Wanderer

This man turned on, tuned in, and dropped out before it became fashionable, (and now unfashionable again.) The book is exciting, well-written, and filled with his perceptive and discorporate philosophy. Learn how to be happy and lead an adventurous life without money.

Always considered Mr. Hayden a second-rate actor, but I changed my mind after reading this book. A very impressive and accomplished character. A Marine who fought with the Yugoslav guerillas against the NAZIs in WWII. Definitely a rebel in Hollywood and in life.

An interesting look at the life of an interesting personality. I don't understand the socialist attitude about money and investment. Mr. Hayden gives a good look at the attitude but doesn't clarify it.

I recommend his novel Voyage.

Interesting chapters on sailing ships in the 1920's and 1930's, as well as on Hayden's voyage on his schooner in the 1950's. Also good chapters dealing with the depression of the 30's, WWII , and of course an inside look at Hollywood in the 40's and 50"s. I was born too late to catch Hayden at the top of his popularity, but still found it very interesting.

I disliked him, his willingness to risk safety of his children, his dismissal of the American Court's efforts to deal with the claims of 3 wives, his politics- I was incensed by his claim that America saved the Brits from their 'nasty little war' -which America joined after Pearl Harbour. I am sure Mr Rooseveldt was not keen on the prospect of dealing with Adolf armed with nuclear weapons. As always, I add the very firm pronouncement that I may owe my life to America. Where was I? OH, Yes, explaining why I hated Mr Hayden ...who seemed to derive pleasure in not maintaining his very elderly sailing boat, although perfectly able to earn 160,000 dollars-in those days megabucks-annually. Bad money manager ? Why did he never read and learn how to sail safely? Well the answer is he held safe sailors in poor regard- something he was good at, unfortunately.
I cannot remember a book I have put down unread with so little intention of picking it up again. Sorry-I've spelled Mr Rooseveld's name wrongly

I disliked him, his willingness to risk safety of his children, his dismissal of the American Court's efforts to deal with the claims of 3 wives, his politics- I was incensed by his claim that America saved the Brits from their 'nasty little war' -which America joined after Pearl Harbour. I am sure Mr Rooseveldt was not keen on the prospect of dealing with Adolf armed with nuclear weapons. As always, I add the very firm pronouncement that I may owe my life to America. Where was I? OH, Yes, explaining why I hated Mr Hayden ...who seemed to derive pleasure in not maintaining his very elderly sailing boat, although perfectly able to earn 160,000 dollars-in those days megabucks-annually. Bad money manager ? Why did he never read and learn how to sail safely? Well the answer is he held safe sailors in poor regard- something he was good at, unfortunately.
I cannot remember a book I have put down unread with so little intention of picking it up again. Sorry-I've spelled Mr Rooseveld's name wrongly

Fans of film noir will know actor Sterling Hayden, most likely from films that still show up on late night television like The Asphalt Jungle, and The Killing, or the Western Johnny Guitar.

But most won't know of his remarkable private life as a world-traveling sailor, decorated Marine Captain -- and writer.

His autobiographical book Wanderer is learned, colorful, engrossing and savagely honest. It is equal parts Melville, Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Freud -- and entirely Hayden.

Excerpts:

xi All too often I've declard a moratorium on the Traveler's life (and the Traveler is just the opposite of the tourist), for it was at just such times as these that I knew the harrowing feeling of being lost. Hell, I never felt lost at sea, even when I didn't know precisely where on earth the vessel was. I was making $150 a month as master of a sailing ship when I tossed it over and landed in Hollywood making $250 per week with a contract that led to five or six thousand a week at some distant date. Then it was I learned what lostness was.

What was it Ibsen said: "The greatest enemy to truth and justice among us is the compact majority."

Which is how I feel right now, aged 61 and still more or less broke, slowing down in some ways and picking up steam in others, still with a roller skate on one foot and an ice skate on the other, yet only too well aware of the wisdom of the words,

"....But I think he swaggered
So he could pretend
The other side of Nowhere
Led Somewhere in the end." --- H. Sewall Bailey

17 A half-step up, with the massive break-timber overhead, and into the ship's main cabin. Eight more bunks ranged around. Ten tons of fresh water tanked beneath the floor. Books and books and books—some five hundred volumes in all. Books of the sea and books of the land, some of them streaked with salt, collected with love and care over more than twenty-five years.

