The Little Wide Mouth Gecko

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The Little Wide Mouth Gecko
David M. Alexander
Manufacturer: Desk Top Publishers, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1892455005

Book Description

At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.

The River of Doubt—it is a black, uncharted tributary of the Amazon that snakes through one of the most treacherous jungles in the world. Indians armed with poison-tipped arrows haunt its shadows; piranhas glide through its waters; boulder-strewn rapids turn the river into a roiling cauldron.

After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Together with his son Kermit and Brazil’s most famous explorer, Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many at the time refused to believe it. In the process, he changed the map of the western hemisphere forever.

Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide. The River of Doubt brings alive these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived.
From the soaring beauty of the Amazon rain forest to the darkest night of Theodore Roosevelt’s life, here is Candice Millard’s dazzling debut.

Customer Reviews:

What an Adventure.......2007-10-18

What a great book. It is amazing to me that in the face of all the danger and near death experiences, these men continued to behave in the most civilized manor. Very inspiring for me.

river of doubt.......2007-10-06

This book was great, if you like adventure, exploration, or teddy roosevelt this is the book for you.
not boaring at all this book is awsome

A Gripping Tale of Men of Character.......2007-09-21

Oh, for a President who had even one tenth of the character and integrity of the Teddy Roosevelt portrayed in this book. This is a real-life version of Conrad's Heart of Darkness, but the central figure never loses his sense of dedication and honor. Although there is plenty of suspense, even horror, in the story, I found it to be ultimately quite inspiring.

Awesome.......2007-09-20

This book went into so much detail about TR's expedition in Brazil that is hardly mentioned in other books on his life. And what a story it is! I heartily recommend it to anyone.

They Don't Make Presidents Like this Anymore..........2007-09-20

And that's not a statement of partisan politics, but it does say a lot about leadership. Volumes have been written about Theodore Roosevelt, the soldier, the statesman, the adventurer, and the president, but if there is a single book that captures the vitality, the determination, and the indomitable spirit of this great American, it is "The River of Doubt." Former National Geographic writer and editor Candice Miller pulls no punches and leaves no stone unturned in spinning this vibrant and suspense-packed tale of risk and discovery cutting through the heart of the Amazonian jungle on an uncharted Brazilian river. Miller brings the Amazon to life in all its bloody glory, an unfathomably dangerous place where even the frogs are deadly, where schools of piranhas can turn an ox - or a man - to a skeleton in minutes, a place where, despite caymans and poison dart-wielding natives, it is the insects - insects of all types and descriptions - that pose the greatest risk.

This is an epic journey facing not only the challenges of a wild river cascading over rapids and waterfalls through an impenetrable jungle, but also treachery and even murder. Roosevelt and expedition co-lead Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon, an officer of the Brazilian military and renowned Amazon explorer, find themselves surprisingly ill-equipped for their voyage through one of the planets most inhospitable regions, and ironically are soon near starvation in a green hell that while teaming with life, food is stubbornly unattainable. Meanwhile, it is a poignant tale of the bond between father and son, as Roosevelt and second son Kermit alternately sacrifice and suffer for each other while proudly denying emotion. This is one of those stories that, after weeks of terror, when Roosevelt and the tattered remains of his party emerge feverish from malaria and near starvation, you'll ask, "why haven't I heard about this before now."

Were this fiction, it would strain the bounds of credibility. But that this is the story of a former President of the United States is truly staggering. A remarkable achievement, "The River of Doubt" is a must read, illuminating a fascinating slice of world history in the twilight of the age of exploration while providing an intimate peak into the unparalleled character of Theodore Roosevelt. Bully!

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Lewis & Clark go down the Amazon...
An incredible journey

Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon
William Lewis Herndon
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0802137040

Book Description

In 1857, Captain William Lewis Herndon sacrificed his life trying to save 600 passengers and crew when his ship foundered in a hurricane off the Carolina coast. Memorialized in Gary Kinder's best-selling book Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea, Herndon, with this final courageous act, epitomized a lifetime of heroism. Seven years earlier, the secretary of the Navy had appointed Herndon to lead the first American expedition into the Amazon Valley. Herndon departed Lima, Peru, on May 20, 1851, and arrived at Para, Brazil, nearly a year later, traveling 4,000 miles by foot, mule, canoe, and small boat. He cataloged the scientific and commercial observations requested by Congress, but he filed his report as a narrative, creating an intimate portrait of an exotic land before the outside world rushed in. Herndon's report so far surpassed his superiors' expectations that instead of printing the obligatory few hundred copies for Congress, the secretary of the Navy ordered 10,000 copies in the first print run; three months later, he ordered 20,000 more. Herndon described his adventures with such insight, such compassion and wit, and such literary grace that he came to symbolize the new spirit of exploration and discovery sweeping mid-nineteenth-century America. For the next hundred years, Herndon's report languished out of print before being revived briefly in 1951. Now, for the first time in nearly fifty years, Gary Kinder and Grove Press bring to readers one of the greatest chronicles of travel and exploration ever written.

