The Call of the Sea: The Lost Sea, The Distant Shore, and A Sailor's Life

Atheneum, 1966. hardcover. Very Good. 8x5x1. 1966 first edition thus Atheneum (New York), rebound in 5 7/8 x 8 5/8 inches tall full burgundy leather bound, embossed gilt ruling and design to front cover, six raised bands and gilt design and lettering to spine, x, 465 pp. Slight soiling and rubbing to covers. Japanese tissue reinforcement to gutter of title page. Otherwise, apart from a couple of pages with slight creasing or marginal soiling, a very good copy, giving a gorgeous shelf appearance in a magnificent custom leather binding. ~SP30~ [2.0P] Writing from long experience as a merchant sailor himself, Jan de Hartog (1914-2002) combines a delightfully dry sense of humor with a deep knowledge and respect for the sea and for those who earn their living there. De Hartog was a Dutch playwright, novelist and occasional social critic who moved to the United States in the early 1960s and became a Quaker. When he was 10 year old, de Hartog ran away to become a cabin boy on board a Dutch fishing boat. Despite his father having returned de Hartog home, when he was 12 years old, de Hartog ran away to a steamer in the Baltic. While employed as skipper of a tour boat on the Amsterdam Canals, he wrote mysteries featuring Inspector Gregor Boyarski of the Amsterdam Harbor Police. He used the pseudonym 'F. R. Eckmar.' In May 1940, 10 days before Nazi Germany invaded and occupied the Netherlands, de Hartog published his book Hollands Glorie (Holland's Glory, translated into English as Captain Jan). The novel described the life of sailors on ocean-going tugboats rescuing ocean liners. The book became a bestseller in the Netherlands. De Hartog joined the Dutch resistance, and was pursued by the Nazis, forcing him to go into hiding in Amsterdam in 1943. He escaped to England, and his book became the best selling novel of the war years in the Netherlands. De Hartog then began writing his books in English, beginning with The Lost Sea (1951), which was a fictional account of his experiences working aboard ship.