All taut

All Taut is one of Oliver Optic’s many novels for boys in his nautical adventure series. The all taut phrase is a sailing term meaning all lines pulled tight and the vessel ready for sailing, with the title pointing to the nautical setting that the novel develops around. The standard moral and character development of the wider Optic catalogue is framed within the sailing context.

Oliver Optic was the pen name of William Taylor Adams, a Massachusetts writer who became one of the most prolific producers of boys’ fiction in mid to late nineteenth century America with more than a hundred novels.

For scholars of nineteenth century American children’s literature or of the wider career of Oliver Optic, the various novels in his catalogue are essential. Many are now in the public domain.