Tougias, Michael J. 1955-

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Tougias, Michael J. 1955-

PERSONAL:

Surname pronounced "TOE-gis"; born April 27, 1955, in Springfield, MA; son of Arthur and Geraldine Tougias; married; wife's name Mary Ellen; children: Brian, Kristin. Education: St. Michael's College, B.A., 1977.

ADDRESSES:

Office—P.O. Box 72, Norfolk, MA 02056.

CAREER:

Writer. Lecturer and presenter.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Best Nature Book of 2003, Independent Publishers Association, for There's a Porcupine in My Outhouse: Misadventures of a Mountain Man Wannabe.

WRITINGS:

The Hidden Charles: A Guide to Exploring the River with History, Anecdotes, and Suggested Outings, Yankee Books (Camden, ME), 1991.

Country Roads of Massachusetts, illustrated by Victoria Sheridan, Country Roads Press (Castine, ME), 1992, third edition published as Country Roads of Massachusetts: Drives, Day Trips, and Weekend Excursions, 1999.

Nature Walks in Eastern Massachusetts, Appalachian Mountain Club Books (Boston, MA), 1993, second edition published as Nature Walks in Eastern Massachusetts: Nature-Rich Walks Within an Hour of Boston, Features the Bay Circuit Trail, 1998.

Quiet Places of Massachusetts: Country Rambles, Secluded Beaches, Backroad Excursions, Romantic Retreats, Hunter Publishing, Inc., 1996.

(With brother, Mark Tougias) Autumn Trails: An Explorer's Guide to New England's Best Fall Colors, Country Roads Press (Oaks, PA), 1996, published as Autumn Rambles of New England: An Explorer's Guide to the Best Fall Colors, Hunter Publishing (Walpole, MA), 1998.

(With René Laubach) Nature Walks in Central Massachusetts, Appalachian Mountain Club Books (Boston, MA), 1996, second edition published as Nature Walks in Central and Western Massachusetts, 2000.

Exploring the Hidden Charles: A Guide to Outdoor Activities on Boston's Celebrated River, Appalachian Club Books (Boston, MA), 1997.

More Nature Walks in Eastern Massachusetts, Appalachian Mountain Club Books (Boston, MA), 1998.

(With Eric B. Schultz) King Philip's War: The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict, Countryman Press (Woodstock, VT), 1999.

River Days: Exploring the Connecticut River and Its History from Source to Sea, Appalachian Mountain Club Books (Boston, MA), 2001.

Until I Have No Country: A Novel of the King Philip War in New England, Weekender Books (Willow Spring, NC), 2001.

Quabbin: A History and Explorers Guide, On Cape Publications (Yarmouth Port, MA), 2002.

There's a Porcupine in My Outhouse: Misadventures of a Mountain Man Wannabe (memoir), Capital Books (Sterling, VA), 2002.

The Blizzard of '78, On Cape Publications (Yarmouth Port, MA), 2003.

Ten Hours until Dawn: The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy aboard the Can Do, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2005.

AMC's Best Day Hikes Near Boston: Four-Season Guide to Fifty of the Best Trails in Eastern Massachusetts, Appalachian Mountain Club Books (Boston, MA), 2006.

Fatal Forecast: An Incredible True Tale of Disaster and Survival at Sea, Scribner (New York, NY), 2007.

(Editor) When Man Is the Prey: True Stories of Animals Attacking Humans, St. Martin's Griffin (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Michael J. Tougias is an author of both history and natural history books. He has written many guide books about Massachusetts, including two about the Charles River and another about the Quabbin Reservoir area. His books advise readers on the best housing, trails, leaf color, and other outdoor treasures of this area of New England. In several of his volumes, including Autumn Trails: An Explorer's Guide to New England's Best Fall Colors, which he wrote with his brother Mark Tougias, Tougias travels south to Connecticut as well, exploring areas that include Litchfield County.

Tougias collaborated with Eric B. Shultz to write King Philip's War: The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict. This work documents a two-year, seventeenth-century Indian war between New England settlers and native tribes. In 1622, Wampanoag chief Massasoit and the English agreed to a treaty that guaranteed the safety of the colonists, but English expansion so threatened the native people that war broke out in 1675. The following year, the impaled head of King Philip, Massasoit's son, was carried through Plymouth Colony by the now-unopposed English occupying forces. The book is divided into three sections, with the first and third providing a history of the war and accounts of the battles. The middle section offers details about each battle fought. American History contributor Floyd B. Largent, Jr., wrote that the volume "makes a fine addition to the canon of colonial American history."

The Blizzard of '78 recounts a major snowstorm with hurricane-force winds that blanketed New England in February 1978, and in Ten Hours until Dawn: The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy aboard the Can Do, Tougias documents a failed rescue attempt that was initiated during that storm. When the oil tanker Global Hope ran aground off Salem, Massachusetts, the U.S. Coast Guard attempted a rescue but ended up putting themselves in danger. Frank Quirk, the captain of a pilot boat, went to the aid of both, but his boat, the Can Do, went down, and all hands were lost at sea. Roland Green wrote in a Booklist review that Tougias "has made the book accessible even to relative newcomers to maritime literature."

