W. H. "BILL" Bunting is the author of a number of critically acclaimed works of history including Portrait of a Port: Boston 1852-1914; Steamers, Schooners, Cutters, and Sloops: The Marine Photographs of N. L. Stebbins; A Day's Work: A Sampler of Historic Maine Photographs, 1860-1920 (in two volumes); The Camera's Coast: Historic Images of Sea and Shore in New England; Live Yankees; and Maine on Glass: The Early Twentieth Century in Glass Plate Photography. With Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr., he wrote An Eye for the Coast: The Monhegan and Maritime Photographs of Eric Hudson and Maine on Glass: The Early Twentieth Century in Glass Plate Photography.

Bill Bunting shipped as galley boy aboard the brigantine Yankee at age 13 and later completed a 25,000-mile world voyage as first mate of a 132-foot barkentine.