SARGENT, (Francis) William (Jr.) 1946-

PERSONAL: Born June 1, 1946, in Boston, MA; son of Francis William (a governor) and Jessie Fay Sargent; married Claudia F. Praeger (an architect), December 26, 1975; children: Benjamin. Education: Harvard University, B.A., 1969; Tufts University, M.A., 1971. Politics: Independent. Religion: Unitarian-Universalist.

ADDRESSES: Home—15 Holly Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138. Office—Francis W. Sargent Productions, 70 Coolidge Hill Rd., Watertown, MA 02172. Agent— Steve Axelrod, Curtis Brown Ltd., 575 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10022.

CAREER: Baltimore Aquarium, Baltimore, MD, director, 1974-75; Francis W. Sargent Productions, Watertown, MA, president, 1977-81; writer, 1981—. Marine ecologist and biologist; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, research assistant; Sierra Club, caucus representative at Land of the Seas Conference, 1974; International Oceanographic Foundation, member. Taught at Harvard University and Briarwood Center for Marine Biology; lecturer; consultant to television series Nova, WGBH-TV, Boston, MA, 1979; science reporter for television program "Omni."

MEMBER: American Association for the Advancement of Science, Littoral Society.

AWARDS, HONORS: Winship Award, best book about New England, Boston Globe, for Shallow Waters: A Year on Cape Cod's Pleasant Bay.

WRITINGS:

Shallow Waters: A Year on Cape Cod's Pleasant Bay, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1981.

The Year of the Crab: Marine Animals in Modern Medicine, illustrated by Robert J. Golder, W. W. Norton (New York, NY), 1987.

Night Reef: Dusk to Dawn on a Coral Reef (juvenile), Franklin Watts (New York, NY), 1991.

Storm Surge: A Coastal Village Battles the Rising Atlantic, Parnassus Imprints (Hyannis, MA), 1995.

A Year in the Notch: Exploring the Natural History of the White Mountains, University Press of New England (Hanover, NH), 2001.

Crab Wars: A Tale of Horseshoe Crabs, Bioterrorism, and Human Health, University Press of New England (Hanover, NH), 2002.

Storm Surge: A Coastal Village Battles the Rising Atlantic, University Press of New England (Hanover, NH), 2004.

The House on Ipswich Marsh: Exploring the Natural History of New England, University Press of New England (Hanover, NH), 2005.

Contributor of articles to periodicals, including Smithsonian and Boston Globe.

ADAPTATIONS: Sargent's book Shallow Waters: A Year on Cape Cod's Pleasant Bay was the basis for "The Sea behind the Dunes," an episode of the television series Nova.

SIDELIGHTS: While serving as a consultant for the television series Nova, William Sargent spent one year studying wildlife in Pleasant Bay, the largest estuary of Cape Cod. After his work for the program was complete, the scientist recorded his observations in Shallow Waters: A Year on Cape Cod's Pleasant Bay.

In this book, Sargent follows sea creatures, land animals, and shore birds through the four seasons, beginning with spring and ending with winter. He adheres to a scientific approach to prove that all of life participates in the continuing process of evolution. According to Steve Cady of the New York Times Book Review, Shallow Waters "is straight-ahead evolutionary biology, with Darwin as the guide."

The book has been praised for its fine descriptions and explanations. "This book is such a fine mix of reflection, anecdote and quote, so nicely paced and salted, one wishes foolishly to begin again—with a new spring, another glimpse of seal and tern, a whole new series of excursions in fog and flat calm and starry night," wrote Peggy Thompson in the Washington Post. Thompson also noted Sargent's tenacity as a photographer: he "thinks nothing of lying about for months in six inches of creek water to catch with his handheld camera just the animal behavior he wants."

Sargent once told CA: "I worked for a year as a research assistant on an oceanographic cruise to Africa, South America, and the Baltic. That and an abiding interest in biology led me to science writing."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Booklist, February 1, 1992, review of Night Reef: Dusk to Dawn on a Coral Reef, p. 1025; December 1, 2002, Donna Seaman, review of Crab Wars: A Tale of Horseshoe Crabs, Bioterrorism, and Human Health, pp. 638-639.

Children's Bookwatch, May, 1992, review of Night Reef, p. 6.

Choice, October, 1987, review of The Year of the Crab: Modern Animals in Modern Medicine, p. 338.

Horn Book, February, 1982, review of Shallow Waters: A Year on Cape Cod's Pleasant Bay, p. 86.

JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, January 8, 1988, A. A. Moscona, review of The Year of the Crab, p. 290.

Library Journal, June 1, 1987, review of The Year of the Crab, p. 122; March 1, 1988, review of The Year of the Crab, p. 31; May 1, 1995, review of Storm Surge: A Coastal Village Battles the Rising Atlantic, p. 126.

Library Talk, May, 1992, review of Night Reef, p. 33.

New Age, March, 1982, review of Shallow Waters, p. 77.

New York Times Book Review, August 2, 1981, Steve Cady, review of Shallow Waters.

Publishers Weekly, April 3, 1987, review of The Year of the Crab, p. 59.

School Library Journal, February, 1992, review of Night Reef, p. 94.

Science Books and Films, January, 1988, review of The Year of the Crab, p. 151; October, 1992, review of Night Reef, p. 203.

SciTech Book News, October, 1987, review of The Year of the Crab, p. 18.

Underwater Naturalist, February, 1996, review of Storm Surge, p. 47.

Washington Post, September 24, 1981, Peggy Thompson, review of Shallow Waters.

Washington Post Book World, July 12, 1987, review of The Year of the Crab, p. 6.*