Richard Adams Carey (born October 18, 1951) is an American writer best known for ''Against the Tide: The Fate of the New England Fisherman'' (), a nonfiction chronicle of the 1995-96 fishing season in the lives of four

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

commercial fishermen. The ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' called ''Against the Tide'' "deep ecological journalism at its best, an effective and compassionate chronicle of a threatened way of life, and a worthy successor to such classic portraits of American fishermen as

William W. Warner William W. Warner (April 2, 1920 – April 18, 2008)
in ''

Beautiful Swimmers ''Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay'' (1976) is a non-fiction book by William W. Warner about the Chesapeake Bay, blue crabs and watermen. The book takes its name from the generic Generic or generics may refer to: In ...

'' and Peter Matthiessen's ''Men's Lives''".

Biography

Carey grew up in West Hartford,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. He attended the Loomis School (now Loomis-Chaffee) and then

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. He worked various low-paying jobs before teaching for ten years in the Yup'ik Eskimo villages of southwest

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

, where he learned the Yup'ik language (Yugtun). He published magazine articles about his experiences in Alaska in ''Country Journal, Alaska'', the ''

Boston Globe Magazine ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'', ''

Harvard Magazine ''Harvard Magazine'' is an independently edited magazine and separately incorporated affiliate of Harvard University. Aside from ''The Harvard Crimson'', it is the only publication covering the entire university, and also regularly distributed ...

'', and the ''

Massachusetts Review ''The Massachusetts Review'' is a literary quarterly founded in 1959 by a group of professors from Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It receives financial support from Five Col ...

''. He also published general interest material in ''Yankee'' and ''

New England Monthly ''New England Monthly'' was a magazine published in Haydenville, Massachusetts, from 1984 to 1990. History and profile Founded in 1984 by Robert Nylen (publisher) and Daniel Okrent (editor), it won the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

''. Carey's first book, ''Raven's Children: An Alaskan Culture at Twilight'', was published in 1992 (). Honored as a 1992

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

"Book to Remember", this chronicled a summer spent living, hunting, and fishing in Kongiganak and

Bethel Bethel ( he, בֵּית אֵל, translit=Bēṯ 'Ēl, "House of El" or "House of God",Bleeker and Widegren, 1988, p. 257. also transliterated ''Beth El'', ''Beth-El'', ''Beit El''; el, Βαιθήλ; la, Bethel) was an ancient Israelite sanct ...

, Alaska, with a Yup'ik family. An excerpt is included in the anthology ''A Reader's Companion to Alaska'', edited by Alan Ryan (1997, ). ''Against the Tide'' appeared in 1999 and won the 2001 New Hampshire Literary Award for Nonfiction. ''The Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar, and the Geography of Desire'' was published in 2005 (). This describes the natural history of the

sturgeon Sturgeon is the common name for the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae. The earliest sturgeon fossils date to the Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretace ...

and provides a history and globetrotting portrait of the caviar industry: its fishermen, brokers, chefs, smugglers, watchdogs, and aquaculturists. The book was excerpted in ''Harvard Magazine''. Carey has also published short fiction, most recently in ''

Hunger Mountain ''Hunger Mountain'' is an American literary magazine founded in 2002 by Caroline Mercurio. A member of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, ''Hunger Mountain'' is based in Montpelier, Vermont at The Vermont College of Fine Arts, one of ...

'', the VCFA Journal of the Arts: "''Our Own Version of Iowa''" and "''Ruby Thursday''". His fourth book of nonfiction, ''In the Evil Day: Violence Comes to One Small Town'', describes a 1997 shooting rampage by

Carl Drega Carl Drega (January 19, 1935 – August 19, 1997) was a man from Bow, New Hampshire, who killed two state troopers, a judge and a newspaper editor and wounded four other law enforcement officers before being shot to death in a gunfight with police ...

in Colebrook, New Hampshire. The book was by published in September 2015 () on the ForeEdge imprint of the

University Press of New England The University Press of New England (UPNE), located in Lebanon, New Hampshire and founded in 1970, was a university press consortium including Brandeis University, Dartmouth College (its host member), Tufts University, the University of New Hampsh ...

. Carey currently lives in

Sandwich, New Hampshire Sandwich is a town in Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. Its population was 1,466 at the 2020 census. Sandwich includes the villages of Center Sandwich and North Sandwich. Part of the White Mountain National Forest is in the north, a ...

, and taught from 2006 to 2019 in

Southern New Hampshire University Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) is a private university between Manchester and Hooksett, New Hampshire. The university is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education, along with national accreditation for some hospitali ...

's MFA in Fiction and Nonfiction program. He is the father of 'Gaelic Americana' singer/songwriter

Kyle Carey Kyle Carey (born 1988) is a Celtic Americana musical artist who creates a synthesis of music called 'Gaelic Americana'. Biography Born in New Hampshire to schoolteacher parents, Kyle lived in Yup'ik native communities in the Alaskan bush unti ...

References

External links

Richard Adams Carey - official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carey, Richard Adams Living people 20th-century American non-fiction writers People from West Hartford, Connecticut Harvard University alumni Southern New Hampshire University faculty 20th-century American male writers 1951 births Loomis Chaffee School alumni American male non-fiction writers