I love the digital age. I’m closing in on the last chapter of the book I’ve been writing for 18 months. When I finish, I will ship it to the editor and a few readers who will email back their notes. And that magic works the other way too. A couple of hours ago I had no clue that another hardworking author had completed an expansive new biography of John Barry. He’s the guy who, some say, deserves the title "Father of the American Navy" that is most often doled out to John Paul Jones. Jones is still well known while Barry has been sinking into obscurity. This is his first major biography in a generation. I have one old book about Barry written by a Catholic priest, but have never cracked the cover. Now I have a new, much more appealing-looking study by Tim McGrath – and it hasn’t even been published yet. (Continued below)

I got the email from Bruce H. Franklin yesterday at 4:26 pm. Franklin is an independent owner at Westholme Publishing in Philadelphia. Apparently searching on Google, he bumped into my interview with Newsweek editor Evan Thomas who wrote a book about John Paul Jones back in 2003. Thomas noted in our discussion that John Barry was right up there with John Paul Jones as a notable captain in the American Revolution. So Franklin sent me a head’s up about his company’s book to be released in May or June.

WALL STREET JOURNAL reviews this book

About that time in the late afternoon I temporarily run out of steam. I was taking a break from my own book deadline, and I can see from my Gmail log, that I wrote back about 20 minutes later to say – sure, send me a copy of the book when it comes out. Twelve minutes later the publisher forwarded a PDF file of the designed book.

MORE ON John Paul Jones

I’m really interested in this topic, but time is tight, so lately I’ve been doing most of my pleasure reading on the Kindle using the Text-to-Speech (TTS) function. I listen to the text being read to me while I am making lunch, doing chores, answering email, paying bills, etc. I have been reading Richard Henry Dana’s "Two Years Before the Mast" that I downloaded to the Kindle for $0.00. The guy was a damn good writer and having spent the last two years studying maritime history, I’m finally able to appreciate this American classic.

Kindle now accepts PDF files, or at least that’s what Amazon says. The last one I uploaded came out all crazy on the screen, but I took another shot. I emailed the PDF filed of the as-yet-unreleased John Barry biography to myself using the special Kindle code and crossed my fingers. Kindle now charges 15 cents per megabyte to wirelessly send "personal documents" to the e-reader. Uploading this 600-page book with pictures cost me 75 cents. Typiing "Convert" in the message line, according to the Kindle instructions, should enable the TTS function. Sixty seconds later, I booted up the Kindle and checked. There it was.

Years ago when Evan Thomas sent me an advance digital version of his book it arrived as a series of document files. That was cool, but this is cooler. The ability for publishers to send out pre-release review copies that can be read in the dark on a plane using headphones opens up a whole new planet of possibilities. Sure, there is the risk that evil reviewers might circulate the digital file. E-books tend to leak, but paper copies tend to pile up on the reviewer’s desk and many find their way to eBay long before the official release date. I saw my last book listed as "used" on Amazon weeks before my publisher told me it was out.

In less than an hour from the receipt of the original email from Westholme Publishing, I was listening to my Kindle robot read the author’s introduction of the John Barry book. It only takes a few paragraphs to to tell if a narrative history writer has the right stuff. The facts have to flow, and McGrath’s prose is smooth and intelligent. This is definitely a book I can read – or have read to me. Richard Henry Dana will just have to wait.

Interested readers can pre-order on Amazon.com or visit the publisher’s web site

John Barry: An American Hero in the Age of Sail
by Tim McGrath
Westholme, $35
(640p) ISBN 978-1-59416-104-9
For publisher’s web site CLICK HERE

© 2010 by J. Dennis Robinson. All rights reserved.