A Pirate Of Exquisite Mind. The Life Of William Dampier

Cover Type: Softcover
Book Condition: Good
Jacket Condition: None Issued
Publisher: Corgi
Publisher Place: London
Publisher Year: 2005
Edition: Reprint

Description: 511 pages. Book is in general good condition. There is some light reading wear present, but still a presentable copy.

Publishers Description: William Dampier, (1651-1715), was an English adventurer and pirate who preyed on ships on the Spanish Main. Poor and ill-educated and determined to make his fortune, he nonetheless had a passion for exploration and scientific research. Dampier was the first to map the winds and currents of the worlds oceans; led the first recorded party of Englishmen to set foot on Australia - 80 years before Cook; wrote about Galapagos wildlife 150 years before Darwin, who drew on Dampiers notes in his own work; was the first travel writer: A NEW VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD was an instant bestseller when it was published in 1697 - said to have influenced the novels of Swift and Defoe. A man full of contradictions: he who achieved so much blew it later in life, declining into scandal, failure and even farce. A unique man ahead of his time, he lived a large part of his life among pirates yet managed to preserve what Coleridge called his "exquisite refinement of mind". A classic example of the best narrative history.

ISBN: 9780552772105