Lincoln Paine is an author whose writings explore the many facets of maritime history. His books include the award-winning The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World (Knopf, 2013), Down East: An Illustrated History of Maritime Maine (Tilbury House, 2018), and Ships of the World: An Historical Encyclopedia (Houghton Mifflin, 1997). In addition, he has written more than a hundred articles, book reviews, and public and academic lectures.
The Sea and Civilization won the Maine Literary Award for Nonfiction and a Mountbatten Maritime Award from the Maritime Foundation (UK), and made “best of” lists in Choice, Booklist, and The Telegraph (UK). The New York Public Library and Library Journal recognized Ships of the World as an outstanding reference source.
Paine’s articles and reviews have been published in a wide variety of journals and magazines including The Daily Beast, Foreign Affairs (online), France Forum, Global Geneva, International Journal of Maritime History, Nautical Research Journal, Naval History, The Northern Mariner/Le Marin du Nord, Professional Mariner, and Sea History.
From 2009 to 2012, Paine was the guest curator and archivist of the Norman H. Morse Collection of Ocean Liner Materials at the Osher Map Library, University of Southern Maine in Portland, Maine. He is chair of the board of the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, Maine, which marineinsight.com named one of the ten best maritime museums in the world.
He has lectured on topics across the broad spectrum of maritime enterprise, including literature of the sea, exploration, museum curatorship, decorative arts, maritime law, trade, and naval history. A frequent guest in academic settings, he has spoken at NOVA University of Lisbon; Ocean University of China, Qingdao; Leiden University, the Netherlands; Tulane Law School; Tufts University; College of the Atlantic; the Naval War College; and the U.S. Naval Academy, among others.
He has participated in public affairs forums including the Commonwealth Club of California; Engelsberg Seminar, Avesta, Sweden; Times of India LitFest, Mumbai; and Arctic Futures Institute. He has also addressed trade associations such as the Women in International Shipping and Transportation Association (WISTA) and the Propeller Club. He is a frequent presenter at meetings of the North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH), the International Maritime History Association, and the World History Association and its affiliate the New England Regional WHA.
His radio appearances include PRI’s The World (Boston), BBC Radio 3 (UK), The John Batchelor Show (New York City), and Crosscurrents with Hana Baba, KALW Public Radio (San Francisco).
A graduate of Columbia College, he has helped organize four tall ship events, including Operation Sail’76 (for the U.S. Bicentennial) and OpSail ’86/Salute to Liberty. Before turning to writing fulltime, he spent fourteen years as a non-fiction and reference book editor in New York. He is on the editorial board of The Northern Mariner/Le Marin du Nord, and has also served as an editor of Sea History magazine and Itinerario: Journal of Imperial and Global Interactions.