Condition Condition: I'm also just noticing that there's some amber spotting on the white margin of the last text page, page 150. There are no markings in the book. No attachments of any kind. And no one has written their name or anything else anywhere. There are 19 full-page illustrations, some are in color. 6 are double-page. In addition there are four pages of drawings of Sails and Rigs. All of the illustrations are in excellent shape.
You can see the dust jacket in the first few photos. It is very clean. It has only one edge tear, a thin one off the front bottom edge. There is also a little crease just off the bottom edge of the spine, and tiny spots of rubbing at the four corners. The flaps are in very solid shape. There is a thin line of toning off the top edge of the front flap, also a handful of tiny amber spots. The jacket is NOT price-clipped, not clipped at all. It will be fitted with a protective cover after the photos are scanned.
Pitman Publishing, New York, 1962. Hardcover in Dust Jacket. Written by Jean Merrien. Translated by Oliver Coburn. First American Edition ('First published in U.S.A in 1962' ). I don't usually list books at prices higher than the competition, but I'm fairly confident that this book is in better condition than the others. Note also that the Pitman condition was first published in 1962 not 1956 as some sellers are referencing. The copyright page clearly states that the 1956 publishing was the French edition in Paris. There was a Phoenix House edition published in England in 1961 and then this First American by Pitman in 1962.
From the dust jacket: 'To please five thousand miles or more of the great ocean in a small boat, often only big enough for one person, sounds a risky, even an insane, adventure.
But over the last fifty years many 'madmen' have dared to make the crossing of the Atlantic alone or with one companion, by sail, by motor-boat, even by kayak and rowing-boat! Here is an account, based on fact, of these crossings. The narrators are two marriners, one of Breton and one of Welsh stock.
The crossings are facts, the reasons many-- scientific, for fame, for bets or money, or from sheer bravado. The stories are all well documented and there are drawings of variously rigged sailing vessels.
This defiance of major natural forces makes the story thrilling, and the Compass of melodrama is boxed. Many adults will read this book for older boys and be moved by the 'guts' shown by the 'madmen of the Atlantic'. '