Gilbert Mer’s over 900 page unpublished manuscript, entitled "One Step at a Time - Some Backward," an autobiographical account of Mer’s years on the Texas waterfront as a longshoreman and radical union activist. Portions of the manuscript were published in 1988 by University of Texas Press under the title "Working on the Waterfront."

Title varies: first page reads, "One step at a time, some backward," the vast majority of pages that follow are titled "One step at a time, many backward." Signed on page 905 "Houston, Texas, May 26, 1982" and at end of afterward "John Gilbert Mers, Houston, Texas, August 6, 1982."