Customer Reviews:

Lewis & Clark go down the Amazon..........2001-04-06

... but told in a much more stylish and readable manner. I bought this book on the strength of reading about Capt. Herndon's sacrifice in Gary Kinder's "Ship of Gold...". He seemed to epitomise the old-style captain, caring about his passengers, crew and above all his ship, and I was interested to read more about the man.

I was not disappointed; what could have been a dusty tome full of only facts and figures, emerges as a rivetting account of the trials endured during the trip, and vivid descriptions of a land that was as yet virtually unknown to the 'civilised' world, told as a very readable narrative. This easy style is what captured the hearts and minds of the Anmerican (and European) public in a book which went into several reprints of 10,000s (as opposed to the usual Congress print run of 100+!).

It also captured the imagination of a certain Samuel Clemens, who, after reading the book, immediately took steamer from St.Louis to New Orleans to get a boat to the Amazon. Imagine his disappointment when he found no passage ... sitting, bemoaning his ill luck, he hears the cries of the steamers "Mark twain!" - the rest is history.

I have one reservation (hence only ****); during his editing & research for the book, Mr.Kinder deletes a lot of sections that I personally would have found very interesting, such as crops grown, goods & minerals available and costs of trade items. If these had been included as an appendix, I think it would have added to the charm of the book.

Nevertheless, one of the best pieces of historical travel writing I have ever read.

An incredible journey.......2001-04-05

Captain William Lewis Herndon gives a very well written narrative of what it was like to explore South America in 1851-1852. He took the first United States' expedition from the west side of the Peruvian Andes,then over and through the Brazilian Amazon to the Atlantic Ocean. His desriptions of the local people and their cultures, along with how they survived, their agricultural methods and practices are fascinating. He also includes geological, botanical and zoological observations all along the way. He describes how difficult it was to cross the Andes at elevations above 17,000 feet, the mining industries in the mountains, what kinds of plants grow here and there, the animals they encounter. A few unbelievable (but verifiable?) accounts were of the tailed people who lived up the Jurua tributary, the three and a half foot people, blue mud, etc. These were all enjoyable to read. The only drawback was the overall purpose of the expedition. It was a way to exploit the Andes Mountains and Amazon of their natural resources, from the gold, silver, etc in the mountains to harvesting the forests for commercial use. Just like Gary Kinder said in his foreword to the book, if Herndon was alive today, he may have a different opinion. A very good read though if you enjoy exploration.

The Rivers Ran East: Travelers' Tales Classics

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Classic tales of the Amazon
The Rivers Ran East
Traveler or Travel-Liar?
The most thrilling true adventure I've ever read

The Rivers Ran East: Travelers' Tales Classics
Leonard Clark
Manufacturer: Travelers' Tales
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 188521166X

Book Description

Long out of print, this is a riveting firsthand account of Leonard Clark’s search for the legendary lost Seven Cities of Cibola — reputedly home to enormous reserves of gold — in the rain forest east of the Peruvian Andes. A former U.S. Army intelligence officer, Clark is joined on his expedition by Inez Pokorny, a gutsy, multilingual female explorer. Their treacherous journey includes encounters with head-hunting Jivaro Indians, man-eating jaguars, 40-foot-long anacondas, poisonous plants, and shamanistic healers. Against the odds, Clark and Pokorny reach their destination, but nearly starve to death trying to transport sacks of gold out of the dense tropical foliage.

