Product Description
Since its publication in 1963 Sterling Hayden's autobiography, Wanderer, has been surrounded by controversy. The author was at the peak of his earning power as a movie star when he suddenly quit. He walked out on Hollywood, walked out of a shattered marriage, defied the courts, and, broke and an outlaw, set sail with his four children in the schooner Wanderer-bound for the South Seas.

His attempt to escape launches this autobiography. It is the candid, sometimes painfully revealing confession of a man who scrutinized his every self-defeat and self-betrayal in the unblinking light of conscience. It is also the triumph of a complex and contradictory man, a rebel and a seeker, undefeated by his failure to find himself in love, adventure, drink, or escape to the South Seas. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (29)

Professional Irregular
Sterling Hayden always fascinated me because he seemed like a real person of substance, not merely a movie star. I remember passing him on Madison Avenue in the 1970s as he was coming out of Brooks Brothers, a tall man with a scraggly patriarch beard and the cane that became his trademark in his later years, and what remains in my memory is the impression of how different he was from everyone else on that street in New York on that day. His autobiography, Wanderer, has confirmed that my instincts were correct. "I'm a professional irregular," he once confessed. "The only way I can get by in life is not to be like anybody else." And he wasn't. His life was one adventure after another, beginning with his stark upbringing during the Depression, moving around with his con man stepfather and emotionally needy mother, running away to sea on the sailing ships of New England, suddenly being discovered by Hollywood, marrying a famous movie star, serving in the OSS in Yugoslavia, appearing before the McCarthy people, turning in some fabulous acting in top films (Dr. Strangelove, The Godfather, and The Long Goodbye are my favorites), and taking his four kids on a schooner to Tahiti in defiance of a court order. Two things impressed me about Wanderer. The first is his eloquent command of the English language and his gift for description, which are all the more astounding given his lack of formal education. The second is that unlike so many celebrity tell-all books that reveal who they screwed (literally and figuratively) and who screwed them, Hayden's revelations are about himself. He holds no punches in revealing his demons, which were legion. Wanderer reads like a novel, all the more captivating because it was all true.

Wonderful
Sterling Hayden was an absolutely amazing man. Primarily known as an actor for those of us old enough to remember, he was also an excellent writer. Just wrote two books, it seems. This autobiography that only goes till he was in his early 40s, and the novel Voyage, another great book. He was planning another autobiography that would have taken up where this one ended, but it never got done. Prostate cancer killed him at age 70. Hayden just plowed through life, but you get from this book that he was good-hearted. He was also very conflicted. Did quite a bit of therapy, though I don't think it did him much good. Smoked like the proverbial chimney and was, I believe, quite fond of the bottle. He stood 6 feet, 5 inches tall, a real mountain of a guy in more ways than one.

There are some videos on YouTube of his being interviewed on the Tom Snyder show back in the late 1970s. These are very interesting.

WANDERER by Sterling Hayden - Great Reading! Loved it!
I had no idea that the actor, Sterling Hayden, had even written a book let alone was a successful author.I heard about his book WANDERERon Turner Classic Movies, an autobiography written in the form of a novel. I thoroughly enjoyedit, and I hated for it to come to an end.He was a fascinating man who lead a very interesting life as a seaman and undercover soldier in World War II to the extent of even changing his name.His first wife, Madeleine Carrol, also was captivating as she was an actress in Hitchcock filmsas well as workingwith the French Underground taking her husband's alias.She had about forty (40) French girls in her care duringWorld War II.I highly recommend the very enjoyable WANDERER !

Sterling Hayden is a genius!
This man turned on, tuned in, and dropped out before it became fashionable, (and now unfashionable again.)The book is exciting, well-written, and filled with his perceptive and discorporate philosophy.Learn how to be happy and lead an adventurous life without money.

Inspires me to change my life
This book is an American classic.Much like the MOBY DICK of the twentieth century.A man steals his children to take them on a boat trip to Tahiti and maybe around the world.This book will change your life.The first chapter should be mandatory reading for all seniors in high school.Go for it.Live your life.Take a chance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Actor and Author
You've seen Sterling Hayden in movies, but did you know he is also a talented writer?Learn more about this gifted man through his writings.His books are a treasure to read.

A Big Book
I like epic novels.This one looked big enough to be written by Michener or Tolstoy.However, it lacked the character definition and storyline of a good novel and was not a satisfying read.

Voyage was disappointing in three regards.First, while many of the characters had the potential to be well-developed protagonists, the reader is left with only a superficial understanding of Pendleton, MacLeod, Harwar, and Blanchard.Their motivations remain only shallowly understood, even after nearly 700 pages.Second is the philosophy of the book -- the idealists dream of Marxist Utopia while the capitalists clutch their wealth and status... a simplistic theme, and yet with such poorly drawn characters, the reader is certainly _not_ swept up in the struggle.Third was the plot itself.The reader waiting for developments is finally rewarded on page 400 with a promising plot twist, bringing the action to a boil, but the excitement is left to fade back into a tepid simmer.While this was not the worst book I have read this year, I would not recommend it, even to someone who loved tales of the high seas.

