William McFee was a writer of sea stories. He was born on the Erin’s Isle, a three-master owned by his father, a sea captain. Educated at Culford School, he became a mechanical engineer at Richard Moreland & Sons and W. Summerscales & Sons in the City, before going to sea as a marine engineer in 1906.
He rose to chief engineer in ships of the Woodfield SS Co.; went to the United States in 1911 to live in Westport, Connecticut. He was with the United Fruit Co., as chief until 1924, when he turned definitively to writing. In addition to books, he also wrote reviews for The New York Sun and The New York Times. His narrative power made him to a master of that art.
(1881 – 1966)
– William McFee Quotes –
The world belongs to the enthusiast who keeps cool.
~ William McFee
Terrible and sublime thought, that every moment is supreme for some man and woman, every hour the apotheosis of some passion!
~ William McFee
A young man must let his ideas grow, not be continually rooting them up to see how they are getting on.
~ William McFee
If we go back a little way in the history of story-writing, we shall find that, following on the unique success of Dickens as a serialist, a number of other men achived a somewhat similar success without the greatness.
~ William McFee
Doing what’s right is no guarantee against misfortune.
~ William McFee
Fear, born of that stern matron, Responsibility.
~ William McFee
If fate means you to lose, give him a good fight anyhow.
~ William McFee
One must choose between Obscurity with Efficiency, and Fame with its inevitable collateral of Bluff.
~ William McFee
People don’t ever seem to realize that doing what’s right is no guarantee against misfortune.
~ William McFee
There is nothing like an odor to stir memories.
~ William McFee
It is so much easier to tell intimate things in the dark.
~ William McFee
There are some men whom a staggering emotional shock, so far from making them mental invalids for life, seems, on the other hand, to awaken, to galvanize, to arouse into an almost incredible activity of soul.
~ William McFee
