Bibliograph

Sea fever, the true adventures that inspired our greatest maritime authors, from Conrad to Masefield, Melville and Hemingway, Sam Jefferson

Type

Label

Sea fever, the true adventures that inspired our greatest maritime authors, from Conrad to Masefield, Melville and Hemingway, Sam Jefferson

Language

eng

Illustrations

illustrationsportraitsplates

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Sea fever

Responsibility statement

Sam Jefferson

Sub title

the true adventures that inspired our greatest maritime authors, from Conrad to Masefield, Melville and Hemingway

Summary

How did a big-game fishing trip rudely interrupted by sharks inspire one of the key scenes in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea? How did Robert Louis Stevenson's cruise to the cannibal-infested South Sea islands prove instrumental in his writing of The Beach of Falesa and The Ebb Tide? How did Masefield survive Cape Horn and a near-nervous breakdown to write Sea Fever? The waters of this world have swirled through storytelling ever since the Celts spun the tale of Beowulf and Homer narrated The Odyssey. This enthralling book takes us on a tour of the most dangerous, exciting and often eccentric escapades of literature's sailing stars, and how these true stories inspired and informed their best-loved works. Arthur Ransome, Erskine Childers, Jack London and many others are featured as we find out how extraordinary fact fed into unforgettable fiction

Table Of Contents

Erskine Childers: hidden depths -- Joseph Conrad: clipper ship captain turned literary titan -- Jame Fenimore Cooper: the first of the nautical novelists -- Ernest Hemingway: a strange fish -- Jack London: the call of the sea -- Captain Marryat: a forgotten hero of the Royal Navy -- John Masefield: the seasick sailor -- Herman Melville: literary leviathan -- Arthur Ransome: in search of utopia -- Tobias Smollett: grudging grandfather of the nautical novel -- Robert Louis Stevenson: home is the sailor-- the final voyage

Classification