The Solitary Slocum

Carol Trehearn is a Toronto-based freelance writer.

This excellent biography is written in the first person, in the same
style Slocum himself used in Sailing Alone Around the World. The book
vividly recounts Slocum’s childhood; his relationship with his parents
and his beloved sister Elizabeth; his humble beginnings as cook’s
skivvy and his career as Clipper Skipper; his two marriages and his
obsession with the young Mable; his fall from greatness before he
rebuilds the Old Spray and embarks on his incredible solo
circumnavigation of the globe; and, finally, his descent into madness
and his final voyage.

This brilliant and eloquent biography invalidates Slocum’s fear that
he would “fade into the ranks of the anonymous dead.”