Nathaniel Philbrick is an American author of history, born on June 11, 1956. He is a winner of the National Book Award and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Philbrick's maritime history, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, is based on the event that inspired Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. The book won the 2000 National Book Award for Nonfiction and was adapted into a film in 2015.