Customer Reviews:

overall satisfaction of book and delivery time.......2007-05-29

I AM VERY PLEASED WITH THE BOOK THAT I THOUGHT WAS OUT OF PRINT. A GREAT BOOK AND A GREAT AUTHOR. I FIRST HEARD OF LEONARD CLARK SOME YEARS AGO FROM A MAN WHO ACTUALLY LIVED IN SOUTH AMERICA AND WAS FAMILIAR WITH CLARK.I SO GLAD THAT AMAZON CARRIED THIS BOOK. I JUST TOOK A CHANCE AND TYPED IN THE BOOK NAME AND AMAZON HAD IT. THANKS SO MUCH

Classic tales of the Amazon.......2007-05-13

As a past explorer of the Amazon, covering much of the same territory in the early '70's, I enjoyed this novel whether fiction or not. I am personally inclined to believe all despite other "armchair" reviews that debunk a great book. From 1947 unitl my brief venture, I found much the same as Col. Clarks travels. I wish I had been able to stay there longer and wish someday to acquire an original Hardbound copy of this unit that I was fortunate to read just prior to my own travels. The language excerpt I had copied and found most helpful there in the Peotenal.

The Rivers Ran East.......2006-08-31

An absolutely great book and I enjoyed it especially because my brother, Capt. Bill Morgan, served under Major Leonard Clark, author, during Operation Canary when a small group of OSS personnel were flown to Formosa at the end of WWII to accept the surrender of General Ando and his 400,000 Japanese troops. My brother had the highest regard for Major Clark. When Major Clark went back to China, my brother took over command of Operation Canary. Major Clark invited my brother to join him in his exploration activities after WWII but he was unable to join him because of family responsibilities. Nevertheless, he maintained contact with Len Clark up to Len's untimely death in the upper Amazon as a result of two arrows in his back. Clark was a great explorer and author. I wish he were still alive so that I could shake his hand, sit with him and listen to him tell the stories of his life. Arthur T. Morgan

Traveler or Travel-Liar?.......2005-04-30

As a youngster I read this book so often the school librarian would chuckle each time I checked it out. Then, for years, I completely forgot about it. During that time I lived and worked in the Orinoco and Amazon Basin as a field biologist. When I re-discovered this title I had been working in Amazonian Peru for over a decade. Happy to find the book, I purchased a copy and read it again. Only this time I found myself laughing out loud. Clark did in fact get around while he was in Peru, but he clearly had little understanding of either Spanish or Quechua, and he had a vivid imagination. His facts are such an unreliable mishmash that I could tell immediately where he spent the majority of his time down there: in the bar of the hotel. Perhaps the most telling thing is that, with experience in the region, one can discern the kernel of truth at the heart of each of Clark's fabrications. It is far more instructive to read the journals of great scientist-explorers like Alfred Russel Wallace, Richard Spruce, or Bates...all of whom traversed the Amazon under much more grueling conditions. Their accounts reveal all the wonders and hardships of the area but with none of the silly exaggerations.

The most thrilling true adventure I've ever read.......2004-12-19

I still vividly remember when and how I discovered this treasure of a book (years ago, at the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh). It was the most incredible true adventure I had ever read, and it still is. I have read it repeatedly over the years; somehow the story is always fresh and exciting.

Leonard Clark was a former intelligence officer and a first-class explorer when he set his sights on the fabled land of gold, El Dorado. He started his journey in Lima, Peru, in 1946, with a thousand dollars and a very old Spanish parchment map of El Dorado. One one person was going to accompany him: Jorge Mendoza, a young, college-educated Peruvian who spoke perfect English.

Everyone in Lima remotely acquainted with the area Clark proposed to travel warned him not to go. Much of his path was through completely unexplored and impenetrable jungle territory, where people were regularly murdered or disappeared. Compounding the difficulty was the political situation in Peru, which forced Clark to take a very long and indirect route. He had to first travel east from Lima to Iquitos, then travel west to Borja and Bella Vista, in order to reach El Dorado. His 'cover' was that he was looking for medical secrets of the Indian brujos (witchmen). He did indeed discover amazing jungle remedies, many of which he brought back with him.

The constant stress of heat and humidity; the threat of attacks by headhunting and cannibalistic Indians; insect bites (some of which could blind a man); dangers from wild animals, including enormous man-eating snakes -- and over it all, the incessant sounds of the jungle -- were nearly unendurable for the two men. Every single page in this book is captivating, packed with sounds and smells and images of the jungle that linger in your memory.

About two-thirds of the way through the story, before they reached Iquitos, Jorge's brother died, and he left to head his family's estates -- leaving Clark alone. Inez Pokorny, an American woman who had already traveled for eight months on her way up the Amazon, accompanied Clark on the rest of his journey, from Iquitos west. Her help was inestimable; he described her as 'the best friend any explorer ever had.'

