Dip into American Sea Writing and you will find pieces—some beautiful, some amusing, some haunting—that capture America's fascination with the sea, by such literary luminaries as Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Jack London, Marianne Moore, Hart Crane, Ernest Hemingway, James Thurber, Rachel Carson, and E. B. White. Unforgettable firsthand accounts describe the dangers and wonders of the ocean and the drama of life aboard ship: William Bradford on the Mayflower, Olaudah Equiano on a slave ship, Captain Cook's death on a Hawaiian beach, the shipwreck of the Essex, the Globe mutiny, and John McPhee on the shipping industry today.
You'll also discover neglected works of remarkable power: Celia Thaxter on the desolate beauty of the New England seacoast; Lafcadio Hearn's lush Gulf Coast seascapes; Joseph Mitchell's startling essay on what lies beneath New York harbor. You won't find many of these works in print anywhere else.
Beautifully produced, this long-lasting volume features a translucent dust jacket, a stunning four-color binding (with sea-green Brillianta spine cloth imported from Holland), and a page layout patterned after a traditional captain's log. 675 pages.
''The main reason to read this book is the sheer fun of it.''
William F. Buckley, Jr., New York Times Book Review
''Captures as no other volume the wonder, the terror, the gritty rough-and-tumble of America's four-century-old encounter with the sea.''
Walter Cronkite
