Overview

At the peak of his power, in the 1940s and 1950s, William Francis Gibbs was considered America's best naval architect. His quest to build the finest, fastest, most beautiful ocean liner of his time, the S.S. United States, was a topic of national fascination. When completed in 1952, the ship was hailed as a technological masterpiece at a time when ""made in America"" meant the best. Gibbs was an American original, on par with John Roebling of the Brooklyn Bridge and Frank Lloyd Wright of Fallingwater. Forced to drop out of Harvard following his family's sudden financial ruin, he overcame debilitating shyness and lack of formal training to become the visionary creator of some of the finest ships in history. He spent forty years dreaming of the ship that became the S.S. United States. William Francis Gibbs was driven, relentless, and committed to excellence. He loved his ship, the idea of it, and the realization of it, and he devoted himself to making it the epitome of luxury travel during the triumphant post-World War II era. Biographer Steven Ujifusa brilliantly describes the way Gibbs worked and how his vision transformed an industry. A Man and His Ship is a tale of ingenuity and enterprise, a truly remarkable journey on land and sea.

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Reviews

"In his debut, Ujifusa harks back to a time when men were men, and transatlantic ships were serious business . . . Written with passion and thoroughness, this is a love letter to a bygone time and the ships that once ruled the seas.-- ""Publishers Weekly Starred Review"" ""A terrific book! By entertaining, informing and ultimately inspiring, A Man and His Ship transforms its readers into passengers traveling across an ocean and through time. A skilled verbal navigator, Steven Ujifusa has charted an efficient and yet immensely satisfying course through a sea of facts, images and stories."" -- ""David Macaulay, author of Cathedral, Castle, and The Way Things Work"" ""Few of man's creations possess even half the romance of the passenger ships that once steamed across the world's oceans, especially the North Atlantic. That is why Steven Ujifusa's A Man and His Ship is such a compelling work."" -- ""Wall Street Journal"" ""In his debut, Ujifusa harks back to a time when men were men, and transatlantic ships were serious business...Written with passion and thoroughness, this is a love letter to a bygone time and the ships that once ruled the seas."" -- ""Publishers Weekly, starred review"" ""Ujifusa describes the construction of the ship in engrossing detail and provides informative digressions on the golden age of ocean travel, when liners carried millionaires, celebrities, and desperate refugees."" -- ""Booklist"""

Author Information

Steven Ujifusa, the author of A Man and His Ship, serves on the Advisory Council of the S.S. United States Conservancy. He received his master's degree in historic preservation and real estate from the University of Pennsylvania and his B.A. in history from Harvard University. Pete Larkin is an accomplished voice-over actor, award-winning audiobook narrator, and on-camera host. He was the public address announcer for the New York Mets and has worked as a radio jockey in New York, Baltimore, and Washington, DC.

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