Wanderer: An Autobiography.

HAYDEN, Sterling.

Item Number: 145565

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963.

First edition of Hayden’s first book, a marvelous adventure story by one of Hollywood’s great iconoclasts. Octavo, original black cloth, pictorial endpapers. Stated ‘First Edition’ on the copyright page. Presentation copy, warmly inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper in the year of publication, “Bill Weissiel– with heartfelt thanks, because more than any one else – you (in the line of duty) catapulted this voyage into headlines on a world-wide basis, good luck my friend Sterling Hayden November ’63.” Fine in a fine dust jacket. Typography, binding, and jacket design by Vincent Torre. An exceptional example, rare and desirable with such a lengthy and warm inscription.

Sterling Hayden was at the peak of his earning power as a movie star when he suddenly quit. He walked out on Hollywood, walked out of a shattered marriage, defied the courts, broke as an outlaw, set sail with his four children in the schooner Wanderer- bound for the South Seas. His attempt to escape launched his autobiography. "Like Fitzgerald, Hayden is a romantic. His writing about the sea evokes echoes of Conrad and McFee, of London and Galsworthy...Beautifully done" (The Los Angeles Times).