(4) Antique and Vintage Nautical Themed Books and (2) 19th Century Letters. The letters are between two cousins in 1833 discussing ill health and the need to keep their faith in trying times, with the remains of a wax seal at the end. They are preserved in plastic to keep them from deteriorating further. The books include "Ship's Company" by W. W. Jacobs from 1911, "The Ship" by C. S. Forester from 1943, "The Water World" by Professor J. W. van Dervoort from 1884, and "The History of the Sea" by Frank B. Goodrich with additions by Edward Howland, making it the 1880 edition. 

Condition: All commensurate with age. 

Size: 7 x 10 x 2 1/2 in. 

Nautical fiction (frequently also called naval fiction, sea fiction, naval adventure fiction, or maritime fiction) is a genre of literature with a setting on or near the sea, that focuses on the human relationship to the sea and voyages to highlight nautical culture in these environments. The settings of nautical fiction vary greatly, including merchant ships, liners, naval ships, fishing vessels, life boats, along with sea ports and fishing villages. When describing nautical fiction, scholars most frequently refer to novels, novellas, and short stories, sometimes under the name of sea novels or sea stories. These works are often adapted for the theater, film and television. The development of nautical fiction follows with the development of the English language novel and while the tradition is mainly British and North American, there are also significant works from literature in Japan, France, Scandinavia, and other Western and Eastern traditions. Though the treatment of themes and settings related to the sea and maritime culture is common throughout the history of western literature, nautical fiction, as a distinct genre, is generally acknowledged to have been pioneered by James Fenimore Cooper and Frederick Marryat in the early 19th Century. The genre has evolved to include notable literary works like Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick,” Joseph Conrad’s “Lord Jim,” Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea,” and works of modern popular fiction such as C.S. Forester’s Hornblower series, Herman Wouk’s “The Caine Mutiny,” and nearly the entire oeuvre of Peter Benchley (“Jaws,” “The Deep,” “Beast,” etc.). Because of the historical dominance of nautical culture by men, they are usually the central characters, except for works that feature ships carrying women passengers. For this reason, nautical fiction is often marketed for men, and contemporary works that often incorporate factual events or creative nonfiction still frequently eschew the impact and involvement of real women who sailed the high seas. Nautical fiction usually includes distinctive themes, such as a focus on masculinity, mortality, and heroism, investigations of social hierarchies, and the psychological struggles of the individual in the hostile environment of the sea. Stylistically, readers of the genre expect an emphasis on thrills and danger, accurate representation of maritime culture, and use of nautical language. Works of nautical fiction may also be romances, fantasy, and adventure fiction, and even overlap with the genres of war fiction, children’s literature, travel narratives (such as the Robinsonade), the social problem novel, and psychological fiction. Nautical fiction and nonfiction have also served as chronicles of the human desire to explore and grow, as evidenced by the popular shift to space-faring fiction in the mid 20th Century as the sea was no longer viewed as the “final frontier.” 

All commensurate with age.