The cradle of the deep

Her memoir describing her childhood attracted media attention and praise. But the acclaim turned to anger when her autobiography was outed as a fiction and it was revealed that she had been raised at her family's home in a middle-class California suburb. This is the story of Joan Lowell, whose colorful 1929 childhood memoir, "The Cradle of the Deep," about her experiences growing up on a schooner sailing the Pacific Ocean and South Seas in the early years of the 20th century, was the literary sensation and scandal of its time. - Anne Colby, Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2008.