Author Nathaniel Philbrick to talk about his Gold Rush book at New Bedford's Steeple Playhouse Nov. 18

NEW BEDFORD Nathaniel Philbrick, the author of "In the Heart of the Sea" and "Mayflower," will speak at the Steeple Playhouse in downtown New Bedford on Wednesday, Nov. 18, about his newest book, a history of the California Gold Rush, according to Spinner Publications, the New Bedford publisher hosting the evening.

Set for 6 to 8:30 p.m. at 159 William St., the evening is part of a series of author talks Spinner is holding to mark its 45th anniversary. Spinner's event page says Philbrick will introduce "The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Modern World," and that the night opens with beverages and hors d'oeuvres at a meet-and-greet and ends with a question-and-answer session with the audience. Copies of the book will be for sale and signing, the page says.

Tickets are $40 and can be bought online through Spinner's event page or by calling the Spinner office at 508-994-4564. The radio station WBSM reported the visit on Oct. 20, after Philbrick spoke with the station about the book.

The book

His website gives Oct. 6 as the publication date for "The Rush." The book page's summary begins in January 1848, when a carpenter spotted flecks of gold in a shallow stream at Sutter's Mill in California, and moves through the mining camps of the Sierra Nevada and the wharves and vigilance committees of San Francisco. In an interview posted on the same site, Philbrick said the book ends with the building of the transcontinental railroad. Spinner's page describes it as the story of how the Gold Rush "lit the long fuse to civil war and forged the modern United States."

Its cast includes the merchant Samuel Brannan, the free-soil political boss David Broderick and William Gwin, whom the summary calls a Southern power broker intent on tilting the state toward slavery and the Confederacy. The summary also says California's loyalty to the Union was not secured until a year after the Civil War began, when President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation to build a transcontinental railroad.

Part of the story starts on Nantucket, which Philbrick notes was once the whaling capital of the world. In the interview, he said he has been fascinated by the Gold Rush since he moved to the island 40 years ago, because islanders who heard about the discovery packed themselves into whaleships and sailed around Cape Horn for California. "In nine months, Nantucket lost a quarter of its voting population to the goldfields," he said. One of the book's figures is Mary Ellen Pleasant, whom the interview describes as an African American woman from Nantucket who became one of San Francisco's first Black millionaires. Philbrick said his research over the last five years took him along the length of the Oregon-California Trail and to the American River, where he panned for gold.

The author

Philbrick is the author of eight New York Times bestselling works of American history, his website says. "In the Heart of the Sea" won the 2000 National Book Award and was the basis of the 2015 movie of the same title directed by Ron Howard, and "Mayflower" was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in History. He also wrote a trilogy about the American Revolution that includes "Valiant Ambition," winner of the George Washington Book Prize. He lives on Nantucket, where he cofounded the Egan Maritime Institute.

His events page lists other Massachusetts stops this fall, including the Cape Cod Book Festival at the Cotuit Center for the Arts on Saturday, Oct. 24, the Concord Museum on Thursday, Oct. 29, and the Needham Public Library on Tuesday, Nov. 17, the night before the New Bedford talk.

The host and the hall

Spinner Publications describes itself as a community-based, nonprofit publishing house in New Bedford whose mission is to record and promote the history and culture of the cities and towns of southeastern New England, mainly through books. Spinner says it was founded in 1981, when Donna Huse, a professor at UMass Dartmouth, teamed up with Joseph Thomas, a freelance photographer. Since then it has published more than 40 major book titles and built an archive of more than a million photographs.

Spinner's event pages show that earlier talks in the anniversary series featured John Bullard and his memoir "Hometown" on Jan. 15 and Ben Shattuck and his book "The History of Sound: Stories" on Aug. 5, both at the James Arnold Mansion on County Street. Spinner says the series supports its work documenting local history and its archival photograph collection.

Steeple Playhouse occupies the former First Baptist Church, which Spinner's page describes as an 1829 Greek Revival building. The playhouse's website says the church is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a National Treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Your Theatre Inc., the community theater that owns the building, began working with the Waterfront Historic Area League in 2015 to save it, and the playhouse opened in November 2023 after a decade of fundraising and renovation.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.