The 1940 voyage to the Sea of Cortez (now the Gulf of California) undertaken by novelist John Steinbeck and marine biologist Ed Ricketts has long captured our imaginations. Only the previous year Steinbeck had published Grapes of Wrathwhile Ricketts had issued Between the tides of the Pacific, an ecological study. The two were great friends, and their plan to sail the West Circular go down to Mexico and co-write a book about the trip worked, for the most part.
The following year, their collaboration, Sea of Cortez: A Carefree Journal of Travel and Research, appeared. Consisting of a narrative diary and a 328-page catalog of sea creatures, it is a book perhaps less well known in the Steinbeck canon than among those interested in the history of modern environmentalism. But ten years later, after Ricketts’ death, Steinbeck had a shorter version of the book reissued under a slightly different title – The Log from the Sea of Cortez — and with only his name as the author. Scholars can only guess at the reason for this literary levity.
In 2014, the wooden boat that Steinbeck and Ricketts had commissioned for their trip, docked and decaying in Port Townsend, Washington, became a subject of debate. Some wanted to restore it, others wanted to make it a centerpiece in a hotel. As we reported in 2018, a foundation is funding her current restoration, with plans to start sailing again next year.
And now, Arion Press has once again renewed our interest in this tale. Eighty years after the famous excursion, the San Francisco-based press publishes a “hybrid” typographic edition of Sea and Record. This handcrafted fine press edition incorporates reclaimed wood from the West Circular and illustrations by renowned wood engraver Richard Wagener, as well as an original map and endpapers by artist Martin Machado. The edition is limited to 250 copies in three binding options, but the more expensive Variant and Deluxe editions are already sold out. The limited edition, pictured at the top, is “bound in ridged pearlescent fabric with dark red coral paper sides printed with a Wagener-derived starfish pattern,” according to the flyer. It sells for $2,200. A limited number of West Circular prints are also available.