Sebastian Junger, grew up
in suburban Massachusetts, not far from the town of Gloucester,
the fishing port depicted in The Perfect 
Storm
that was home to the Andrea Gail and its crew. He graduated from
Wesleyan University with a degree in cultural anthropology in
1984 and has been a freelance journalist whose work has appeared
in such magazines as Outside, Men's Journal, American Heritage,
and The New York Times Magazine. Drawn to stories of adventure,
Junger has delivered radio reports from the war in Bosnia, covered
smoke jumpers in Idaho's wilderness wildfires, and written about
the smallest border town in Texas. In addition he has for many
years worked as a high climber and trimmer for tree removal companies.
He currently lives in New York City and Cape Cod. The Perfect
Storm is his first book.
Inspired by the fishermen he met, Sebastian Junger
established The Perfect Storm Foundation to provide the children
of fishermen with the 
kinds of opportunities
he experienced growing up, that made it possible for him to write
The Perfect Storm. The Foundation will provide cultural and educational
grants to children, nationally, whose parents make their living
in the commercial fishing industry. The
Perfect Storm Foundation Sebastian Junger's new book is Fire (W.W. Norton, October 2001)
Page One
"Why do you think The Perfect Storm captured the imaginations
of millions across the country?
Sebastian Junger
"I think my book captured peoples' imaginations because
I didn't resort to fiction to tell a story that, ultimately,
could never be fully known. Instead, I resorted to a kind of
journalism-by-analogy to tell what probably happened on the Andrea
Gail. And I treated the loss of the boat as a kind of detective
story where I tried to figure out exactly why she sank. Only,
in this case the killers weren't people but the forces of history
and nature: The fishing tradition in Gloucester, how storms form,
how waves work, etc. Had someone survived off the Andrea Gail
it would, in some ways, been a much less interesting book, because
I wouldn't have been forced to go into all those tangents to
tell the story. The readers - not to mention the author - wouldn't
have learned as much."
Page One
"How does it feel to be a NYT bestselling author for 2 years.
and running with your first book?"
Sebastian Junger
"When I wrote the book I had no idea it would even get any
attention, much less be on the bestseller's list for two years.
I wanted to call attention to how difficult and dangerous offshore
fishing can be, but I figured that only offshore fishermen, and
maybe their friends and families, would actually read it. The
fact that the book is so popular is tremendously gratifying,
and makes feel that my instincts were right when I got to know
the fishermen of 
Gloucester.
We live in a time when athletes in so-called "extreme sports'
get heaped with a huge amount of glory, while people who are
doing jobs that are actually much more dangerous - not to mention
necessary - get virtually ignored. I love the idea that I was
able to change that a little bit."
Page One
"How did you come to write The Perfect Storm?"
Sebastian Junger
"I was living in Gloucester in 1991. I was working as a
climber for a tree company, taking trees down. This massive storm
hit the coast and really destroyed a lot of the Massachusetts
coast. What I saw in Gloucester was overwhelming... the violence
of the storm was just overwhelming. I later found out that a
Gloucester swordfishing boat had gone down. The Andrea Gail had
gone down five hundred miles off shore. They were coming back
from a one month trip to the Grand Banks. I was thinking about writing
a book on dangerous jobs. I had hurt myself pretty badly doing
tree work and it got me thinking that people don't pay much attention
to jobs that are really dangerous... it would be interesting
to write a book about that. So, originally I was going to write
a chapter on the Andrea Gail. She went down in an area of one
hundred foot seas. It was one of the biggest storms ever recorded
off the east coast. Eventually that chapter turned into a whole
book."
Page One
"You dedicated your book to your father who first introduced
you to the sea?"
Sebastian Junger
"My father first brought the family to Cape Cod, and kept
bringing us there over and over again when I was very young.
So, early on, I just grew to absolutely love the sea. I learned
to surf when I was a kid... he would take me sailing. He also
taught, in a more general way... he's a scientist, he's a physicist...
and he would talk to me about science and how the natural world
works, and he would talk to me about histories. He grew up in
Europe, so, he's a very learned man. I feel like, not only did
I get a love of the sea from him... he introduced me to the sea...
but also, he has a way of asking questions about the world, and
explaining about how the world works. That deeply influenced
how I tackled the story of the Andrea Gail."
Page One
"There is a tremendous amount of technical information in
this book. Surprisingly though, you somehow managed to keep things
moving along. Given all the research involved, how long did it
take you to write this book?"
Sebastian Junger
"The book took me probably three years of work, sort of
interspersed throughout about five years, I think. I did a huge
amount of research... not only research in Gloucester, talking
to the families and the friends of these fishermen who died,
trying to figure out what they were like, who they were, how
they spent their time... but also, as you said, the technical
aspects... how waves work, how storms work, what happens when
you drown, why ships roll over, the history of Gloucester. What
I tried to do was interweave
the story, such as it could be known, with these technical sections.
And I thought if I did it skillfully enough, that people... in
a way... wouldn't notice that they were reading something...
not out of a textbook, but... something of that kind of density.
I was hoping they wouldn't notice.... that they would read a
few pages on meteorology and then move back into the story and
think, "Oh, my God, that was painless... I just learned
about how storms work and I didn't even notice." That was
my hope. I just was skeptical that it would work... but, apparently
it did."
Page One
"What are you working on now?"
Sebastian Junger
"I'm trying to go back to the life I was leading before
the book, which was writing freelance for magazines... doing
assignments overseas. Last March, I was in Kosovo in Serbia right
at the beginning of the civil war. I'm going to Afghanistan.
Those are the kinds of assignments I really love to do. The book
has been wonderful and incredibly gratifying, but a real long
haul. I really want to go back to the more short, exciting kind
of assignments that I grew up doing."
Page One
"Why do you write and who have been your influences?"
Sebastian Junger
"I just loved it from the first moment. I loved it. It just
took a long time to make a living out of it because I was freelancing.
On the writers who have influenced me? To some extent, every
American writer is influenced by Ernest Hemingway.The American
journalists that I really admire are Joan Didion, who's a fabulous
writer, and Norman MacLean. He wrote a book called
Young Men & Fire which is tremendously good.There's also
a wonderful South African writer named Rian Malan who wrote a
book called My Traitor's Heart. He's one of the best writers
I know. I don't read as much as I used to. It's troubling me.''
