The View from the Masthead: Maritime Imagination and Antebellum American Sea Narratives

Hester Blum ’95 (University of North Carolina Press). Through examining first-person narratives of 19th-century working sailors, from little-known sea tales to more famous works by Herman Melville and James Fenimore Cooper, the author argues that these laborers contributed to literary culture. Blum is an assistant professor of English at Pennsylvania State University.

Paw in print

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PAW's October 2026 cover, featuring a photo of a loaf of challah bread and the headline "The Braids That Bind."
The Latest Issue

October 2026

Holding on to Jewish life; Katy Anderson Keating ’08’s career in wine; Hollywood loves Princeton.