Edward Preble: A Naval Biography, 1761-1807

Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1972. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. very good, good/Good. x, [6], 394, [6] pages. Frontis illustration. Footnotes. Illustrations. Bibliographic Notes. Index. Inscribed by the author. Christopher McKee (born on 14 June 1935) is an American naval historian and educator. McKee has worked at various institutions of higher learning. These include Washington and Lee University, Southern Illinois University, and Grinnell College. McKee held the Secretary of the Navy Research Chair in Naval History at the Naval Historical Center. McKee has been recognized nationally for his contributions to naval history. Awards include the U.S. Naval History prize of the John Lyman Book awards of the North American Society for Oceanic History, and the Samuel Eliot Morison Award of the USS Constitution Museum. He was awarded the 2016 Commodore Dudley W. Knox Naval History Lifetime Achievement Award. Edward Preble (15 August 1761 - 25 August 1807) was a United States naval officer who served with great distinction during the 1st Barbary War, leading American attacks on the city of Tripoli and forming the officer corps that would later lead the U.S. Navy in the War of 1812. In April 1798, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the United States Navy. In January 1799, he assumed command of the 14 gun brig USS Pickering and took her to the West Indies to protect American commerce during the Quasi-War with France. Commissioned as a captain in June of 1799, he took command of the 32 gun frigate USS Essex in December and sailed from Newport, Rhode Island in January 1800 for the Pacific to convoy home a group of East Indiamen. McKee's biography of Edward Preble remains the most authoritative source on this influential early shaper of the U.S. naval tradition.