This classic memoir of a reporter’s life covering the Depression Era San Diego waterfront “has the touch of something dangerously like genius” (Los Angeles Times).
Life along the Western shore has always fascinated Max Miller, a special reporter for the San Diego Sun. Embraced by all the waterfront folk, he has joined them on their cruises, learned the mystery of their crafts, and knows them like brothers. Not a submarine comes in, or an airplane soars out over the water without Max Miller being invited to go. He is one of the first men to climb up the ladder of the Pacific lines, especially when celebrities are aboard. As Max himself puts it in the opening passage of this beloved memoir, “I have been here so long that even the sea gulls must recognize me.”
A combination of newspaper reporter, philosopher and poet, Max writes his charming sketches in his “studio” upstairs in the tugboat office, looking out over his domain. Here, life is a constant flux and reflux, seasonal, immutable and yet ever exciting—the departure of the Sardine Fleet, the hunt for elephant seals for the zoo, the sailing of the California fruit liners.
I Cover the Waterfront was a surprise bestseller when it was first published in 1932. It is as memorable for its unique stories and vivid characters as for its ability to capture the romance of the harbor and deep-sea life.
