Tales of a lobsterman catch Hollywood's eye

Author dies after book gains fans

Mark Williams, on Eden Road in Rockport in 2007, died last month after a heart attack. (kathleen valentine)

Gloucester lobsterman Mark S. Williams cheated death, and turned the experience into the work of his life.

Williams named his book after the boat that almost killed him, "F/V Black Sheep." When a trawl line dragged him overboard, his life passed before his eyes.

Constructed as a series of flashbacks, the book recounts the chilling scene of his near-drowning and the memories it triggered.

Writing it all down and then self-publishing, he took to selling copies of the book right out of the cab of his pickup truck.

Pay me the twenty bucks if you like it, he told the curious. Almost everyone did.

Vivid tales of his Gloucester upbringing and his years on the water resonated far beyond Cape Ann. Books were selling briskly not only out of the author's truck and in the local shops, but on Amazon.com, too.

Things were going so well, in fact, that a Hollywood writer was working up a screenplay for a proposed film or miniseries based on the 56-year-old first-time author's work.

A couple of weeks ago Williams stopped by to see John Hilton, owner of Broken In Books in Rowley, to discuss their plans to repackage the book. Williams joked that it would be just his luck if now that he'd achieved a measure of literary recognition, he dropped dead of a heart attack. He drove home to his room at his mother's bed-and-breakfast on Good Harbor Beach, and did just that.

True to form, the rugged "black sheep" of his family hadn't told his brothers and sisters about the extent of his heart condition. They knew about the fishing injuries, said Williams's older brother Ted, who lives with his wife on Rocky Neck. They didn't know about the hypertension or the high cholesterol.

"He was taking 80 milligrams of Lipitor," said the older brother a few days after the funeral. "I said, 'My God, that's a lot. I take 10.' No one knew it was as serious as it was."

But Williams's near-death experience, and the brio with which he relates that and other events of his life, earned him high praise and farflung fans.

Gloucester native Jason Cahill, a screenwriter ("ER," "The Sopranos"), contacted Williams about adapting the book as soon as he read it. With 16 years between them, the two had never met, though they both grew up on Good Harbor.

"Honestly," said Cahill, "if you read the book, you know Mark."

Cahill said his mother sent him "F/V Black Sheep." "She's very fond, like most moms, of sending newspaper clippings," he said. "She also sends books by local authors, and I absolutely fell in love with Mark's."

Though Cahill cautions that any potential adaptation is "still in the very early stages," Hilton and Williams's family say that HBO and Tom Hanks's production company, Playtone, are both aware of the project.

Those who knew him say Williams was a tough guy with a sensitive side, a man who had high regard for men of valor and not much for people who took the easier path.

"Mark was a terrific writer, a tremendous personality, and an enigmatic character," said his editor, Kathleen Valentine.

The author's younger brother, Jeff Williams, is a lawyer and former pro football lineman who flew in from his home in Seattle to attend the funeral.

While his brother's late-blooming foray into writing took the family by surprise, he said, his attention to detail was typical.

"Mark was always kind of romantic, into philosophy. He liked to overanalyze things," said Jeff.

Williams "always had a sage piece of advice, some sort of brotherly comment for me," said Hamilton native J.P. Williamson, one of the author's best friends.

When Williamson went to work on a supply boat in the Gulf of Mexico, Williams, a graduate of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, taught him how to be "sort of a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court."

Williams, Williamson, and another friend, Coast Guard veteran Mike Moriarty, loved to play croquet on the lawn at the Eastern Point Yacht Club in Gloucester, where the writer's friends worked. They played through the winter, snowblowing the course.

Over beers, they routinely discussed books and politics. They did not spend much time discussing Williams's heart trouble, though his friends knew about it.

"Just admitting it was huge for him," recalled Williamson. "He was not a big fan of the doctor. I think that was the only thing he was scared of."

From his enclosed porch, Ted Williams sometimes spots the Black Sheep and its new owner heading out to sea.

Gazing at the harbor, he noted that he'd just gone through his brother's safety deposit box. Usually people stash their gold and heirlooms.

That's where Williams kept his manuscripts.

Mark Williams, said his older brother, was almost finished with a second book, about his time spent working on the oil derricks off Scotland's North Atlantic coast.

"He was always looking for a little adventure," said Ted Williams.

"More than anything, he respected people who performed great deeds - bravery on the battlefield, or in sports."