Master Mariner Running Proud 1979 2nd Printing NF/NF

An unusually handsome Near Fine/Near Fine copy of the first American edition of Monsarrat's ambitious return to maritime fiction after The Cruel Sea. Originally published by Cassell in Britain in 1978, Running Proud follows the seemingly ageless Matthew Lawe through nearly two centuries of British maritime history - from the Spanish Armada in 1588 through Hudson, Pepys, Captain Cook, Wolfe at Quebec, Nelson and Trafalgar. The seven episodes are extensively complemented by Peter McClure's ship drawings and elaborate double-page historical maps, including the Armada, London and Portsmouth, Captain Cook's voyages, Quebec, and Europe and the Mediterranean. Contemporary reviewers recognized the unusual structure: a Washington Post review described Lawe as the linking figure for seven tales illustrating Britain's maritime heritage. The physical production is particularly attractive. Natural fiber-flecked cream boards and matching textured endpapers are paired with a blue cloth spine lettered in gilt; the dust jacket carries a similarly tactile cream finish with blue typography and compass-and-ship device. Jacket design is credited to Cheryl Asherman and typography to Honi Werner. Book and jacket are Near Fine, clean and well preserved, with tight binding and only slight evidence of handling/age. The front pastedown bears a small blind-embossed "George G. Dowd" ex-libris ownership mark near the lower edge; no other writing or markings. This is the First U.S. Edition, Second Printing. The title page gives William Morrow, New York, 1979; the copyright page records the original 1978 Cassell publication and carries the Morrow number line "2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10." Bibliographic records confirm that the 1979 Morrow edition is the first U.S. edition, comprising 524 pages. One other point is worth emphasizing: the jacket flap states that Running Proud constitutes the first independent half of the projected Master Mariner, with a second volume planned under the title The Master Mariner, Darken Ship. Monsarrat died in August 1979 before completing that project; Darken Ship: The Unfinished Novel appeared posthumously in 1980. Thus this volume represents the author's final and ultimately unfinished literary project. There is a wonderful bit of period context hidden on the dedication page: Monsarrat dedicates the novel, "By Gracious Permission, to His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales / Sometime Sailor, Future King." The Prince of Wales in 1978-79 was Charles - now King Charles III. What was a forward-looking phrase when this book appeared has therefore acquired an entirely different resonance since his accession in 2022. Combined with Peter McClure's unusually extensive cartographic and ship illustrations, it reinforces how deliberately Monsarrat presented The Master Mariner as a sweeping meditation on British naval history rather than simply another sea adventure. Nicholas Monsarrat (1910-1979) was an English novelist and experienced sailor whose maritime fiction drew directly upon his own naval service. During World War II he served aboard anti-submarine escort vessels in the Atlantic and rose to lieutenant commander in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve; those experiences supplied the foundation for his great bestseller The Cruel Sea (1951). The Master Mariner was an especially personal late-career undertaking. The jacket explains that Monsarrat had contemplated the project for roughly twenty-five years and traveled widely researching the places and historical episodes he intended to incorporate. He died only months after this American edition appeared, leaving the second half unfinished. In that sense, Running Proud is not merely another Monsarrat maritime novel - it represents the completed portion of the large-scale sea epic with which he ended his career.…