The Ocean

New York: William Morrow & Company, 1941. First American Edition, Advance Copy. Paperback. Very Good/Very Good. First American Edition, Advance Copy. Paperback. First American Edition, Advance Copy. VERY SCARCE. James Hanley (1897-1985) was a British writer who was from a seafaring family and spent several years at sea himself. Hanley's brother was the novelist Gerald Hanley. Hanley published his first novel, Drift, in 1930, and his novels and short stories before World War II focused on seamen and their families. This included Boy (1931), about a young man who goes to sea and is sexually abused by his fellow sailors. Boy became the subject of an obscenity trial when it was published in its 2nd edition with what was perceived as a sexually provocative cover. The Ocean is a novel from Hanley's days of writing about seafaring. It is the story of the shipwreck of the Aurora, from which one lifeboat got away, with one sailor, 4 passengers, and a dead body on board. The sailor's biggest fear is not the ocean, but the potential loss of nerve of his inexperienced passengers. They fought a battle with endless quiet and "the immensity of the ocean, to which there seemed no end, no beginning." But in the distance loomed hope. How does the story end?

The novel was initially published in England in 1941 by Faber and Faber. This is an advance copy of the first American edition, also published in 1941. The advance copy has the planned dust jacket included over plain paper wraps without the eventual hard cover. The spine is worn and cracked in places and is skewed. There is minor damp-staining to the rear panel of the dust jacket, and some spotting on the rear endpaper. Pages are yellowed but clean and clear. An unusual find. LIT/091124.