BROOKS, KENNETH F., JR. (1921– ). Kenneth F. Brooks Jr., a decorated World War II pilot living near Washington, D.C., spent his childhood
summers on his uncle’s sailboat in the Chesapeake Bay and continues to
sail. In Run to the Lee (1965) Brooks recounts a voyage made by his greatuncle John Talbott in 1904 on a ninety-foot schooner, the Albatross, from
Baltimore to Solomons Island, fifty miles south. When the crew fell ill from
spoiled oysters, Talbott battled a storm alone at the helm, reaching safe
harbor. Chesapeake Sleighride (1970) is a fictionalized, illustrated version of
the same story written for juvenile* readers. Here the author narrates from the viewpoint of one of the crew, a fictional fourteen-year-old boy who did
not eat the spoiled oysters and who assists the captain in sailing through the
storm.