The Screw of the Tern

About the Book

In the far-off 1960’s, Will Melville was one of those young guys who flunked out of college and had a hard time choosing between military service in Vietnam and leaving the country. As he said in the beginning, “When the lights came on, I knew I was in the dark.”

About the Author

Desmond Scott Rubinstein (pictured) was a prolific ghostwriter for Brown & Shue in the early 1970s. He graciously edited my father’s diary of his brief adventure on the yacht, the Tern. As mentioned in the story, they met by accident at the museum of art shortly before Scott’s untimely death in 1974. My dad said he always intended to publish Scott’s manuscript, but persistent health issues got in the way. I actually never saw the manuscript until a few months ago when his son, Aaron Rubinstein, called me from his hospital bed at Sloan-Kettering and told me the final draft was in an empty cookie tin in the tree house of an old live oak where he used to live. He also told me that my grand-uncle, Captain Robert Melville, whom I never had the chance to meet, died in a plane crash in October 2001.

Thanks to the great professional assistance of the entire iUniverse staff, I have been able to honor the short life-long friendship of my father and Mr. Rubinstein. I’m sure they’re still the best of friends.

Christopher Melville (July 2014)