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Description
by F. Hopkinson Smith
This book is in good condition overall but the front and back end papers are torn and there is a section with a damp stain. It also has some fraying at the corners of the boards and an ex-Libris sticker on the inside of the front cover (see pictures). It is surprisingly heavy. This is a first edition of this book.
Caleb West, Master Diver is a novel published in 1898 by Francis Hopkinson Smith that was the best selling book in the United States in 1898. It was first serialized in The Atlantic Monthly from October 1897 to March 1898, and was published in book form by Houghton Mifflin in April 1898 with illustrations by Malcolm Fraser and Arthur I. Keller. The book is based on Smith's experience in the building of the Race Rock Light near Fishers Island, New York in the 1870s. It is a drama played out between the men buildig a lighthouse--the sea captain, his crew of sailors, Caleb West (the master diver hired for the job) and his wife who gets a bit lonely and too involved with another seaman while Caleb is away and eventually leave him to escape the boredom of the waiting sea widow. But through trials the two are eventually reunitied.
Francis Hopkinson Smith (October 23, 1838 – April 7, 1915) was a United States author, artist and engineer. He built the foundation for the Statue of Liberty, wrote many famous stories and received awards for his paintings.
Smith was born in Baltimore, Maryland, a descendant of Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He graduated from the Boys' Latin School of Maryland. Smith became a contractor in New York City and did much work for the federal government, including the stone ice-breaker at Bridgeport, Connecticut, the jetties at the mouth of the Connecticut River, the foundation for the Bartholdi Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, the Race Rock Lighthouse (southwest of Fishers Island, New York) and many life-saving stations. His vacations were spent sketching in the White Mountains, in Cuba and in Mexico. He also visited and sketched in Venice, Constantinople and the Netherlands.
His first popular book was Col. Carter of Cartersville (1891). His 1896 novel Tom Grogan and 1898 novel Caleb West were each the best selling book in the United States in the year of their release.
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