American Literature of the Sea and Great Lakes

LANE, CARL [DANIEL] (1899-1995). Carl Lane, a nautical writer and illustrator born in New York City, developed his love for the sea while vacationing in Maine, where he eventually settled. Lane wrote The Fleet in the Forest (1943), a Great Lakes* historical novel about the construction of Commodore Oliver Perry’s Lake Erie fleet during the War of 1812 and a prophetic shipwright’s anticipation about an unsettled wilderness lake. Other fiction includes River Dragon (1948), a historical children’s novel about steamboats, The Fire Raft (1951), and Black Tide (1952).

A noted sailor, designer, and builder of yachts, Lane revamped the Boy Scouts of America’s Sea Scout Manual; wrote for several publications, including Saturday Evening Post, Sea Power, and Collier’s; and penned his own authoritative sailing handbooks: Boatowner’s Sheet Anchor (1941), The Boatman’s Manual (1943), How to Sail (1947), and The Cruiser’s Manual (1949). [See also JUVENILE LITERATURE OF THE SEA]

Donald P. Curtis