The Sea, the Ship and the Sailor: Tales of Adventure from Log Books and Original Narratives

Salem, Massachusetts: Marine Research Society, 1925. Hardcover. G+ (Binding has very slight rubbing to corners and head and heel of spine; flyleaves and book block edges have slight foxing or tanning; page margins may have slight foxing; illus. plate pages are generally clear; bookplate of Richard Warren Hatch on fep and pencil name of another former owner, M.E. Dodd on ffep - see further notes on each.). Blue cloth, gilt letters and decoration on spine; illus. flyleaves, 354 pp., 33 BW illus. Vintage postcard addressed to the book's owner (1926) laid in. This particular copy is quite special. Richard Warren Hatch was a Massachusetts author from Marshfield, whose bookplate is inside the front cover. The original owner's name, M E Dodd, is noted elsewhere. The postcard laid in is addressed to her at The Hampshire Book Shop. Smith College alumna Marion E. Dodd was one of the founders of The Hampshire Bookshop in 1916; this year marks the centennial of its start. The Bookshop sold books both to Smith College students and faculty and the wider community, but also was the core of the literary life of Northampton and the region. Marion Dodd piloted this remarkable store for nearly 55 years and offered a very large assortment of new and rare books, gifts, and stationery. There were frequent readings and book signings by authors—just as in today's independent bookstores—and occasional book festivals. The Bookshop was well-known nationally as a notable business founded and run by women. Marion Dodd was known as a savvy businesswoman, active in professional bookselling associations, who also wrote about writers in New England for Yankee Magazine and about bookselling and publishing for Publishers' Weekly. The postcard addressed to Dodd, laid into the book, mailed from France in 1926, is of a 4-masted sailboat, which brings us back to the actual book an its synopsis "Many passages in the true tales preserved in the following pages, will disclose to the thoughtful reader, the real sources of our early maritime strength. These are none other than the bold, fearbless, resourceful, fair-dealing sea captains and their well-disciplined crews. More than once, too, the reader will have opportunity to note the humane consideration of these shipmasters for the men beholden to them and also their frankly acknowledged dependence on Our Maker who rules the land and the sea. ... By reading the following narratives one can learn much of the history and the ways of primitve man and easily perceive the benefits science has derived from the life-work of those who 'go down to the sea in ships.'" (intro) Ahoy!