Melville, Conrad, London, Stevenson; Gauguin and Lot! and Rupert Brooke; Lubbock, Masefield, De Hartog—Slocum and Rockwell Kent; Trelawny and Cook and Bligh; Chapelle and Underhill—Nansen, Frobisher, Villiers and Scott and Louis Becke. Homer, Gerbault, and Tompkins. Hundreds more: all cast in a common mold—blessed with the genius that makes men feel, and dream, and go.

And a special section of books that deal with the greatest frontier of all—the relationship between men: Marx and Whitman, Thoreau and Henry George, Victor Hugo, Thomas Paine and Jefferson. Lincoln and Emerson, Rousseau, Voltaire and Upton Sinclair, Shaw, Byron, Mark Twain, Roosevelt, Garrison, Jack London again and Shakespeare.

Five hundred books, distillate of distant seas, of a hundred thousand night watches. Of despair and agonies and conviction. Standing by this night, peering out from recessed shelves onto the inert and blanketed forms of seven young men and women come together—haphazardly perhaps—yet drawn as though by magic to the soft and urgent promise of the windship's lonely world.

67 The sense of disturbance prevails -- deep-set, its roots in self-contempt. This is the feeling that gnaws at a man whether he wants to admit it or not. I've lived with such torment for years and maybe I always will.

These are only of the few passages one finds oneself marking.

A dramatic depiction of man as iceberg: one can see just a bit of it, but the most massive part lies beneath the surface. Hayden reveals all or most all his "beneath the surface" here, and the reader will recognize himself in these pages, in the never-ending war one has going within himself.

As Thoreau said: "It is easier to sail many thousands of miles through cold and storm and cannibals, in a government ship, with 500 men and boys to assist one, than it is to explore the private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of one’s own being alone."

Which is exactly what Hayden does here. Hats off to him, few are so honest. He was a real artist on the screen, and now we see, even more so on the written page.

Just joking. But I am alluding to the position of preference that Sterling Hayden chose when writing Wanderer, and how he decided to remain on two feet, standing up with back straight, throughout the process.

I read this book so long ago I do not remember much, but I do remember the opening, where he talks about how the doryman spits on his palms and grips the oars, and that set the tone for a tome' that would take me on a journey throughout the South Pacific, culminating on the island of Tahiti, where our protagonist meets the daughter of a Tahitian king and, and.........I cannot remember. Perhaps I will read this book again.

This is a story of wanderlust, and love, and the raw beauty, if you will, of the world. It is also the story of a man who tells his bosses to "take this job and shove it," something we would all love to do. Unfortunately, most of us are not in the position to do so. Sterling Hayden, in spite of societal constraints, was. Of course if you love the sea, this read will be that much richer. And I do.

One of the reviewers claim that Mr. Hayden was running from something. Perhaps he was running from himself. Many great people spend their entire lives doing the same, no? What I discovered while reading other reviews is that Mr. Hayden starred not in one, but two Stanley Kubrick productions. Anybody who stars in a Stanley Kubrick production is alright by me.

He also suffered from alcoholism. I know what that is like. Alcohol makes one dream of better days. And he suffered from anxiety. Don't many of us?

However, all of the above does not detract from the positive and inspirational pull this book had on me.

I too am a wanderer, although I do not have any children. That may be why I related so much to this book, because it reeks of romanticism, and was written by a man who wished to write it all down, at the very least for posterity.

Five stars, Rick says definitely check it out.

A person who likes sailing would like this book. I bought this in order to read about Hayden's experiences during the McCarthy era, but that covered only a few pages. To that extent, this was disappointing.

