The Last Fine Time

Verlyn Klinkenborg · first published 1991 · ISBN 9780679737186

A book about the Great Lakes shipping industry, structured around Klinkenborg's conversations with an elderly ship captain. Through the captain's stories and memories, the book traces the history of a particular way of working: the freighters, the captains who spent their lives on the water, the decline of an industry. It's both biography and cultural history, grounded in specific voices and places.