01945 Fall 2018 V2

PIRATES, continued from page 8
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“My kids (Harry and Lily) are proud
of me,” Dolin said, “but they wouldn’t
read any of my books. When I asked
them about the idea of writing about
pirates, their eyes just lit up.”
If you want to find out more about
Dolin, and his books, you can catch his
lectures later this month, when he visits
the Swampscott Public Library on Oct.
24 or the Marblehead Museum on Nov.
15. Both talks begin at 7 p.m.
Dolin’s books cover a wide variety of
topics, from whaling to duck stamps to
lighthouses. Aside from their eclectic
nature, they mark a clear path from his
beginnings writing about the National
Fish and Wildlife Services (as part of a
series explaining various positions in the
U.S. government) through cleaning up
the Boston Harbor, to national wildlife
refuges.
He came by his writing curiously.
He wanted to be a malacologist (a
seashell scientist), but realized he really
didn’t like being in a lab. And no matter
what he did, from his PhD dissertation,
through the various jobs he held in
an attempt to find out what he really
wanted to do, he always found he liked
the writing part best.
“I once wrote 150 pages on mollusks
on Long Island Sound,” he said. “I’ve
written articles for the Washington Post
on being a stay-at-home dad.”
Finally, he told his wife, Jennifer
Rooks (whose family owned and
operated Rooks department stores) that
he wanted to write for a living. “She has
always supported me,” he said. “And she
agreed that I should try.”
In the beginning, writing wasn’t selfsustaining,
and he had to take jobs to
supplement his income. They had lived
up and down the east coast, until finally
settling in Marblehead.
Dolin kept writing books, and while
he didn’t get rich — or even famous —
they made money, until one day his wife
told him they were doing well enough
for him to stop working his day job so he
could concentrate on writing.
"Black Flags, Blue Waters," which
came out in September, is set against
the backdrop of the Age of Exploration,
and reveals a part of American history
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