In the Northeast, September is the peak of hurricane season, so it is fitting that the Sept. 24 Warner Free Lecture Trust program will feature an expert on hurricanes, which typically hit the United States twice a year. Once every two years, a major storm devastates some part of the country (witness Ida). The trust will hold the program on Zoom, starting at 7 p.m. To register, send an email to warnerfreelecture@gmail.com.
Eric Jay Dolin, who lives with his family in Marblehead, has written “A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America’s Hurricanes.” His book traces the increasing knowledge about the nature of a hurricane, starting with an observation by Benjamin Franklin; the advances and setbacks in meteorology and forecasting; the rogues’ gallery of hurricanes; the naming of storms; stories of personal tragedy, heroism, and resilience; and the impact of hurricanes on the course of American history.
A preview of the end?
It is a compelling read—full of fascinating historical information, much of it accompanied by photographs, tales of nail-biting moments, and insights into human nature. There are descriptions by scientists, poets, and celebrities including Katherine Hepburn, who described a hurricane at a summer home in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, saying, “I sometimes feel that we have had a preview of the end of the world.”
Dolin’s talk and slide show will touch on all aspects of his book and tell some of its stories. In an August phone conversation he joked that people are always coming up to him after his presentation and saying, “Great talk; now I don’t have to buy the book.” His wife has suggested he focus on just some parts of the book, and he himself said he envies the fiction writer who can read a few key passages for a presentation. But it is impossible for him to limit himself because he finds everything so interesting, and of course there is so much more in the book. On the other hand, there is inevitably the person who comes up to complain that Dolin didn’t talk about hurricane such-and-such that destroyed his grandpa’s barn and killed the rooster.
This reluctance to limit himself to a single focus is part of a pattern in Dolin’s life. He changed his mind about a profession and diverged from his degree from Brown with a major in marine biology to pursue advanced degrees in environmental policy from both Yale and MIT. He held a variety of impressive jobs, and while he had never wanted to be a writer, he found that the thing he liked best about each job was writing and telling stories. He did some professional writing in the 1990s and turned to full-time writing in 2007, writing books to share stories he found intriguing.
Dolin grew up exploring the beaches of Long Island Sound and the Atlantic coast in Connecticut and has always loved the ocean and anything to do with maritime activities.He has written 14 books about a range of topics, from pirates to lighthouses to whaling. A book takes him between 18 months to two years, and by the end he is ready to find pleasure in learning something new. He always chooses topics of which he has little prior knowledge so that he can stay interested. “I get bored easily,” he admitted. “Every two years I get a new master’s degree in something,” he joked.
He said “A Furious Sky” is one of the two books for which he himself did not choose the subject. The publisher of his past six books, Liveright Publishing, a division of W.W. Norton, approached him in 2017, the year of the triple hurricanes Irma, Harvey, and Maria. Interest in hurricanes was high, and it was a perfect topic for Dolin. The book made several notable lists of best books of 2020.
Once Dolin is immersed in a topic, he pursues it relentlessly; his research is exhaustive. He said when he started writing in the late 1990s he went to libraries, particularly Harvard’s Widener Library. Now, with so many libraries and organizations digitizing their resources, he can do his research mostly from home. The challenge is no longer how to find material but how to choose, organize, and weave together the vast amount of information readily available. Every book involves hundreds, if not thousands, of decisions, said Dolin. “I take in as much as I can, decide on a thread, and then choose examples.” Dolin said he also buys books for each publication he writes. He purchased 30 books for his writing of “A Furious Sky.” When he is finished writing a book, he gives his research materials to local libraries and to organizations like the Massachusetts Historical Society.
“A writer of history stands on the shoulders of others,” said Dolin of his research. “I decide who’s a reliable source,” and then he also pursues sources that the writer used. He said he read Erik Larson’s book “Isaac’s Storm” when writing his chapter on the Galveston hurricane of 1900, which killed 6,000 people and remains the deadliest hurricane in history. Dolin also used newspaper accounts from the time and the writings of Isaac Cline and his brother Joseph. Isaac, the chief weatherman for Texas, had stated convincingly that no storm could do significant damage to the city of Galveston. He was proven wrong, at great personal and public cost. A reporter at the scene described “a storm surge of biblical proportions. People were like rats in traps. To leave a house was to drown. To remain was to court death in the wreckage.”
Author Eric Jay Dolin. (Courtesy photo)
Isaac Cline is just one of many examples in the book of an individual asserting his opinion, through arrogance or prejudice, to the exclusion of others’ arguments. Some of these men failed to act in a way that could have prevented hurricane damage, while others slowed the progress of meteorology or weather forecasting. “Studying history makes you humble about the inability to predict the future,” said Dolin.
Stormy weather ahead
The book’s epilogue is called “Stormy Weather Ahead.” Dolin writes that it is certain the United States will continue to be pummeled by these “magnificent and dreadful” storms, and because of climate change, hurricanes of the future will most likely be worse than those of the past. Because of thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting glaciers, storm surges are higher and more destructive. Research predicts that future storms will bring more rain and more powerful winds, with both being longer in duration.
Dolin says, “By leaving behind the detritus of civilization—mangled buildings and torn landscapes—hurricanes redefine reality and fracture people’s lives.” He suggests that the questions now and for the future are how we learn to survive and adapt to the continual barrage from the greatest storms on Earth.
“A Furious Sky” by Eric Jay Dolin, 334 pages, is published by Liveright/Norton.
