W. Clark Russell
William Clark Russell was born in New York in 1844 to a prominent English family. He joined the Merchant Navy at the tender age of 13, and spent eight years at sea. The harsh conditions permanently damaged his health, and on returning to Britain he began to develop a career as a writer, particularly on nautical subjects, including a regular column in The Daily Telegraph. His career took off with the publication in 1877 of The Wreck of the ‘Grosvenor’, his second nautical novel. He was very well respected for the lyrical clarity of his prose: Swinburne described him as ‘the greatest master of the sea, living or dead’; he also corresponded for many years with Herman Melville. He concurrently campaigned passionately for improvements in the lives and conditions of merchant sailors. He died in 1911 at the age of 67.
