Homer.
Odyssee. Frankfurt: Frankfurter Verlags-Anstalt, 1920.
Homer's Odyssey is many things, but at heart it is one of the world's
earliest nautical tales, as it relates Odysseus' wanderings across the
Mediterranean, enduring shipwrecks, sea monsters, and the hazards
familiar to mariners of any age.
This German edition of the Odyssey features lithographs by Alois Kolb,
including the illustration on display here, which depicts Odysseus'
encounter with the monster Scylla.
Daniel Defoe.
The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson
Crusoe, of York, Mariner. Dublin: J. Gill, G. Grierson & R. Gunne, R.
Owen, and E. Dobson Junior, 1719.
Throughout his prolific career Defoe was drawn
toward the literature of travel and the sea; in
fact, his authorship of Captain Charles Johnson's
General History of the Robberies and Murders of the
Most Notorious Pyrates—a work of pirate history
second in importance only to Exquemelin's Bucaniers
of America—was accepted as fact until recently.
Robinson Crusoe was an immediate success, and this
Dublin edition is one of a number of pirated
versions printed soon after the first authorized
edition, which was published in London in the same
year. Although the type is smaller and it is printed
on lower quality paper, this edition presents an
accurate version of the text and is fairly well
printed, unlike many of the other piracies.
Robert Louis Stevenson.
Treasure Island. New York:
The Limited Editions Club, 1941.
In the character of Long John Silver, illustrated
here by Edward A. Wilson, Stevenson provided the
model on which many subsequent depictions of
fictional pirates have been based, including his missing leg
and the parrot on his shoulder.
Manuscript Letter from Henry James to Robert Louis
Stevenson. 31 July 1888.
Like many authors of nautical fiction, Robert Louis
Stevenson was himself prone to long voyages across the sea.
In 1888, frustrated and in ill health, Stevenson set out on
a voyage to the South Seas, eventually settling in Samoa,
where he would reside until his death in 1894.
The letter on display here expresses the feelings of many of
Stevenson's friends to his absence. The novelist Henry James
writes: "My dear Louis. You are too far away--you are too
absent, too invisible...friendship is too delicate a matter
for such tricks—for cutting great gory masses out of
'em...Therefore come back. Hang it all—sink it all and come
back. A little more and I shall cease to believe in you...
Your adventures, no doubt, are wonderful... ."
Manuscript Letter from William Cagle to the Bookselling Firm
of Elkin Matthews. 30 August 1965.
In this letter William Cagle of the
Lilly Library requests items to fill out the Lilly's
extensive collection of materials related to Joseph Conrad.
Among the requested items are colonial editions of the
author's works.
Joseph Conrad.
Typhoon and Other Stories.
London: William Heinemann, 1903.
Typhoon is one of Joseph Conrad's early tales of the sea, a feature
which plays a prominent role throughout his writings. Conrad began his
own nautical career when he was sixteen, eventually becoming a captain
in the British Merchant Service.
The copy of Typhoon on display here is one of the colonial editions
referred to by William Cagle in his letter to Elkin Matthews. Colonial
editions were typically cheaper (in both senses of the word) than their
English counterparts and were only to be sold in colonies of the British
Empire, as indicated by the statement on the front cover of this copy.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner. London: 
Edward Arnold at the Essex House Press,
1903.
The Essex House Press followed in the footsteps of
William Morris' Kelmscott Press and the Arts and
Crafts movement. When the Kelmscott Press ceased
operating in 1898 many of its workers transferred to
the short-lived Essex House Press, which operated
from 1898 to 1910.
This edition was limited to 150 copies printed on
vellum. It features a gilt opening initial and the
illustration by W. Strang on display.
Patrick O'Brian. Manuscript Notes for The Letter of Marque (published
in 1988).
The tradition of nautical fiction has continued into the present and is
most evident in Patrick O'Brian's series of Aubrey-Maturin novels. The
series is set during the Napoleonic wars and grounded in details drawn
from historical accounts of naval battles.
In this selection from the working notes for The Letter of Marque,
O'Brian sketches a model of the 'pahi', small twin-keeled boats used by
a group of Polynesian women who capture Aubrey and Maturin. Elsewhere in
the notes for this novel, O'Brian considers the possibility of making
Aubrey's vessel, the Surprise, a South Seas whaler rather than a
privateer.
Patrick O'Brian. Manuscript of Master and Commander
(published in 1970).
These are the opening lines of Master and Commander,
the first book of O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series.
The two characters are introduced in this scene
while attending a concert in Minorca. The manuscript
includes a number of corrections made by O'Brian.
In the recent film adaptation of two books from the
series, Master and Commander and The Far Side of the
World, Aubrey and the Surprise pursue a French
warship, the Acheron. In the novel The Far Side of the World
this ship is actually an American warship, the USS
Essex, the same ship that captured the British sloop
Alert (see the Log Book of the H.M.S. Alert in
section II of this exhibition).