Outward Bound from Liverpool

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Book Condition: Good. Translated from French by C.R. Benstead. The text block is in very good condition with no tears, marks, or dog ears. The pages and endpapers are age-tanned. The blue cover is in good condition with minor bumping along top edge of cover (front and back). The spine is bumped (top and bottom). The dust jacket is in fair condition with nicking along edges and darkening of the spine. 7 ½ x 5 ¼, 297 pages, 14 ounces. [From the dust jacket] ?The largest, fastest and most luxurious liner afloat.' Thus was the "Star of the Seas" described by her owners of the Transoceanic Company. But it was not the owners who had to drive her across the sea on her maiden voyage at smashing speed in the face of night, fog and ice to break the record and capture the supremacy of the Atlantic. Through the Captain and his officers we watch this mighty ship plunge on. They are men of few words but one is made to realize the terrible strain of responsibility that they carry when disaster threatens. It is a tale of fearful tragedy, but it is nobly done, unsentimentally, and with deep understanding of the irony of human fate. XX [Bio from French Wikipedia] Édouard Peisson was the second son of Marius Peisson, better known by his name as a journalist for Petit Marseillais: Odysse Richemond. As a child, he spent his holidays in Ventabren, a village where his mother was born. He was a pupil of the Petit Séminaire that he left for the Saint-Joseph school. He feels an early attraction for the sea, first by listening to the stories of his grandfather who had sailed a little while, then through his readings, like "The Adventures of Gordon Pym " of Edgar Poe or "Pirate " of Walter Scott . At 17, he met the shipowner family of his friend Jean-Pierre Mattei. At the end of the winter of 1914, when he was only 18 years old, he embarked as a pilot on the Madonna. Peisson, as a radio-telegrapher and then captain of the merchant navy, sailed for the shipping companies Paquet and Transatlantique . He ran the Mediterranean, and then the Atlantic line to the United States and the White Sea, the South Seas, on various cargo ships and passenger ships. During the First World War, he served on transports of troops and ammunition. In 1923, a ministerial decree drastically reduced the size of the merchant navy and led to the disarmament of many ships. In 1924, Peisson found himself without work. He passed a copywriting contest at the Prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône, but he did not appreciate his new job which he finds absurd and boring. That's when he'll start writing. In 1936, he resigned his prefectoral job and devoted himself solely to literature. He left Marseille to settle in Luynes, from which he was only absent for short stays in Paris. Alongside Marc Bernard, Eugène Dabit and Tristan Rémy, Peisson was part of a group of "proletarian writers" gathered around the daily New Age of Henri Poulaille. Elected a member of the Academy of Marseille in 1939, Peisson came from Luynes to follow regularly and with pleasure the sessions. He received the prize of the Académie française in 1940. He died in 1963 at the age of 67. Seller Inventory # 000341

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