Just replace the word 'Wanderer' with 'Philosopher' throughout this book and you will get the idea of what the author is unconsciously trying to say. The autobiography WANDERER (c.1963, 2000) by Sterling Hayden, is a narrative written in the first and third person of a man who became enamoured with working sail at an early age, and in its pursuit, acquired a multitude of diverse life experiences few people have achieved, and/or, depending on your viewpoint, would want.
The author has compiled a litany of accomplishment simply by writing about the lifestyle he loved best. Sterling Hayden was a dory fisherman in the Grand Banks as a teenager; captained a two masted brig from Boston to Tahiti at age 22; he then became one of the youngest Master Mariners at age 24; sailed around the world twice; sailed to Tahiti several times; was the protege of the top men in his field such as: Robert O. White (Instrument Maker); Irving Johnson, Lincoln Colcord, and Ben Pine. He was also a mate on board the Gloucesterman 'Gertrude L. Thebaud' in its historic race against the big Canadian saltbanker'Bluenose'. He dined with the President of the United States; became a movie star; married a movie star; starred in two Stanley Kubrick productions; became wealthy and became broke; was an enlisted man then a Marine Corp officer; test-ran some of the first PT boats for the U.S. Navy; became an intelligence officer in the Balkans during W.W.II with the nascent O.S.S. and met with its founder 'Wild Bill' Donovan; and testified before the Senate Committee investigating un-American activities in Hollywood. Even from his best jobs Sterling Hayden would willingly descend down the social ladder as drifter, vagabond, and working sailor, because to him they were all interchangeable.
Taking his natural abilities and high innate intelligence for granted, Sterling Hayden essentially gravitated to the forefront of every occupation he fell into, and didn't know why. This is one source for the author's angst, that is, his unconscious attraction to the elite, and then when excelling in that particular field with a talent he is unaware and doesn't understand, developed a mental fugue and leaves.
Such is the nature of the existentialist who collects life experiences to build his character rather than material goods to increase his mercantile wealth. Sterling Hayden measured his wealth in a different way and just as a rich man might judge a man who lacked money, Sterling Hayden judged men throughout WANDERER who lacked character.
Yet Hayden fled from a broken home and his nomadic existence and unstable environment came with a price; the author suffered from alcoholism, depression, conflict, obsessive guilt, and anxiety neurosis. His autobiography is tinged with regret.
But Sterling Hayden's autobiography is valuable for the first hand view of Grandbanks fishing schooners during the 1930s; the actual terminology of the fishermen he represents; his first hand accounts of depression era Boston - his experiences in East Boston and South Boston, his employment with fisherman on Boston's old 'T' wharf; and his friendship with Lawrence Patrick Joseph O'Toole (of the South Boston O'Tooles) who pushed Hayden into his acting career; and Hayden's account of Hollywood agents and 'B' movie contracts.
The autobiography WANDERER by Sterling Hayden, should be required reading in any philosophy, sociology, psychology, or political science course; and it also makes fascinating reading of the interesting life of a complicated man.

Sterling Hayden began "Wanderer" during the infamous 1959 excursion in which he took his four children against court orders on a South Sea voyage to Tahiti aboard his schooner "Wanderer". He ran out on a movie, too, and used a crew of mostly inexperienced adventurers. Hayden had in mind to escape Hollywood, which he always professed to hate, and return briefly to the simple life of a seaman and island bum. He was, as usual, broke: "To be challenging, a voyage, like life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest." His friends urged him to write a book about it, and, by the time he returned to Los Angeles, he sure needed the money.

"Wanderer" is an account of that voyage, written in a conversational, literate style that moves between Hayden's earlier life and the voyage, until one catches up with the other. He recalls his childhood in Upper Montclaire, New Jersey, where he had a pleasant enough small town upbringing until his father died when he was 9 years old. His mother's remarriage to an inept schemer meant living hand to mouth in string of towns. It was Boothbay Harbor, Maine where he discovered the sea. He took a job on a ship bound for California when he was 16. He made his first round-the-world voyage when he was 20. He got his first command at 22. By this time, Hayden's 6'5" stature and blond good looks had attracted the attention of talent scouts.

Hayden signed with Paramount and moved to Hollywood. It was an opportunity to make some money. He was extremely fortunate to get a lead role shortly after he arrived, and his luck in Hollywood never dried up. He had no sooner made one movie than he wanted to quit the business, but he continued to be offered roles even as he swore off acting time and again, including after he joined the Marines and did work for the OSS in Europe during World War II. Hayden was blessed with beauty, vigor, and luck. He loved the sea, like to talk about rejecting the trappings of success and the "cancerous discipline of `security'", dismissed acting as unproductive, and yet always returned to those things.

That was Sterling Hayden's problem. He never could, or would, live up to his own ideals. He hated acting and love the sea, cared little about money, yet he always returned to acting for the money. Nothing stopped him from returning to a life at sea, where he had found success for a decade. But he liked the good life. He never stayed in Hollywood long enough to secure the luxury he enjoyed, or at sea long enough to reestablish himself there. So he complains. It was the same with his testimony before HUAC. He betrayed his own ideals, because he was worried about the career that he professed not to care for. He wouldn't live up his ideals, or change his ideals, but he kept preaching them.

