N by E

Rockwell Kent

• Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780819552921
• eBook ISBN: 9780819572073
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

When artist, illustrator, writer, and adventurer Rockwell Kent first published N by E in a limited edition in 1930, his account of a voyage on a 33-foot cutter from New York Harbor to the rugged shores of Greenland quickly became a collectors' item. Little wonder, for readers are immediately drawn to Kent's vivid descriptions of the experience; we share "the feeling of wind and wet and cold, of lifting seas and steep descents, of rolling over as the wind gusts hit, " and the sound "of wind in the shrouds, of hard spray flung on a drum-tight canvas, of rushing water at the scuppers, of the gale shearing a tormented sea."

When the ship sinks in a storm-swept fjord within 50 miles of its destination, the story turns to the stranding and subsequent rescue of the three-man crew, salvage of the vessel, and life among native Greenlanders. Magnificently illustrated by Kent's wood-block prints and narrated in his poetic and highly entertaining style, this tale of the perils of killer nor'easters, treacherous icebergs, and impenetrable fog — and the joys of sperm whales breaching or dawn unmasking a longed-for landfall — is a rare treat for old salts and landlubbers alike.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Preface
• I
• II
• III
• Appendix