BOOKS
Airborne: A Sentimental Journey, by William F. Buckley, Jr. (New York, Macmillan, 1976. 252 pp., illus. , $12.95). "If he comes through this thing alive," Pat Buckley told a friend, "I ' ll kill him." "This thing," of course, is Mr. Buckley's rightly famous crossing of the Atlantic in his schooner Cyrano two years ago, and if you read it, you'll find it becomes "our thing," a cosa nostra of plot and sublot, complot and counterplot, a heroic, humorous, despairing struggle with too much (in this reviewer's opinion) machinery that does not function at sea, from a TV set primed to run a sequence of "Upstairs, Downstairs" featuring the loss of Lady Bellamy in the unsinkable Titanic, to, more seriously, nonworking Loran. But never mind! A one-hour poker session replaces the TV hour, and Captain Buckley is not ill-pleased to exercise what he calls his "hecticity" of mind in careful celestial navigation-the mysteries of which he sets forth in Chapter 9 in what must be the best brief how-to-do ever written on this subject. A voyage, any voyage, is an undertaking that picks up many strands, and binds them for a time to common purpose and shared experience. In this often exasperating, always seductive book, Buckley takes these things that make a voyage (or unmake it) and undertakes to make them, in the word of his title, airborne. No one's life is like Mr. Buckley's, trading insults with his friend and political arch-foe John Keneth Galbraith (whose son was aboard for this voyage), bribing his way through impossible arrangements with oodles of charm and acts of real kindness, ruling his crew (except for his sister-in-law, also named Bill, who seems to rule and take the rubs out of everything, like a benevolent Admiral who never criticizes and always encourages her Flag Captain and his ship's company) with a rod of iron made slightly malleable by afterthought and even-God save the mark!-selfdoubt , appreciating, and describing in engaging detail the look and feel of things he enjoys (or, on occasion, does not enjoy). There was never a voyage
like this. And that, maybe, is a point: there never is. There are no two voyages, no two people's lives alike enough to be subsumed under any formulation of man. The ship herself is protagonist in all this, deeply reliable, but capable of unexpected deeds. Alone among the vessels mentioned, her name is never italicized. "Everyone suddenly realized what Cyrano would do for us," writes the Captain after a bad squall, "and we were sorely proud." Buckley's alar (a word from the crossword puzzles) voyaging is sustained by a constant awareness that his ship is five miles above the ocean floor, about the height jetliners fly, and by wonder that holds his centrifugal and contrapuntal (some would say paradoxical) thoughts together: that makes his voyaging profoundly worth sharing. One moment on the foredeck with a friend justifies the voyage: "And the sails, snugged in and powerful, working in overdrive, leaving the boat almost erect as it tore through the ocean, and the stars began to assert themselves, while a bottle of wine, secured by the boom vang between us, emptied slowly as we paid mute tribute to Cyrano, her builder and her designer, and the architect of the whole grand situation." PS Voyages, by Alfred T. Hill (New York, David McKay and South Street Museum, 1977, 160 pp., illus ., $9.95 .). Throughout much of the nineteenth century, an amazing family from Saco, Maine created a legacy now been brought to light with the publication of Voyages. Through the journals, letters and logs kept by Capt. Tristram Jordan, his son Frederick, his nephew Capt. Franklin Jordon and his son-in-law, Capt. Alfred Patterson, emerges a remarkable history of a maritime dynasty of the last days of American sail. In thought, attitude and experience all four men were alike, unified by the character so often found in New England ships. However, each was notably different from the others in matters of style, sensitivity, sense of humor and philosophy. Tristram, the most dour as well as the patriarch of the clan, did not have an easy life. His saga encompasses most of the trials and tribulations that can beset a sailor. Shipwreck, mutiny, disease and the hostile (to his eyes) environments of most of the ports he visited over his forty years at sea are borne as the lot he was assigned in life, and related sometimes with pain and sometimes even
@Life/O'J ALQNGTHE
Hudson
Life Along the Hudson by Allan Keller
An illustrated history of the Hudson River Valley, from the time of the earliest explorers to the present day , including stories of sloops and steamers, railroads and regattas, famous legends and families, artists and writers, stately mansions and scenic splendor. 98 illustrations hardcover $ I 0.00 " He writes clearly and well, and he succeeds admirabl y .. .in his stated aim to evoke life along the Hudson .... " Publishers Weekly " In tracing the history of this waterway, Keller provides a highly interesting and readable accou nt of life along th e Hudson." Library Journal
Visit Sleepy Hollow Restorations Three historic sites along Route 9 in the beautiful Hudson River Valley:
Sunnyside Tarrytown
Philipsburg Manor North Tarrytown
Van Cortlandt Manor Croton-on-Hudson To: Sleepy Hollow Restorations Box 245,K Tarrytown, N. Y. 10591 Please send me _ copies of Life Along the Hudson at $10.00 each (NY State residents please add 5% sale s tax). I enclose a check or money order. Please send me your FREE brochure about Sleepy Hollow Restorations. D
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