Fisherman 28 (1930)
by Jack Calvin
This is the classic story of Bristol Bay’s sailboat era. It has been read in its entirety by Bob King on KDLG, a Dillingham radio station heard throughout Bristol Bay during their summer fund drive. In it Calvin describes the best glimpse into what the day-to-day life was like for sailboat fishers. Calvin, a Stanford literature professor, hobnobbed with the likes of John Steinbeck, Joseph Campbell, Ed Weston and Ed Ricketts of the Monterey intellectual circle. He and his wife took a honeymoon canoe paddle from Tacoma, Washington up Alaska’s inland passage to Sitka where his wife, Sasha Kashevaroff, was from. His story of the trip is in the July 1933 issue of National Geographic. He also took many trips around Southeast Alaska in his 33-foot sailboat Grampus and journeyed up to the Bay for two commercial fishing seasons. He writes from a wealth of first hand experience.
