Joyce James

Round About the Earth: Circumnavigation from Magellan to Orbit

2012réf. 2337583New York: Simon & Schuster 2012. 1st Printing. Trade Paperback. Near Fine. 6x1x8. First printing. Remainder mark on page base. Binding tight and square pages clean bright and unmarked. 2012 Trade Paperback. xxi 535 pp. For almost 500 years human beings have been finding ways to circle the Earth - by sail steam or liquid fuel; by cycling driving flying going into orbit even by using their own bodily power. The story begins with the first centuries of circumnavigation when few survived the attempt: In 1519 Ferdinand Magellan left Spain with five ships and 270 men but only one ship and 35 men returned not including Magellan who died in the Philippines. Starting with these dangerous voyages Joyce Chaplin takes us on a trip of our own as we travel with Francis Drake William Dampier Louis-Antoine de Bougainville and James Cook. Eventually sea travel grew much safer and passengers came on board. The most famous was Charles Darwin but some intrepid women became circumnavigators too - a Lady Brassey for example. Circumnavigation became a fad as captured in Jules Verne's classic novel Around the World in Eighty Days. Once continental railroads were built circumnavigators could traverse sea and land. Newspapers sponsored racing contests and people sought ways to distinguish themselves - by bicycling around the world for instance or by sailing solo. Steamships turned round-the-world travel into a luxurious experience as with the tours of Thomas Cook & Son. Famous authors wrote up their adventures including Mark Twain and Jack London and Elizabeth Jane Cochrane better known as Nellie Bly. Finally humans took to the skies to circle the globe in airplanes. Not much later Sputnik Gagarin and Glenn pioneered a new kind of circumnavigation - in orbit. Through it all the desire to take on the planet has tested the courage and capacity of the bold men and women who took up the challenge. Their exploits show us why we think of the Earth as home. Round About the Earth is itself a thrilling adventure. Simon & Schuster paperback books

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