Two Years Before the Mast, A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea

[Dana, William Henry]

Edité par Harper and Bros., 82 Cliff-Street, New York, 1840

A propos de cet article

Hard cover, 24mo, in original boards of coarse black cloth, (rebacked), 483, [3]pp.**CONDITION: Very Good. Rebacked, with a slight lean. Gilt titles remain bright, minimal rubbing at head and foot of the spine. Shelf wear to (original) boards, with some rubbing at corners. A few scuffs to rear board. Inside, old tide marks affect title page and are seen intermittently throughout text. These marks are faint and do not obscure the print. [As relayed in Dana's narrative, reading aloud to the crew during sparse moments of rest was heard of, as was the wave-tossed battering of the seamen's chests and other belongings in the hold during a storm; hence, some old water damage seems in keeping with the life such early nineteenth century titles might have led.] Binding is secure. **In this classic maritime memoir of William Henry Dana Jr. (first published anonymously,) a young man of Boston recuperates from measles-induced eye problems by taking a medical leave from studies at Harvard. He details working a rigorous two-year stint as a common merchant mariner from 1834 to 1836, with the narrative voice of an educated man, in what seems like, in today's parlance would be billed as an optimal character building college work - study program. Dana sails aboard the Bryant & Sturgis Co.'s Brig "Pilgrim" (and, later, on the Brig "Alert" ) from Boston, down the eastern seaboard, past Buenos Aries, endures the rough crossing around Cape Horn, and proceeds northward toward the Juan Fernadez Islands. Further northward he comes across the "remote and almost unknown coast" of Alta California, where, near mission settlements at San Diego, San Francisco, and Monterey, and Santa Barbara, he was employed in "hide droughing," the curing and preparation of cow hides and beef tallow, then shipped for return sale on the east coast. The book serves as a vivid introduction to work life on an early nineteenth sailing vessel; its rules, personnel, equipage and traditions. It is also an exposé of the hardships, abuses and occupational hazards of such work. Dana initially characterizes the politics and society of "Alta California," only newly separated from Spain and still under control of the Mexican missions. This first edition stops at the Author's return to Boston; later editions include the author's observations upon a return to California twenty four years later, during which time vast social, economic and political changes had taken place, culminating in the wealth and population growth of the California Gold rush years. AUTHOR RICHARD HENRY DANA, Jr. (1815-1882), Harvard student-turned mariner, lawyer and U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, was responsible for the prosecution of Jefferson Davis after the Civil War. He wrote one additional book from these experiences, "The Seaman's Friend," outlining the rights and duties of mariners, in 1841. He also gave free legal advice to Blacks captured under the Fugitive Slave Act, an impulse for social justice which hindered his later career. This work is said to have inspired Herman Melville and been a source for "Moby-Dick" of 1851. BAL 4434; without dotted "i' in the copyright line and with binding variant "A," "which has no known sequence, if any." p. 400 BAL. Shaw & Shoemaker 40-1837, p. 142. Sabin 18448. (AMJ).

N° de réf. du vendeur 9713

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Two Years Before the Mast, A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea
• Éditeur: Harper and Bros., 82 Cliff-Street, New York
• Date de parution: 1840
• Reliure: Hard Cover
• Édition: First American Edition, second state.
• État de l'article: Very Good
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • EXPLORATION AND TRAVEL
  • Nautical
  • AMERICANA