After the Storm [Lingua Inglese] - Rilegato

Rousmaniere, John

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0071377956 ISBN 13: 9780071377959

Casa editrice: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press, 2002

Riassunto

An exploration of loss and survival by one of America's finest nautical writers

After the Storm is John Rousmaniere's most ambitious work ever, the unique expression of a master storyteller and authority on seamanship who has survived storms at sea. Each of the book's stories of seafaring disaster­­many little known, all exciting and of deep human interest­­presents a broad human drama. Rousmaniere tells of the hopes and choices that put these sailors in harm's way. He takes readers into the gales themselves with authoritative knowledge of horrific weather and the split-second decisions that seamen must make. Finally, he explores the consequences of these disasters for survivors, rescuers, families, communities, and in some cases nations. The pursuit of these elusive strands leads the reader deep into our ambivalent relationship with the sea as both "destroyer and preserver."

Su questo libro

L'autore:

John Rousmaniere is a national authority on sailing and seamanship, a household name among boaters, and a first-rate writer by any standard. He is the author of 18 books, including Fastnet, Force 10 (W.W. Norton), which has sold nearly 100,000 copies since 1980, and The Annapolis Book of Seamanship (Simon & Schuster), which is considered the standard work on seamanship under sail and has sold 250,000 copies since 1983. His other titles include a history of yachting, The Golden Pastime (W.W. Norton), two histories of the America's Cup race, and a history of the yacht America. He wrote the navigation section of the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia and compiled the Illustrated Dictionary of Boating Terms (W.W. Norton, 1998). He has written the histories of institutions such as Columbia University, The Equitable Life Assurance Company, and the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell. He lectures at Safety-at-Sea seminars across the country, writes a column on seamanship for the online magazine SailNet (www.sailnet.com), and regularly publishes articles in the boating press. He has been interviewed on the Learning Channel, A&E, and CNN. He has sailed more than 35,000 miles, including three Atlantic crossings. He holds a master's in history from Columbia University and a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological. HOMETOWN: Stamford, CT

Dalla quarta di copertina:

"A thinking person's Perfect Storm. Rousmaniere extrapolates from individual accounts of horrifying events at sea to trace a history of human interpretations of the meaning of life and death on the vast deep."--Daniel Finamore, Russell W. Knight Curator of Maritime Art and History, Peabody Essex Museum

John Rousmaniere is considered by many to have originated the storm-writing genre with his classic Fastnet, Force 10, which the Los Angeles Times praised as "a narrative worthy of the best sea literature." In After the Storm, his most ambitious work ever, he takes storm stories to a new level of revelation and universality. After the Storm is the expression of a master storyteller and the ultimate consequence of Rousmaniere's own experience in the Fastnet storm. "I can testify that storms change lives," he says in the introduction, "because one changed mine."

In the book's interrelated stories, he tells of the hopes and choices that put sailors in harm's way, and then takes us into the gales themselves with authoritative knowledge of horrific weather and the split-second decisions that seafarers must make in appalling conditions. He explores the consequences of these disasters for survivors, rescuers, families, communities, and, in some cases, nations. And he shows how storm experiences shape reputations and beliefs, often creating myths springing from the hunger for explanation.

The pursuit of these interconnected strands draws the reader deep into our ambivalent relationship with the sea as both "destroyer and preserver." The stories include a tragedy that destroyed a prominent Boston family; the Pacific typhoon that stopped America's first war with Germany; the disappearance of the Portland--"New England's Titanic"; the worst noncombatant disaster in U.S. Navy history; the stormy deaths of a poet (Percy Bysshe Shelley) and a visionary (Margaret Fuller); the gale that redeemed a prophet after nearly destroying him; the storm off Newfoundland that inspired the hymn "Amazing Grace"; and two wrenching tales of derelict ships.

With all the harrowing twists of the best adventure writing and the shattering impact of a storm at sea, After the Storm is a moving, provocative exploration of the roots and consequences of sudden tragedy in human affairs.

"If survival storms have indeed become a genre unto themselves, this is the author who invented the genre with Fastnet, Force 10. Now, more than twenty years later, he's reinventing it all over again, showing us stories of survival and loss we thought we knew in a whole new light, finding others we should never have lost and need to learn again."--Charles Doane, senior editor, SAIL magazine

"Vivid, wise, and heartfelt. The crowning achievement of one of America's foremost sailing writers."--Nathaniel Philbrick, National Book Award - winning author of In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex

"Among writers who sail and sailors who write, John Rousmaniere is unrivaled in his technical expertise, his breadth of thought and feeling, and in his vigor and lucidity as a storyteller. After the Storm is his best book yet. Because this is Rousmaniere, there are enough finely described high winds and toppling waves here to satisfy the toughest and most fearless armchair adventurers. But the storm at sea is for Rousmaniere only the beginning. His quest for meaning in the chaos of turbulent air and water is conducted on so many fronts that the reader is left breathless and dazzled by this marvelous inquiry."--Jonathan Raban, author of Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its Meanings and Bad Land: An American Romance

"No one writes about the violence of the sea better than John Rousmaniere, and he proves it again and again in After the Storm.--Stuart Woods, author of Blue Water, Green Skipper and The Short Forever

"As captivating as it

Su questa edizione

• Editore: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0071377956
• ISBN 13: 9780071377959
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 338