Clark's journey and its culmination surpass any adventure fiction. This is a remarkable book -- describing not just an amazing treasure hunt, but one of the finest pieces of exploration in the Amazon Valley.

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COLLECTION OF GREAT EXPLORERS OF THE AMAZON
A fascinating romp across South America

Explorers of the Amazon
Anthony Smith
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0226763374

Book Description

Explorers of the Amazon vividly describes how European explorers such as Pedro Cabral, Francisco De Orellana, Lope de Aguirre, and Madame Godin encountered the vast wilderness of the Amazon basin; how they searched, exploited, and fought over its riches; and what they learned and failed to learn through four centuries of adventure. Anthony Smith not only enriches this history with fascinating geographical, political, and scientific details but also gives a strong warning to those who continue to exploit this great river's resources.

"The history of Amazonian exploration, wonderfully told by Anthony Smith, is awash with madness—an extravagant mixture of the malevolent and the miraculous."—Stephen Mills, Times Literary Supplement

Customer Reviews:

COLLECTION OF GREAT EXPLORERS OF THE AMAZON.......2006-07-24

The Amazon has always been a source of dreams and threats to European explorers. In this volume, Anthony Smith selects a few explorers and adventurers who have sougth fame, honor, fortune or knowledge in the banks of the Amazon. The selection is a bit random with some characters, but overall provides a very interesting and readable collection of great men and women.

Devoting about 30-40 pages per explorer, the book covers the following:
1) Cabral, the discoverer of Brazil. He was never to the Amazon, so it is a bit unclear what he is doing in this volume.
2) Orellana, the first Spaniard down the Amazon, the first man to report seeing the Amazon women.
3) Aguirre, the madman who went down the Amazon in a murderous rage only to turn back and try to conquer Peru again.
4) Teixeira, the man who asserted Portuguese possession of the Amazon, sailing against the current up the Amazon.
5) Condamine, the first scientist down the Amazon.
6) The Godin's, one fo the greatest love stories in the world, where a woman, separated for 30yrs from her husband, goes down the Amazon to meet him.
7) Humboldt, the last renaissance man, does most of his scientific discoveries in the northern Amazon, including the famous Casiquiare canal.
8) Spruce and Wickham, two botanists and robbers of some of the wealth of the Amazon - cinchona and rubber trees.
9) Arana, the great and evil character of the Putumayo, where some of the greatest atrocities of the rubber boom were committed against indians.

These stories are well told, though some important characters are not listed -- Wallace and Bates, for example. Highly recommended though, as a door to finding out more about this great region and its history.

A fascinating romp across South America.......2002-07-30

I have read and re-read this wonderful account of the history of Amazonian exploration since the hardcover edition first came out in 1990. Anthony Smith, an inveterate science writer, writes with warmth and humor as he describes the very first European travels down this mighty waterway, those of the Spaniards Don Francisco de Orellana and the notorious Lope de Aguirre (the subject of Werner Herzog's 1972 movie "Aguirre, Wrath of God") and the Portugese navigator Pedro Teixeira. Next came the scientists, including la Condamine and von Humboldt followed in the latter nineteenth century by a bevy of entrepeneurs who expropriated rubber and other commodities from the rainforest. A well-written book on a fascinating subject!

Journeys Down the Amazon: Being the Extraordinary Adventures and Achievements of the Early Explorers

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Journeys Down the Amazon: Being the Extraordinary Adventures and Achievements of the Early Explorers
John Michael Cohen
Manufacturer: Transatlantic Arts
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0853141932

Head-hunters of the Amazon;: Seven years of exploration and adventure,

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Head-hunters of the Amazon;: Seven years of exploration and adventure,
Fritz W Up de Graff
Manufacturer: H. Jenkins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Among wild tribes of the Amazons: An account of exploration & adventure on the mighty Amazon & its confluents, with descriptions of the savage head-hunting ... tribes inhabiting their banks

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Among wild tribes of the Amazons: An account of exploration & adventure on the mighty Amazon & its confluents, with descriptions of the savage head-hunting ... tribes inhabiting their banks
Charles W Domville-Fife
Manufacturer: Lippincott
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Drakkars sur l'Amazone: [les Vikings de l'Amerique precolombienne] (Realisme fantastique)

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Drakkars sur l'Amazone: [les Vikings de l'Amerique precolombienne] (Realisme fantastique)
Jacques de Mahieu
Manufacturer: Copernic
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 2859840028

