Evanston: Have I got a deal for you: a $40.28 value for free!
Evanston: Have I got a deal for you: a $40.28 value for free!
From time to time I have had to buy my own books: after I sank RESURGAM; when Carol came back to the U.S. and I wanted copies here as well as on the boat; and last month when I had the first three professionally scanned, a process that necessitated removing their bindings. These books are no longer in print and cost me $40.28 from Amazon.
I have just completed proofreading the scans and they are now posted on the nonfiction page as PDF’s, which you are welcome to download for free. Perhaps I should state that I retain the copyrights and that you cannot resell the downloaded books, though I don’t have the faintest idea how I would ever enforce that. If you make a lot of money from them, send me some.
This was the first time I have read those books in their entirety since they were published between 23 and 30 years ago. It was interesting and somewhat educational. While most of those experiences have remained vivid in my mind, I found that I have forgotten some minor incidents and some of the people I met along the way. From THE OCEAN WAITS, for example, I didn’t recall being awakened one night in the Malacca Straits when CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE’s anchor was caught in the net of a local fisherman, who was reeling us in; or that the men a few days later, who might have been pirates, got a line around one of CHIDIOCK’s stern cleats; or the infection in my leg when I reached Port Sudan that, combined with sailing 5,000 miles from Singapore with only one four-day stop, caused my weight to drop to 133 pounds. Not much for someone 6’1”. There were others, but I happened across those yesterday.
Although I thought I was a pretty good writer when the books were published, I guess I think I’m a better one now. However, I mostly resisted temptation and only changed a few words here and there in STORM PASSAGE and THE OPEN BOAT. I did make greater changes in THE OCEAN WAITS, which I detail in a note on the title page.
Long ago I discovered that I am not the best proofreader of my own words because my eye tends to see what ought to be there.
The books were, of course, proofread by the original publishers as well as myself, but the scanning process, while impressive, is not perfect, and I’ve had to make some corrections. If anyone actually reads these scans and finds errors, I’d be grateful if he or she emailed me about them.
I may have more thoughts about rereading old writing and reliving my past, but that’s enough for now.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007