Along with "The Sea Wolf", the greatest of sea stories.
Open the pages of this novel and you will be transported to the fo'castle of a clipper ship headed for the Horn in 1896.Your Captain is Iron Saul Pendelton, and there is no seaman like him.His first mate is Mr. Ruhl.They will take you through an adventure on the waves which you will never forget.

A real Sailor tells of Rounding the Horn.
I first read this book when it was published in 1977.I have read it at least three times since. It is always new and exciting. If you can find it, read it, you won't be sorry ... Read more

Product Description
This richly drawn, tumultous novel is both a rousing-often harrowing-tale of the sea and an incisive, epic portrayal of a watershed year in American history.

On New Year's Day, 1896, the enormous steel-hulled four-masted square rigger Neptune's Car slides down the ways of a Maine shipyard, the pride of Banning Butler Blanchard, shipbuilder extraordinaire. Undertaking a torturous maiden voyage around the Horn to San Francisco, her crew are driven to murder and near mutiny by the brutal reality of life below deck on a "hellship" during the age of sail. Meanwhile, Blanchard's daughter Mrs. Montague Cutting, her husband, and a party of gilded aristocrats enjoy an idyllic cruise through the South Pacific to Japan, aboard the luxurious private yacht Atalanta. As both Atalanta and Neptune's Car arrive in San Francisco on the eve of the Bryan-McKinley presidential election, the increasing chasm between haves and have-nots threatens to erupt into riot and insurrection.

Voyage is thus not only the gripping story of two disparate ships, their passages, and their passengers and crew, but also a lucid evocation of the first stirrings of the labor movement and the decline of the Gilded Age of robber barons, in an America on the cusp of a new century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Just one more comment
I picked this book up at my library's book sale a few years ago for $1.00 and got so engrossed in it that I'd stay awake reading until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning when I finally told myself "you've got to go to work tomorrow"!I'm from Massachusetts and sail in Maine where some of the early action takes place.In a way the book still haunts me as scenes keep comming back.I'm writing this only because I happened to be in Seattle this past weekend and saw a beautiful sailboat named "Neptune's Car" and just had to ask someone connected with it why it had that name.It was due to this book and I haven't been able to get it out of my mind since!I can't say more than has already been written but it is a great book with characters I'm not able to forget!

An epic; He should have written more.
While reading this huge book, it is easy to imagine Sterling doing the research.First, he would select the year for his opus.1896 would seem like a good choice, because it was at the end of the tall ships when steam was supplanting sail, and Hayden was a lover of the ships (see his only other book, his autobiography: Wanderer).After he selected the year, he would go to a really good library and start reading the daily newspapers for 1896, jotting down events, dates, names and places.Then having compiled all his data, he would begin to compose this bestselling novel.The main focus of the book is the maiden voyage of "Neptune's Car" from Maine around the Horn to San Francisco.He has peopled the crew with very interesting and compelling characters, from the hard-driving, yet fair-minded Captain Irons Saul Pendelton, to the brutish first mate Otto Lassiter, to shipmates Harwar the Wrecker, Carmack the Anarch, a cast-a-way plucked from a deserted isle, and the ship's lone passenger MacLeod.Hayden takes the time to develop each of these characters and many others, providing them with a past, and a present, and no hope for the future.As the trip progresses, we get to know each of them personally as we learn of the extraordinarily hard life of the seaman and the futile and dangerous attempts to unionize and improve their lot.Meanwhile, we also follow another excursion:The Neptune Car's owner, Banning Butler Blanchard, sends his daughter and her ne'er-do-well husband with other socialites of the era on a pleasure cruise to Japan to witness a total solar eclipse.The juxtaposition of these two journeys gives an indepth look at the strong class distinctions of the day: the poor working stiff and the idle rich.Meanwhile, Blanchard himself is involved in that year's heated Presidential conflict.He goes to the Democratic Presidential convention in Chicago where the battle rages over whether America should use the gold or silver standard. Again, Hayden makes sure we understand all of the factors that lead to rioting in the streets and over-the-top rallies. And there are interesting sub-plots galore, each character driven, each fitting into the tapestry of the novel like tightly-fitting puzzle pieces.Hayden's strong descriptive abilities make us feel part of every scene, whether it be in the forecastle, on a Hawaiian beach, or a crowded convention hall floor.This is a two-fisted, hard drinking, passion-filled novel and makes me wish that Hayden had written other books.Why only four stars?The book leads us to an anticipated violent climax that just fizzles away on the very last pages.But until then, I could not have asked for more.