That's the problem with his autobiography. I became impatient with his whining about the world not being as he would like it, himself not being as he would like, and making no great effort to be. I have to say he is honest. Hayden doesn't hold back in this book. He's a hypocrite suffering from no small amount of self-loathing. But all of his vacillation produced two interesting lives: one at sea and one in Hollywood. He talks more about his own feelings for those places than about the experiences themselves, so don't expect any tidbits about Hollywood personalities. Hayden remarried as he was writing "Wanderer" but makes no mention of his third wife. The book covers his life until about age 44. "Wanderer" is very readable, and it's a rare memoirist who does not try to make himself look good.

Sterling Hayden was an absolutely amazing man. Primarily known as an actor for those of us old enough to remember, he was also an excellent writer. Just wrote two books, it seems. This autobiography that only goes till he was in his early 40s, and the novel Voyage, another great book. He was planning another autobiography that would have taken up where this one ended, but it never got done. Prostate cancer killed him at age 70. Hayden just plowed through life, but you get from this book that he was good-hearted. He was also very conflicted. Did quite a bit of therapy, though I don't think it did him much good. Smoked like the proverbial chimney and was, I believe, quite fond of the bottle. He stood 6 feet, 5 inches tall, a real mountain of a guy in more ways than one.

There are some videos on YouTube of his being interviewed on the Tom Snyder show back in the late 1970s. These are very interesting.

I had the very honor and pleasure to meet Stering Hayden at Mystic Seaport in 1982, just prior to his death. What a wonderful and interesting man. His life, is what many wish they had the guts to do, but always hang back. We had some things in comman, he had been in the Marine Corps, I served for 22 years, he had sailed for many years, I also had sailed for approx 25 years,( nothing compared to his sailing,) however we made a connection. I own his hardback copy, which he was very kind to sign and insert a wonderful message. This book will be treasured by me and my son for generations.We had a wonderful time talking, even tho it was short. I also have his second novel, Voyage, another fantastic sea story. Unless you are into sailing, you have no idea what a special person this man was. Stering, I missed when you drove away from the Mystic Seaport Book Store, I was sad to hear of your death and you are missed. Gary D. Schott

Hayden was one of those force of nature types who, sadly don't exist in sufficient quantities to make the world a really interesting place. In this book, he tells his life story, while telling the story of his last voyage on the 100 foot schooner, Wanderer. His prose is lovely and has the rythm of the sea; like other great works of sea literature (like Moby Dick). I'll give a high point of his prose before I complain:

"What does a man need ---really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in --and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all --in the material sense. And we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade. The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed. Where then lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be, bankruptcy of purse of bankrutpcy of life?"

Hayden was a child of the depression who worked his way out of bad circumstances by a combination of stubbornness, physique and leadership skill. He is eventually given a job a an actor, after being spotted by the media during a sailboat race in Glocester. He abandons this due to a love affair with an actress who fancies herself concerned with serious social issues. He joins the war and does OSS/CIA type operations in maritime support of partisans in Yugoslavia. He returns to his acting. Makes many movies. Marries an evil shrew. Divorces. Gets the kids. Chucks it all for a trip to Tahiti in his 100 foot yacht. All this is well and good, but the man reveals too much about himself. His self loathing isn't interesting. It is certainly not edifying, and though he seems to abundantly pity himself, I cannot feel sorry for him. The man had many fine opportunities. He had fine charachter qualities; I admire the fact that he chucked it all, just because he didn't like it. But he was not a fine man: he was petty and ugly -he couldn't even treat his own widowed mother decently, and though his ex wife was probably no better, I rather doubt as being around such a tormented spirit was good for his kids. In that way, he is a tragic figure; all the more tragic because he doesn't seem to realize it himself. It is no suprise he never did much with himself after he wrote the book. I don't know this to be true, but I suspect he drown himself and his self-loathing in booze.

Still, it is a beautifully written book. In a way, the book is his triumph over it all. It is doubtless a finer thing than any of the movies he made, and his great "the heck with it all" dramatic gesture is probably better than any he made on camera. I know I will read the book again. Perhaps when I am older I will think differently of Captain Hayden. Amusingly, a visit to Sausalito revealed that I had known Hayden as the demented General Jack D. Ripper in "Dr. Strangelove."

