Rating: 
Summary: Excellent for a good look at yourself.
Review: I have read and re-read Wanderer several times, and found each a delight. The autobiographical tales of the author's childhood are depressing and dry reading, but serve to show the soil from which he grew. Wanderer is a good read for anyone who has, or should have, dreamed about sailing their own vessel away to sea to get away from the trials of one's daily life.
Rating:
Summary: 'For its Existential Angst'
Review: Just replace the word 'Wanderer' with 'Philosopher' throughout this book and you will get the idea of what the author is unconsciously trying to say. The autobiography WANDERER (c.1963, 2000) by Sterling Hayden, is a narrative written in the first and third person of a man who became enamoured with working sail at an early age, and in its pursuit, acquired a multitude of diverse life experiences few people have achieved, and/or, depending on your viewpoint, would want.The author has compiled a litany of accomplishment simply by writing about the lifestyle he loved best. Sterling Hayden was a dory fisherman in the Grand Banks as a teenager; captained a two masted brig from Boston to Tahiti at age 22; he then became one of the youngest Master Mariners at age 24; sailed around the world twice; sailed to Tahiti several times; was the protege of the top men in his field such as: Robert O. White (Instrument Maker); Irving Johnson, Lincoln Colcord, and Ben Pine. He was also a mate on board the Gloucesterman 'Gertrude L. Thebaud' in its historic race against the big Canadian saltbanker'Bluenose'. He dined with the President of the United States; became a movie star; married a movie star; starred in two Stanley Kubrick productions; became wealthy and became broke; was an enlisted man then a Marine Corp officer; test-ran some of the first PT boats for the U.S. Navy; became an intelligence officer in the Balkans during W.W.II with the nascent O.S.S. and met with its founder 'Wild Bill' Donovan; and testified before the Senate Committee investigating un-American activities in Hollywood. Even from his best jobs Sterling Hayden would willingly descend down the social ladder as drifter, vagabond, and working sailor, because to him they were all interchangeable. Taking his natural abilities and high innate intelligence for granted, Sterling Hayden essentially gravitated to the forefront of every occupation he fell into, and didn't know why. This is one source for the author's angst, that is, his unconscious attraction to the elite, and then when excelling in that particular field with a talent he is unaware and doesn't understand, developed a mental fugue and leaves. Such is the nature of the existentialist who collects life experiences to build his character rather than material goods to increase his mercantile wealth. Sterling Hayden measured his wealth in a different way and just as a rich man might judge a man who lacked money, Sterling Hayden judged men throughout WANDERER who lacked character. Yet Hayden fled from a broken home and his nomadic existence and unstable environment came with a price; the author suffered from alcoholism, depression, conflict, obsessive guilt, and anxiety neurosis. His autobiography is tinged with regret. But Sterling Hayden's autobiography is valuable for the first hand view of Grandbanks fishing schooners during the 1930s; the actual terminology of the fishermen he represents; his first hand accounts of depression era Boston - his experiences in East Boston and South Boston, his employment with fisherman on Boston's old 'T' wharf; and his friendship with Lawrence Patrick Joseph O'Toole (of the South Boston O'Tooles) who pushed Hayden into his acting career; and Hayden's account of Hollywood agents and 'B' movie contracts. The autobiography WANDERER by Sterling Hayden, should be required reading in any philosophy, sociology, psychology, or political science course; and it also makes fascinating reading of the interesting life of a complicated man.
Rating: 
Summary: A frustrated man relates
Review: This story is a bit of a autobiography. At times it jumps around in an attempt to describe several parallel thoughts but it gets a bit confusing. It serves well as a "period piece" of sorts revealing the social and cultural elements of the author's youth and early adulthood. The story has less to do with sailing and more to do with the author's search for himself. Interesting and fairly well developed story line. Sometimes I got the feeling that this book was some kind of catharsis for the author in order to make sense of his unorthadox life. He battles against a world with order and goals that values expensive houses and big retirement accounts at the expense of enriched experiences.
Rating:
Summary: Hayden speaks eloquently of woodenships and human hearts.
Review: Wanderer is a wonderful journey back in time for any lover of ships that has come of age since the end of the great age of sail. Hayden puts his reader in a dory on the Grand Banks, or at the masthead of the Gertrude L. Theabaud during the last of the great schooner races, or at the helm of the Yankee way off in the pacific somwhere between Pitcarin Island and Tahiti. Hayden led the last mutiny of the great age of sail. Against the better judgement of the superior court of the great State of California, he took his four young children, his old windjammer, and a crew of friends and dreamers on a voyage of dicovery. In the end, though this book is about the wind which drives his ship, and the spirt that drives his soul.
Rating:
Summary: Not just a sea story
Review: Wanderer is more than just another sea story. It is one of the finest books ever written about personal freedom.
Sterling Hayden had a substantial acting talent, but the great surprise here is that his writing far surpasses it. The first section, in particular, is one of the tightest, most lyrical long passages in mid-20th century prose, rivalling William Faulkner and Robert Penn Warren (it reminds me of the first 100 or so pages of "The Cave"). But, as is appropriate for a voyage that begins in the San Francisco Bay in 1963, it shows a style reminiscent of Jack Kerouac and Dylan Thomas.
Wanderer is a ripping good story, but read it at least once for the writing.
Rating:
Summary: Not just a sea story
Review: Wanderer is more than just another sea story. It is one of the finest books ever written about personal freedom.
Sterling Hayden had a substantial acting talent, but the great surprise here is that his writing far surpasses it. The first section, in particular, is one of the tightest, most lyrical long passages in mid-20th century prose, rivalling William Faulkner and Robert Penn Warren (it reminds me of the first 100 or so pages of "The Cave"). But, as is appropriate for a voyage that begins in the San Francisco Bay in 1963, it shows a style reminiscent of Jack Kerouac and Dylan Thomas.
Wanderer is a ripping good story, but read it at least once for the writing.
| 
