San Diego Shore Stories

Max Miller, a special reporter for the San Diego Sun, has always been fascinated by life on the Western waterfront. Embraced by all the waterfront folk, he has joined them on their cruises, learned the mystery of their crafts, and knows them like brothers.

Max himself has become a part of the waterfront. Not a fishing boat ties up to the wharf without Max Miller getting the story, and not a submarine comes in or an airplane soars out over the water without Max Miller being invited to go. He is one of the first men to climb up the ladder of the Pacific lines, especially when celebrities are aboard.

The author, a combination of newspaper reporter, philosopher, and poet, writes his charming sketches in his “studio” upstairs in the tugboat office, where he can look out over his domain. But reporting is not simply a job for Max Miller; it is the greatest pleasure of his life. He delights in setting down his impressions of the Western shore, where life is a constant flux and reflux, seasonal, immutable, and yet ever exciting—the departure of the Sardine Fleet, the hunt for elephant seals for the zoo, the sailing of the California fruit liners.

"I Cover the Waterfront" was first published in the early 1930s and has since gone on to become a classic. It is as memorable for its unique stories as it is for its individual style—so keenly sensitive to the personalities of men and to the romantic environment of the harbor and deep-sea life.

The New York Times described it as "distinctive, original, fresh in tone and manner, with a quaint whimsicality of feeling and expression." Life on the Western waterfront has always fascinated Max Miller, a special reporter for the San Diego Sun. Embraced by all the waterfront folk, he has joined them on their cruises, has learned the mystery of their crafts, and knows them like brothers.

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