Customer Reviews

Wanderer

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

I bought my copy of "The Wanderer" when it was first published in 1964, because Sterling Hayden was one of my favorite actors. I especially enjoyed his work in The Asphalt Jungle, Johnny Guitar, The Killing, Suddenly, and Terror in a Texas Town, among others. Now, 40 years later I have decided to reread the book, and I forgot how good it was. The central theme of the book is Hayden's escape from Hollywood, with his young children in tow, on the schooner for which the book is named. He made this voyage to the south seas against orders of the court, who considered it too dangerous for the children. As he tells of this less than idyllic voyage, he intersperses fragments of his life, concentrating mostly on his late teens and twenties when he was a working seaman. He is very stylistic in his writing, and sometimes his switching from first to third person narrative is quite jarring, but the effect is emotionally charging. As he ages into his thirties and beyond, Sterling finds his life falling apart. He becomes a Hollywood heart throb and detests his work and lifestyle. He becomes a Communist for a few months, but never really gets with the program, and to save his hated career, he goes before the HUAC and bares his soul and names names, an action he quickly and forever regretted. He seesaws between impotency and affairs, he can't communicate with the women he loves, he struggles with no notable success with psychotherapy, he finds his life adrift with no anchor in sight. All of these travails he lays out with such frankness, I felt embarassed for him. Hayden holds nothing back as he displays his warts and finds no joy in his life, except with his children. Does he simply settle, or does he come to some kind of compromise he can live with? I hope it's the latter, because after all his trials he deserves it. But I feel it is the former. Yet, shortly after the book is completed, he films one of his most important roles as Jack Ripper in "Dr. Strangelove." I won't wait 40 years to read this book again.

I genuinely enjoyed this book. It is an unapologetic autobiography by a complex and sensitive person. I picked it up because I enjoyed Sterling Hayden as an actor, I put it down respecting him as a human. In my opinion, he is not telling his story because he is looking for approval or justification, he is writing the truth about himself, as he perceives it, as an exercise in self-understanding. Enough said, I will not continue to presume to speak for someone who speaks so eloquently for himself.

Despite being marketed as a maritime book, "Wanderer" is as much a description of one man's inner wanderings as it is a travelogue of Hayden's travel to Tahiti.Throughout, Hayden comes off as a resolute man of principle and insight.I have read the book three times and always glean something new from it. Highly recommended.

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.

"Wanderer" is not just one man's tale. A schooner bum from Maine, initially wooed and later repulsed by the glamour of celebrity, caused to reevaluate his own ethics. It is a tragic and nostalgic glimpse into the human side of the land of the Titans. We visit both the hidden decadence of Hollywood that turns people into playthings and the personal desperation that drives Hayden to kidnap his own children for a two year trip through the South Pacific.

We are also, as sailors, given a sea-level view of those we have only come to know by name and legend: Irving Johnson, Spike Africa, Warwick Tompkins' Wanderbird, and Sausalito's NoNameBar. More than anything, Hayden reaffirms that, like ourselves, they were but men: simple, flawed, and determined.

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.

Great true story of a big schooner's voyage from SanFrancisco-Tahiti, leaving the pressures of big city behind and revealing the essence of a by-gone life at sea under sail. Hayden was a master mariner, and this is a must-read for any sailor or captain.

This book is as convoluted as its author. It maintains a flow of semi-stream-of-consciousness from start to finish, and what emerges are the memoirs of a man whose love of seafaring and considerable self-deprecation ("self-loathing" is a little too strong a term) has brought him to a sea voyage to Tahiti with a pick-up crew and his four children in violation of a court order. Hayden's story is it's own animal, going from the coasts of Massachusetts and Maine, to the forests of Yugoslavia, to courtrooms and congressional chambers and movie sets and finally to the high seas and South Pacific islands with a strain of fatalism and regret throughout. It should make for a downer of a read; instead, I found myself staying up and turning the pages to see what happened next. A great book.

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.