EXPLORATION OF THE VALLEY OF THE AMAZON Great Adventure Library

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EXPLORATION OF THE VALLEY OF THE AMAZON Great Adventure Library
William Lewis; Hamilton Basso, editor Herndon
Manufacturer: Grosset & Dunlap
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000WW91KQ

Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon Made Under the Direction of the Navy Department; Part II

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Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon Made Under the Direction of the Navy Department; Part II
Lardner United States Senate) Gibbon
Manufacturer: GOVERNMENT INFORMATION OFFICE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound
ASIN: B000K5S9S0

Book Description

This enthralling story of survival is the first major narrative of the exploration of North America by Europeans (1528-36). The author of Castaways (Naufragios), Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, was a fortune-seeking nobleman and the treasurer of an expedition to claim for Spain a vast area that includes today's Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. A shipwreck forced him and a handful of men to make the long westward journey on foot to meet up with Hernán Cortés.
In order to survive, Cabeza de Vaca joined native peoples along the way, learning their languages and practices and serving them as a slave and later as a physician. When after eight years he finally reached the West, he was not recognized by his compatriots.
In his writing Cabeza de Vaca displays great interest in the cultures of the native peoples he encountered on his odyssey. As he forged intimate bonds with some of them, sharing their brutal living conditions and curing their sick, he found himself on a voyage of self-discovery that was to make his reunion with his fellow Spaniards less joyful than expected.
Cabeza de Vaca's gripping narrative is a trove of ethnographic information, with descriptions and interpretations of native cultures that make it a powerful precursor to modern anthropology. Frances M. López-Morillas's translation beautifully captures the sixteenth-century original. Based as it is on Enrique Pupo-Walker's definitive critical edition, it promises to become the authoritative English translation.

Customer Reviews:

And the Spaniards also suffer.......2007-04-03

I have learned to dispise the Spanish colonizers for their actions in the New World. I have read enough of their sharpening their swords and practicing on the Native Americans and slaying the men, women and children of native settlements if they didn't convert to Christianity or produce enough gold. So this is a new perspective, that of the Spanish failing and suffering through unimaginable hardship and all along the coast that is now our destination of choice for retirement.

This is a nearly fantastic book, only nearly so because it is true (unless De Vaca embelished his story). If you are intrigued with pre-settlement America and the cultures of Native Americans you will appreciate this read in addition to the survival story. This is a look at Florida and Texas in a different era. This is a story about the ambitions of Spain and the privations men could endure for their religion and their country. Even the style of the writing adds to the true insight into the time and perspective on their outlook on the new world. The chapter titles such as "Of What Befell Lope de Oviedo with Some Indians" and "How We Departed After Eating the Dogs" give you the idea of how the book is structured in addition to how they suffered.

In many historical accounts the Spanish are said to have believed that the New World was the dominion of the devil and all its' people,lands, forests and creatures were works of the devil. It is in accounts like this that you can start to understand their reasoning and belief.

An extraordinary man -- an extraordinary story!.......2006-09-11

Cabeza de Vaca's first hand narrative of his experiences in the New World is one of the most gripping true life adventure stories that you can find.

The story is almost five hundred years old. It begins with his selection as treasurer for a Spanish invasion force of six hundred that was intended to conquer Florida (then thought to be an island), sieze the natives' gold and add their bodies to the Spanish crown while their souls would be dedicated the the Christian God.

Everything went wrong. A hurricane hit. The expeditionary force was separated from their ships and ended up marooned on the Florida Gulf Coast, surrounded by hostile, deadly Indians. Eventually, the survivors slaughtered their horses for food, then melted down their armor to make nails and built boats in the hope of finding their way to Mexico.

Many more men were lost before they made their way to what is now known as Galveston. The survivors experienced starvation, the cowardice of their leader, slavery and even cannibalism. Out of six hundred conquistadores, only four men survived.

Those four men walked across the rest of Texas, wandering almost aimlessly in a search for the Spanish colony of Mexico. By the time they finally arrived in Mexico, after years of privation, they were no longer the same self-sure conquerors who had sailed from Spain. They had developed a following of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Indians who hailed them as "Children of the Sun". Cabeza de Vaca, who had emerged as their leader, fit the description of an Old Testament prophet. His hair had not seen a comb or scissors for several years, while his feet had not seen shoes for almost as long.

