William C. Hammond

William C. Hammond (born November 5, 1947, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American novelist of historical fiction best known for his Cutler Family Chronicles series.

Biography

Early life

Hammond grew up in Manchester, a seaside town on Boston’s North Shore, where he learned to sail and haul lobster traps in the waters off Cape Ann. A graduate of the Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts, Hammond went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Masters of Business Administration in Entrepreneurial Studies at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. He also spent a summer in his late teens at Hurricane Island Outward Bound School off the coast of Maine.

Career

His 30-year career in publishing has included seven years of work as a sales representative and as trade sales manager for Little, Brown & Company, the U.S. publisher of C. S. Forester, whose Hornblower series ignited a passion in the author for nautical and naval historical fiction. He also served for four years as publisher of Hazelden Publishing and Education, where he developed the thoughts that became "12 Step Wisdom at Work" (Kogan Page, London, 2000).

Hammond, a sailor, lifelong student of history, and reader of historical fiction, wrote A Matter of Honor, For Love of Country, and subsequent titles in the Cutler Family Chronicles series, published by the United States Naval Institute. The six novels (five published, one forthcoming) follow the Cutler family of Hingham, Massachusetts and Fareham, England, against the backdrop of the creation of the U.S. Navy and the emergence of the United States as a commercial and naval power. He has also published articles in various sailing and business magazines and book reviews in numerous daily newspapers.

Hammond has also served as president of his own management consulting firm, as a principal of a boutique investment bank in Concord, Massachusetts, as a principal of Book Architects in, St. Paul, Minnesota, and as a principal of 2 Bills Literary Agency in Minneapolis, Minnesota.