Wanderer - by Sterling Hayden (Paperback)

About the Book

The autobiography of Sterling Hayden: actor, (Dr. Strangelove, The Godfather, Asphalt Jungle), sailor, officer, writer (Voyage), one-time communist, and constant wanderer.
Since its publication in 1963, Sterling Hayden's autobiography, Wanderer, has been surrounded by controversy. The author was at the peak of his earning power as a movie star when he suddenly quit. He walked out on Hollywood, walked out of a shattered marriage, defied the courts, broke as an outlaw, set sail with his four children in the schooner Wanderer--bound for the South Seas. His attempt to escape launched his autobiography. It is the candid, sometimes painfully revealing confession of a man who scrutinized his every self-defeat and self-betrayal in the unblinking light of conscience.

Book Synopsis

Since its publication in 1963, Sterling Hayden's autobiography, Wanderer, has been surrounded by controversy. The author was at the peak of his earning power as a movie star when he suddenly quit. He walked out on Hollywood, walked out of a shattered marriage, defied the courts, broke as an outlaw, set sail with his four children in the schooner Wanderer--bound for the South Seas. His attempt to escape launched his autobiography. It is the candid, sometimes painfully revealing confession of a man who scrutinized his every self-defeat and self-betrayal in the unblinking light of conscience.

Review Quotes

...one unforgettable voyage...under a captain whose words may echo in your mind and whose attitude may inform your spirit for the rest of your life.


A superb piece of writing...Echoes from Poe and Melville to Steinbeck and Mailer. A work of fascination on every level.

An impressive writer. Like Fitzgerald, Hayden is a romantic. His writing about the sea evokes echoes of Conrad and McFee, of London and Galsworthy...Beautifully done.

Hayden's wonderful autobiography Wanderer ...should be in every main salon aboard every boat. Hayden's life can't be emulated, but it is instructive

About the Author

Sterling Hayden (1916-1986) is most widely known for his acting (Asphalt Jungle, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, and The Godfather). However, throughout his life he punctuated his acting stints with bouts of adventuring, or wandering. He started out as a humble dory fisherman in the Grand Banks, captained a two-masted brig from Boston to Tahiti, and sailed around the world twice, all before he appeared on film. After his first Hollywood period, he enlisted in the marines under a pseudonym, eventually working as an undercover agent for the OSS. He split his later years between a canal boat in Paris and an apartment in Sausalito where he wrote much of his novel, Voyage.