivid sea writing, this early American author turned years before the mast into adventurous fiction and memoir. He is also often linked to Symzonia, a strange and influential voyage tale sometimes called one of the first American science-fiction novels.
1 Audiobook
An Old Sailor's Yarns
by N. (Nathaniel) Ames
About the author
Born in 1796, he was the son of Federalist statesman Fisher Ames. He studied briefly at Harvard, then left for a long seafaring career that reportedly lasted about twelve years, an experience that later shaped nearly all of his writing.
His books drew on maritime life in a direct, story-friendly way, blending fiction and nonfiction with the feel of lived experience. He is remembered especially for nautical works such as An Old Sailor's Yarns, and he has also been named as the possible author of Symzonia: A Voyage of Discovery, an unusual speculative voyage narrative with an important place in early American genre history.
He died in 1835. Though not a household name now, his work stands at an interesting crossroads of sea literature, travel narrative, and early imaginative fiction.