Ledger story was genesis for Weymouth author's book

Patriot Ledger
June 3, 2006
By Shelley Sommer

Author and Weymouth resident Stephen Puleo first learned the story of the USS Eagle 56 from this newspaper.

In June of 2002 Puleo read a Patriot Ledger article about a ceremony commemorating the sinking of an American warship, the Eagle 56, by a German submarine. The incident had taken place in April 1945, only weeks before the end of World War II in Europe.

As the article detailed, the death of 49 crew members and the loss of the ship were initially attributed to an explosion of a ship’s boiler. However, 57 years later, the surviving crew members received Purple Hearts, after it was proven that the ship was sunk ‘‘due to enemy action.’’

The ceremony commemorating the contributions of the Eagle’s crew came at a good time for Puleo. His first book, ‘‘Dark Tide,’’ had recently been submitted to his publisher and he was ready for a new story to tell. The result, published in 2005, was the story of the USS Eagle 56, ‘‘Due To Enemy Action.’’

Puleo has also just completed his third book - a narrative history of Italians in Boston from the great immigration period in the late 1800s to the present day. The book, due out next year, will include interviews with notable Italian Americans, including Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.

In some ways, Puleo’s new book will bring the author’s own story as a writer full circle. As a graduate student in history, Puleo’s master’s thesis focused on the experience of Italian Americans in Boston’s North End. It was during that research that he stumbled on several accounts of the Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 - an event he knew about ‘‘largely through light-hearted references,’’ he said.

The accounts of the disaster and the people’s lives it affected captured Puleo’s interest. He learned all he could about the 2.3 million gallons of molasses that poured through streets of Boston in January 1919 - and the long court battle that followed. As Puleo writes in the introduction to ‘‘Dark Tide,’’ ‘‘the substance itself gives the entire event an unusual, whimsical quality,’’ but lives and homes were lost.

Since its publication in 2003, ‘‘Dark Tide’’ has become a book club favorite. Puleo said that he had just completed his 100th appearance, most in connection with ‘‘Dark Tide,’’ and many of those were meetings with book clubs. His web site, stephenpuleo.com, includes information about his books and appearances. When not writing or working in his job as a corporate public relations executive, Puleo enjoys reading history.

And, here are some of Puleo’s suggestions for book clubs:

—‘‘Flags of Our Fathers,’’ by James Bradley - Tells the story of the six men who raised the American flag at the Battle of Iwo Jima during WWII.

—‘‘The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey,’’ by Candice Millard - An account of a dangerous trip down the Amazon River taken by President Theodore Roosevelt after he lost his bid for re-election in a 1912.

—‘‘The Children’s Blizzard,’’ by David Laskin - This book has been among those on my nightstand since I heard the author being interviewed on WBUR-FM in March, and when Puleo listed it as one of his favorites, I started it right away. Now, of course, I can’t put it down. The event, known as the Children’s Blizzard, took place in 1888 on the northern plains. The violent blizzard killed hundreds of people, many of them children on their way home from school.