Inland Sailing describes the poet's eleven year odyssey during which he reinvented himself. Disillusioned after serving with Army Intelligence in post-war Germany, MacDougall returned to the States to pursue further education. He graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in mathematics from Portland State University and accepted a full Ph.D. scholarship to the University of Chicago. But his conscience was too deeply stricken by what he had come home to in the 1960s: campus riots, a nation deeply divided over the Vietnam War and ...
Read More
Inland Sailing describes the poet's eleven year odyssey during which he reinvented himself. Disillusioned after serving with Army Intelligence in post-war Germany, MacDougall returned to the States to pursue further education. He graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in mathematics from Portland State University and accepted a full Ph.D. scholarship to the University of Chicago. But his conscience was too deeply stricken by what he had come home to in the 1960s: campus riots, a nation deeply divided over the Vietnam War and social injustices. Deeply troubled, MacDougall dropped out of the safety net of a predictable academic career and began a personal quest. The sheer physicality of his job as a seaman on the Great Lakes, the men he worked with, and the mental genius and heart he brought to the whole social experiment -- himself being the primary laboratory animal -- contributed to his transformation.Leaving the ore boats in 1981, MacDougall changed his surname to symbolize the new man he had become and his desire for a new beginning. He was ever after a champion of America's working class.
Read Less
