The Strenuous Life of Harry Anderson

In his quiet, unassuming, and persuasive way, Harry Anderson has been the most influential presence in international sailing for the past 50 years. There’s nary a maritime organization or yacht club of significance he has not been associated with or commanded; a noteworthy body of water upon which he has not competed, sailed, or officiated; or a praiseworthy restaurant where he has not dined. The ubiquitous Anderson has raised glasses in all the smart waterfront taverns around the world. Presidents and royals take his calls. Communicator, problem-solver, philanthropist, and friend—sailors, from Hall of Famers to captains, know him as Harry.

Henry Hill Anderson Jr. was raised in an era when yachting was gentrified, exclusive. He watched his family’s friend Mike Vanderbilt race in the 1937 America’s Cup from the deck of a 300-foot private yacht. Before he was 20 Anderson had sailed in his first Bermuda Race, traveled the coast of Labrador as part of a scientific expedition, and raced 6-Metre and 12-Metre sloops on Long Island Sound. Since then, he has dedicated his life to popularizing the sport. He sees sailing as education, and he has tirelessly supported and promoted it, whether as commodore of the Pine Knot Yacht Club, the Yale Corinthian Yacht Club, or the New York Yacht Club (among many others), or as U.S. Sailing director or Congressional Cup judge. 

What adds sparkle to this engaging tale is the unique perspective Anderson’s life provides on a fascinating period of American history. Harry Anderson attended the only migratory prep school in the country. With the Rockefellers, the Morgans, and other notables, his family was part of the social Adirondacks “camp” scene of the early 1900s. His Long Island homestead was down the road from Teddy Roosevelt’s house in Oyster Bay, New York. His relatives (they include Vice President Aaron Burr) had town houses in Manhattan, mansions on Jekyll Island, and a “cottage” in Newport, Rhode Island. Commodore Anderson witnessed the last days of Newport’s Gilded Age, lived through Prohibition, the Great Depression, and the explosive development of Long Island, served in World War II (field artillery), and helped run 25 years of America’s Cups. Yale Sailing has a race course named after him.     

The print edition of The Strenuous Life of Harry Anderson features 336 pages of incredible content complete with over 75 incredible photographs spanning nearly 90 years of Harry's life. The enhanced iBook edition features all of the same, PLUS seven embedded videos and ten audio snippets from Harry's Mystic Seaport oral history.

One of the videos features vintage footage of Harry at 18 years of age at the Adirondack-Florida School, while five are produced from an interview between Harry and author Roger Vaughan at Mystic Seaport this past spring. These cover diverse subjects from the Anderson family's relationship with the Vanderbilts right before World War II, to the current creation of an Olympic Sailing Center at Yale. Harry dishes it all up, from serious reflection on what sailing means to him, to revealing his more humorous side when he describes drinking "green cups" at Mory's. He then tells an inside joke about a mysteriously disappearing bottle of sherry and the suspected culprit aboard J.P. Morgan's yacht during a trans-Atlantic crossing. The final video in the book is an amazing 18-minute production of A Day With Harry, filmed just this summer at his beloved Boulaceet Farm on Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

It has been a strenuous life, but Harry Anderson—now in his 93nd year—remains unable to sit still.