“I am a storyteller by nature,” says screenwriter-turned-novelist William Martin MA ’76, explaining how his thwarted Hollywood dreams led to a literary career as a New York Times best-selling author of eight historical thrillers.

A Boston native, Martin graduated from Harvard and came out West in 1972 to study filmmaking at USC. His first two screenplays, about the Gold Rush and the early 20th-century battle for Owens Valley water rights, both drew heavily on California history.

“Directors kept telling me, ‘These are too large for film. Why don’t you write a novel?’”

So Martin and his wife, Christine, returned to Massachusetts, and he crafted the first of his signature historical thrillers, Back Bay – set in Boston’s toniest neighborhood, dredged from mudflats in the 1860s and ’70s. With its blocks of brick townhouses crowned by Commonwealth Avenue, Back Bay is the opposite of L.A.’s freeway-fed sprawl. Readers eagerly followed hero Peter Fallon’s search for a missing Paul Revere tea set and put Back Bay on the New York Times best seller list for 14 weeks, a stunning achievement for a first-time author. Back Bay sold a million copies and is now in its 15th printing.

It was followed by Nerve Endings (1984), The Rising of the Moon, set partially in Ireland (1987), Cape Cod (1991), Annapolis (1996), Citizen Washington (1999), Harvard Yard (2003) and The Lost Constitution (2007). Martin’s credits also include an award-winning PBS documentary, George Washington: The Man Who Wouldn’t Be King. This year, his ninth novel, a story of love and finance set in Manhattan, will be published.

His film school education wasn’t all for naught. Critics have called Martin’s writing cinematic. “When I write a scene, I have to understand what the room or forest logging or 19th-century mill looks and sounds like,” he says. In conducting his research, Martin has sailed on a nuclear submarine and taken the helm of a vintage three-masted schooner. He has wandered the sand bars of Cape Cod, and taken off from the deck of an aircraft carrier.

Just as exciting to him are the quiet hours spent at the Massachusetts Historical Society, studying a 1787 draft of the U.S. Constitution annotated by Massachusetts delegate Elbridge Gerry. His last book, The Lost Constitution, like his three other New England-based novels, uses a lost artifact as its hook. This hybrid genre – historical fiction plus contemporary thriller – is not Martin’s alone, but he was one of the first authors to perfect it.

Growing up an only child, Martin often retreated to the attic to hang out with his books and imaginary playmates. For 30 years, he has worked in a third-floor studio in the 1927 suburban home where he and Christine raised three children. “I’m still hanging out in the attic,” he jokes.

Martin leaves his haven each year to teach at the Maui Writers Retreat and Conference. He is also a popular lecturer and contributor to New England and historical publications. He is a trustee of the USS Constitution Museum, which interprets the 200-year history of the oldest commissioned naval vessel in the world, and a director of the Association of the Boston Public Library.

And recently, he’s been reliving his film school experiences. Martin’s son Dan followed in his footsteps, graduating from Harvard with a degree in English and then earning an MFA from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 2007. “It was great because when I mentioned the 480 or 546 class, he knew what I was talking about,” says Dan. What do they talk about today? “We start with the Patriots, Red Sox and Celtics,” says the 26-year-old aspiring filmmaker. And, of course, their shared passion for storytelling. “My dad showed me how to work hard on your craft, dedicate eight hours a day to writing and be confident about success,” says Dan.

– Carolyn Ellis