Ships that pass in the night
I'm glad to see that other reviewers thought as much of this book as I do.As the title states, this book is a novel of 1896.The year 1896 is pivotal (as is every other year, every other day, every other moment)in this country's history.Hayden creates a tableau of this pivotal time which surrounds and captures and includes the reader.He highlights the vast differences between the rich and the poor.He paints the east coast and the west coast; the nascent labor movement and the robber barons; American pride and American comtempt for fellow Americans.This book is a wonderful historical novel and certainly ranks in stature with historical novels by Dos Passos and Vidal.

As the title also states, this book is about a voyage; rather, many voyages.The book focuses on the voyage of the 'Neptune's Car', a large barque on a voyage from New York to San Francisco via Cape Horn.The barque's voyage is contrasted with the comfortably posh voyage of the Cuttings of New York by private train car and crewed yacht to observe the eclipse of the sun in the northwestern Pacific.The characters are vivid and visceral.Like cross waves in a big swell the voyages of the individuals are traced and examined.Their actions are believable and their interactions sometimes explode like the storms around Cape Horn.

This book is nothing short of wonderful.It is a sea story, an American story, a compelling historical novel, and a timeless story of human voyages and ships that pass in the night.

A brutal look at life before the mast, & on the quarterdeck
This is one of the finest novels of the sea I've ever read. I wouldn't recommend it to the gentle-hearted, but if you can handle graphic descriptions of life in a foc'sle before the Seaman's Act, I highly recommend it. If you've read it, I also recommend Eric Newby's Learning the Ropes: An Apprentice on the Last of the Windjammers, for his photographs of life on a big steel windjammer.

(One additional comment: Approx 6 weeks ago, I asked Amazon why the reviews of this, the hardcover edition, and the paperback edition couldn't be combined, as well as why THIRTEEN listings come up for Voyage Serling Hayden. I heard back on 7/28 via 3 identical emails, and on 7/30 I received 3 more. Amazon's response time is as lame as its horribly overrated 'search' function.)

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Tough To Forget
Sterling Hayden is an excellent writer - especially when he is writing about subjects with which he has a lot of familiarity. His descriptions of both sailing and heavy drinking are memorable. This is one novel which will be hard to forget. ... Read more

Product Description
No vessel in American history paid off more handsomely or at a more terrible cost than the Gloucester fishing schooner. These were the fastest, leanest, and most challenging working boats ever built. They carried enormous canvas, were designed with the fine lines and long overhangs of racing yachts, but were expected to race off to the Grand Banks and back, their holds crammed with fish. The schooners were built for speed, not safety, and if their payout was large, so was the loss of life: a staggering 668 schooners and 3,755 Gloucestermen went to the cruel depths in the 68 years between 1830 and 1897 alone.

Down to the Sea is an illustrated chronicle of these everlastingly romantic vessels and of the intrepid captains and crews who worked them from the early eighteenth until well into the first quarter of this century. It is the tale of men, a town, and an industry that swiftly became the stuff of American legend.

Here, too, are previously unpublished masterpieces of marine photography, many from the Cape Ann Historical Association s important collection, which provide a visual record of both shocking hardship and sheer physical beauty. Gloucester, her boats and her crews are much in the news these days. In this glorious book we see that the legacy, legends, and tragedies that have always been integral to this brave harbor are nothing new; only the names have changed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

cathy hawkins (and helen !)say...

....poignant,funny,suspenseful,loving story of Capt. Sharps' 'oneness' with the sea,a downeaster with a wry smile and asixth sense for getting out of some darn close calls , tenacious with a huge heart....but then again I love sailing !!!!

Sailing Ships of New England
Reading this book started me on the search for others like it. Recently, I picked up Sailing Ships of New England by George Francis Dow. If you're interested in this sort of thing, I highly recommend it. It's full of great illustrations and makes for a great follow-up to Down to the Sea. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of Sterling Hayden, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 1600 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Product Description
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Sterling Hayden (March 26, 1916 ? May 23, 1986) was an American actor and author. For most of his career as a leading man, he specialized in westerns and film noir, such as Johnny Guitar, The Asphalt Jungle and The Killing. Later on he became noted as a character actor for such roles as Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). He also played the Irish policeman, Captain McCluskey, in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather in 1972. Standing 6-feet, 5-inches tall (196 cm),he is one of the tallest leading actors of all time.He was born in Upper Montclair, New Jersey, to George and Frances Walter, who named him Sterling Relyea Walter.] After his father died, he was adopted at the age of nine by James Hayden and renamed Sterling Walter Hayden. He grew up in coastal towns of New England, and as a child lived in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and Maine, where he attended Wassookeag School in Dexter, Maine. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Melville Society Extracts, published by Melville Society on February 1, 2004. The length of the article is 881 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Wanderer.(Note)(Sterling Hayden)(Biography)
Author: George Ruckert
Publication: Melville Society Extracts (Refereed)
Date: February 1, 2004
Publisher: Melville Society
Issue: 126Page: 5(2)

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