Capt. Edward “Ned” Latimer Beach, Jr. USN is known primarily for his best selling novel Run Silent, Run Deep, which was made into a film in 1958 with Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster and his record setting voyage as commanding officer of USS Triton (SSN(R) 586), that was the first submarine to circumnavigate of the globe while submerged. A highly decorated United States Navy submarine officer, during World War II, he participated in the Battle of Midway as well as twelve other combat patrols, earning ten decorations for gallantry, including the Navy Cross.
His career also offers insights into the inner workings of power, from inside the Pentagon in the years right after World War II, to inside of the Eisenhower White House, to the politics of the Republican Party in the United States Senate in the 1970s.

Ned Beach is a biography that weaves together the personal, professional and writing life of a man who for many was the public face of the submarine community in the years after the Second World War. From his youth in Palo Alto, California during the Great Depression to his service in the Pacific in the war against Japan to the epic submerged circumnavigation of the globe in early 1960 commanding one of the early nuclear powered submarines, Ned Beach’s career encompasses a revolutionary period in American naval history. Not only did he experience it, he wrote about it. This book tells the story of his remarkable life, career and writing.

About the Author
Edward F. Finch is the Director of the Stephenson County History Museum. He holds a PhD in History Education from Illinois State University and previously taught for 30 years at Freeport High School in Illinois. He resides in Freeport, IL with his wife Cathy.