In his memoir There's a Porcupine in My Outhouse: Misadventures of a Mountain Man Wannabe, Tougias relates his personal story, beginning in 1978, when as a twenty-two-year-old he bought a cabin and six acres of land in rural Vermont. He writes of his life there as he ages, until his own children are able to enjoy the beauty of the getaway with him. The porcupines of the title dug a shelter under his outhouse, and their activity was disconcerting to anyone who used the facility.

Tougias returns to the sea with Fatal Forecast: An Incredible True Tale of Disaster and Survival at Sea. The story tells of the deadly voyage of a fleet of lobster boats on November 21, 1980, off the coast of Cape Cod on the notoriously dangerous Georges Bank. Despite the initially clear weather, the crew found themselves in the midst of a winter storm with one-hundred-mile-per-hour winds and sixty-foot waves, thanks to a malfunctioning weather buoy and the miscalculations of the National Weather Service. Four men died on the Sea Fever, a fifty-foot boat tossed about in frigid water, captained by Peter Brown, whose father owned the ill-fated Andrea Gall known to readers of the bestselling book The Perfect Storm. The Sea Fever's crew was huddled in the pilot house when a wave ripped out the side of the pilot house and carried away a crew member who was never seen again. Another boat, the Fair Wind, was catapulted stern over bow, and all hands on deck were trapped underneath, except for Ernie Banks, who subsequently spent three days in a lifeboat and nearly succumbed to hypothermia.

The book focuses as much on the storm as it does on the men's heroic actions against it. "As related by Tougias, Banks's calm, reasoned actions in the face of astonishing adversity are practically a how-to lesson in high seas survival skills," wrote a reviewer for Publishers Weekly. "He uses precise, small details to portray the rugged lobstermen," wrote Diana Wagman in the Los Angeles Times, "and skips back and forth between the people on land trying to get news and the men in the boats, going into their heads exactly when we want to know what they're thinking."

Tougias edited the collection of thirty-eight essays titled When Man Is the Prey: True Stories of Animals Attacking Humans. Grizzly bears and wild bears figure prominently in the stories, due to their ability to remain calm in the face of a shotgun and their penchant for food and the pleasures of campsites in general. A 1916 New Jersey shark attack is the focus of an essay by Richard G. Fermicola, and Outdoor Life editor Peter Hathaway Capstick authors a piece on the 1967 deaths of teenage campers in Glacier National Park and another on an African crocodile attack. Less traditional tormentors are given their due, including a monkey, a pig, and a murderous deer, all of which combine to "demonstrate that it's a jungle out there," according to a Kirkus Reviews writer. Nancy Bent, writing in Booklist, praised the book's "breathless prose" and deemed it "an exciting collection."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Tougias, Michael J., There's a Porcupine in My Outhouse: Misadventures of a Mountain Man Wannabe, Capital Books (Sterling, VA), 2002.

PERIODICALS

American History, April, 2000, Floyd B. Largent, Jr., review of King Philip's War: The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict, p. 68.

Booklist, September 15, 1996, review of Quiet Places of Massachusetts: Country Rambles, Secluded Beaches, Backroad Excursions, Romantic Retreats, p. 210; October 1, 1999, Jay Freeman, review of King Philip's War, p. 342; July, 2005, Roland Green, review of Ten Hours until Dawn: The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy aboard the Can Do, p. 1882; October 15, 2006, David Pitt, review of Ten Hours until Dawn, p. 87; December 15, 2007, Nancy Bent, review of When Man Is the Prey: True Stories of Animals Attacking Humans, p. 11.

California Bookwatch, January, 2007, review of Ten Hours until Dawn.

Choice, March, 2000, H.M. Ward, review of King Philip's War, p. 1360.

Dallas Morning News, January 2, 2003, Dan R. Barber, review of There's a Porcupine in My Outhouse.

Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2005, review of Ten Hours until Dawn, p. 581; May 15, 2007, review of Fatal Forecast: An Incredible True Tale of Disaster and Survival at Sea; October 15, 2007, review of When Man Is the Prey.

Kliatt, November, 2006, John E. Boyd, review of Ten Hours until Dawn, p. 59; March, 2007, Raymond Puffer, review of Ten Hours until Dawn, p. 40.

Library Bookwatch, October, 2005, review of Ten Hours until Dawn.

Library Journal, August, 1988, Linda M. Kaufmann, review of Autumn Rambles of New England: An Explorer's Guide to the Best Fall Colors, p. 120; September 1, 1996, Janine A. Reid, review of Quiet Places of Massachusetts, p. 201; October 1, 1999, Charles K. Piehl, review of King Philip's War, p. 111.

Los Angeles Times, August 7, 2007, Diana Wagman, review of Fatal Forecast.

MBR Bookwatch, January, 2006, Diane C. Donovan, review of Ten Hours until Dawn.

National Fisherman, December, 2007, Jessica Hathaway, review of Fatal Forecast, p. 10.

Publishers Weekly, April 30, 2007, review of Fatal Forecast, p. 152.

Weatherwise, July-August, 2004, review of The Blizzard of '78, p. 58.