Autograph Manuscript Signed

This lifelong "Century Magazine" assistant editor strongly urged the powers to publish a novel by an unknown author named Joseph Conrad, thus another publisher issued it in 1902; he excelled at maritime writing, his first book being "The Call of the Sea and Other Poems" (1902) and two romantic high seas adventures, "Under Rocking Skies" (1905) and "The Middle Passage" (1920), in addition to the nonfiction "John Paul Jones" (1916) -- all of which he recounts in his memoir "The Joys and Tribulations of an Editor" (1924). AMS, 1p (lettersheet), 5½" X 8¼", n.p., n.y. [lightly pencilled "3-29-23" at lower left in another hand]. Near fine. Tooker handsomely pens a lengthy paragraph from his 1920 "Century Magazine" essay "A Boyhood Alongshore" about growing up on the New England coastline. Evocative sea memories, reading in part: "I remember the absolute hush of the morning; even the boat made no lapping ripple, and when we spoke, which was rarely, our voices had the echoing clearness of sound in a great vault... As we passed the channel buoy in the harbor's mouth the sheet-block clanked sharply and the sheet tautened with a coming wind...." From the collection of Albert Johannsen (1871-1962), University of Chicago geology professor and author of "The House of Beadle and Adams and Its Dime and Nickel Novels" (1950), with his original 8½" X 11" file folder, bearing his printed "Collection of Albert Johannsen" label (partly filled in by Johannsen).