Open Book: Historical Perspective For A Legendary U.S. MomentOpen Book: Historical Perspective For A Legendary U.S. Moment

The Boston Sunday Globe called this week's book "an unputdownable narrative scraping away the tarnish of time and myth to reveal the essential metal of" the subject, whose name is part of the title. While the subject, and, more precisely, his famous action, has been the subject of poetry, fiction, essays, criticism, humor, and popular biography, never has there been a straightforward, full-scale history, the author says, until this work was published eight years ago. Indeed, the subject has taken on a mythological status--among some, that is. To others, it has become a subject to debunk.

An excerpt: "At noon, people on the waterfront heard the high-pitched squeal of boatswains' pipes aboard British warships in the harbor, and the screech of heavy tackle. The townsfolk could see crewmen bustling about the ships' longboats that were moored beneath the towering sterns of HMS Somerset and HMS Boyne.

"In the early afternoon, several British seamen were sent ashore on various errands. In the immemorial way of sailors everywhere, some of them stopped for a quick pint at a waterfront tavern. Others may have found a moment to run upstairs with enterprising Yankee whores, who were renowned across the Seven Seas for the energy and speed of their transactions (the impact of the Puritan Ethic on the oldest profession was not precisely as the Founders had intended)."

And this, later in the book: The subject "looked up from his little rowboat at the great warship. She was a ship of the line, rated for 64 guns. He could expect the men of her watch to be alert, and armed sentries to be posted fore and aft. Probably he heard across the water the ship's bell chime twice in quick succession, then twice more, and once again as the midshipman of the watch marked the time at five bells in the evening watch, or 10:30 to a landsman."

The subject "sat quietly in the boat while his friends bent over their muffled oars. All his senses were alive, sharpened by the danger that surrounded him. Artist that he was, in that moment of mortal peril he noticed with special intensity the haunting beauty of the scene. Many years later the memory was still fresh in his mind. 'It was then young flood, the ship was winding, and the moon was rising.' he wrote in the haunting cadence of the old New England dialect. The great warship must have seemed a thing alive as she moved restlessly about her mooring, swinging slowly to the west on the incoming tide. In the fresh east wind, she pulled hard against her great hemp anchor cable that creaked and groaned like an animal in the night.

"The moon was coming up behind Boston, a huge orb of light in the clear night sky. To [the subject] it must have seemed impossible to pass the ship without detection. Then, miraculously, it was the moon that saved him. The moon was nearly full, a large pale yellow globe that was just beginning to rise in the southern sky. ... A lunar anomaly caused [the moon] to remain well to the south ... partly hidden behind the buildings of Boston ... and [his] boat was miraculously shrouded in a dark moonshadow."

For a chance to win an information prize, E-mail [email protected] by noon Thursday with the book title, author, and the subject's profession. Two respondents will be chosen randomly from correct answers.

Feb. 25 quiz: (Open Book: Cooking With Gas) Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. Third question: Tools typically found in restaurant kitchens include one single chef's knife (not a huge collection), a plastic squeeze bottle, a pastry bag, a mandolin, and a metal ring. Common foods: shallots, butter (lots of butter), roasted garlic, chiffonaded parsley, and demi-glace. Winners: Joseph Goss and Joanne Hoersch.