This book was well written and very interesting. Sterling Hayden has always been one of my favorite actors and his unique personality and his shunning of Hollywood and of all the nonsense that surrounds Hollywood always made me hold him in high respect. His interviews were always fascinating, especially the ones with Tom Snyder:

[...]

I enjoyed this book very much and reccomend it, especially to those who are fans of Hayden.

I am still thinking about this book nearly 40 years after I first read it. If you've ever wondered about your place in life, you will find it inspirational and thought-provoking. Sterling Hayden's ability as a writer far outstrips anything he did on screen. PUBLISH IT FOR KINDLE!

When I read The Dragon Chronicles (a definite 5' read) my only complaint was The Storyteller should have been the final book. Little did I know it was the first book in a serialized story. While I don't always care for this kind of delivery system of a book, I must say this creative and solid series may change my mind. The storytellers keep the history of this race of people telling the stories of their heroes and exploits making them automatically on the counsel for governing and decision making for their people. Dragon masters are born and bond with their dragons within a fortnight, unfortunately , there are no more dragons since the dragon wars killed them all. This leaves the dragon masters to a doomed and dangerous life as they are destined to eventually go mad and cause great loss of life when it overtakes them. This story, the 2nd in the series,is of one dragon master and his life of loneliness and fighting off the madness as he wanders from place to place to earn enough to buy supplies and head out into the wilderness again. This is a unique and fascinating story with lots of action, great world building and no cliffhangers. I can not wait for the next installment as this can only get better and there won't be enough stars to rate it fairly. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves a great story with a solid plot and subplots, superb continuity and believable characters, with lots of action and adventure and a history built in to take you there in the kingdom of the dragonmasters.

For any man who's ever felt lost, confused, indecisive, disgusted, curious, adventerous, or damn angry... this is a book by a man in angst who was torn by all those things while beset upon one emotion even more disturbing ---- love. Love of the sea, the love of women, and love for his children. Rarely do American men --- a group as constrained and stressed by the New World Order as any ---- have an opportunity to read such a deeply disturbing self-analysis by such a strong, intelligent, passionate human being from their own sex... and a man from the suburban middle-class, no less! Although he provides no easy answers, Hayden's book changed my life... at a time when I thought it might be too late to change. Sterling ... you're my hero. Rest in peace, my friend.

This book is an American classic. Much like the MOBY DICK of the twentieth century. A man steals his children to take them on a boat trip to Tahiti and maybe around the world. This book will change your life. The first chapter should be mandatory reading for all seniors in high school. Go for it. Live your life. Take a chance.

Hayden has a writing style that makes you think. His story is an amazing tale of a life well lived. The essence of who he is is an adventurer. Anyone who prefers to live their life away from the concrete and steel of suburbia can connect with the passion with which he lived his life. If you are an adventurer this book may be dangerous for you because it will make you take a hard look at wasting the days of your life in a nice job, house, and neighborhood versus going out to seek a more interesting and fulfilling existence.

Wanderer is more than just another sea story. It is one of the finest books ever written about personal freedom.
Sterling Hayden had a substantial acting talent, but the great surprise here is that his writing far surpasses it. The first section, in particular, is one of the tightest, most lyrical long passages in mid-20th century prose, rivalling William Faulkner and Robert Penn Warren (it reminds me of the first 100 or so pages of "The Cave"). But, as is appropriate for a voyage that begins in the San Francisco Bay in 1963, it shows a style reminiscent of Jack Kerouac and Dylan Thomas.
Wanderer is a ripping good story, but read it at least once for the writing.

I would like to add something to the excellent and perceptive reviews above. What came through so strongly is that life is messy, yet Hayden's remarkable self awareness didn't seem to help him. This is a fascinating look inside a big life. I found it valuable.

I have read and re-read Wanderer several times, and found each a delight. The autobiographical tales of the author's childhood are depressing and dry reading, but serve to show the soil from which he grew. Wanderer is a good read for anyone who has, or should have, dreamed about sailing their own vessel away to sea to get away from the trials of one's daily life.

I read the 1st chapter and stopped reading it due to the pedantic style of writing the author uses. He strikes me as a self-centered, complaining type who I was just not interested in listening to. There should have been some photos for this type of book.