Wanderer: An Autobiography.

HAYDEN, Sterling.

Item Number: 144672

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. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper in the year of publication, “For Riet & Albert Kahn: Whose compassion for The Brotherhood of Man is matched by conviction and  exceeded only by courage – Affectionately Sterling Hayden Sausalito September 12th 1963.” The recipient, Albert Eugene Kahn was an American journalist, photographer, and author. He is known chiefly for his books Sabotage! The Secret War Against America (1942), related to Nazi and German-American subversive activities in the United States; and The Great Conspiracy: The Secret War Against Soviet Russia (1946). The latter described leading Soviet communists as foreign spies, based on their confessions at the Moscow Trials. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Typography, binding, and jacket design by Vincent Torre.

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).