Here's an extended quote from Chapter 19:

"A few days after these four Spaniards had departed there came a time of cold and storms so severe that ... five Christians who were encamped on the beach came to such straits that they ate one another until only one was left, who survived because there was no one left to eat him.... The Indians were so indignant about this, and there was so much outrage among them, that undoubtedly if they had seen this when it began to happen they would have killed the men, and all of us would have been in dire peril: in a word, within a very short time only fifteen of the eighty men from both parties who had reached the island were left alive; and after the death of these men, a stomach ailment afflicted the Indians of the land from which half of them died, and they believed it was we who were killing them; and as they were wholly convinced of this, they agreed among themselves to kill those of us who were left."

How's that for action? It's true that the narrative style itself is archaic and stilted at times. But this translation emphasizes simple modern English and cuts through a lot of the difficulty of reading a story that's half a millenium old.

I've read the story of Cabeza de Vaca two or three times over the years. In it, I see an almost mirror image many of the other explorers like De Soto or Cortez: a man who learned to view the New World in a different way, and who became a different man by the experience. His story has action, sure: hurricanes, starvation, slavery, faith healing, a stupid, greedy leader, and a cast of thousands. But at the heart of this journey is the journey of one man's heart.

Absolutely basic to anyone living in Texas and the Southwest.......1999-07-11

To read so much live detail about the way of life of the original inhabitants of parts of Texas and the Southwest is to have one's very conceptions about these places changed. It's an amazing, short read and the editor helps with notes in critical places. I think this is basic reading for anyone even part-way interested in the history of Texas and neighboring states. Cabeza de Vaca's account covers hair-raising events which occurred in the 1530s right here on Galveston Island, so it gives a longer sense of post-Columbian history than one usually gets as a lay reader of Texas and Southwest history. I too don't know why more folks aren't talking about this book. I'm buying copies to give away.

Tale by de Vaca himself of his trials in America.......1998-12-12

Hard to follow at times, you get confused as to how many people are actually following him! It is sometimes slow reading. Yet, the informantion in the book is good.

Empire's Nature: Mark Catesby's New World Vision (Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture)

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Empire's Nature: Mark Catesby's New World Vision (Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture)
Amy R. W. Meyers
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0807824593
Release Date: 1999-02-24

Book Description

Completed in 1747, Mark Catesby's Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands was the first major illustrated publication on the flora and fauna of Britain's American colonies. Together with his Hortus Britanno-Americanus (1763), which detailed plant species that might be transplanted successfully to British soil, Catesby's Natural History exerted an important, though often overlooked, influence on the development of art, natural history, and scientific observation in the eighteenth century.

Inspired by a major traveling exhibition of Catesby's watercolor drawings from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, this collection of interdisciplinary essays considers Catesby's endeavors as a naturalist-artist, scientific explorer, experimental horticulturist, ornamental gardener, and early environmental thinker in terms of the interests held by the various, overlapping communities in which he functioned—particularly as those interests related to the British colonial enterprise.

The contributors are David R. Brigham, Joyce E. Chaplin, Mark Laird, Amy R. W. Meyers, Therese O'Malley, and Margaret Beck Pritchard.

Book Description

While some historians argue that Christopher Columbus's arrival in North America marked the beginning of one of the world's greatest civilizations, others claim that the appearance of European explorers in the new world set in motion a cultural genocide unparalleled in human history. Authors in this volume discuss the exploration and colonization of America up to 1607.

Discoverers, Explorers, Settlers: The Diligent Writers of Early America

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Discoverers, Explorers, Settlers: The Diligent Writers of Early America
Wayne Franklin
Manufacturer: Univ of Chicago Pr (Tx)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Discovery of North America: A Critical, Documentary, And Historic Investigation ; With an Essay on the Early Cartography of the New World, Including Descriptions of Two Hundred a

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Discovery of North America: A Critical, Documentary, And Historic Investigation ; With an Essay on the Early Cartography of the New World, Including Descriptions of Two Hundred a
Henry Harrisse
Manufacturer: Martino Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 157898596X

Book Description

REPRINT. Octavo. xii, 802 p., 23 leaves of plates (some folded) : ill., maps. London : Henry Stevens and Son ; Paris : H. Welter, 1892. A standard work on the early discovery of North America. "The book is a monument of industry and research, and every scholar must feel a kind of personal obligation to its author Part First deals with the voyages, from that of John Cabot in 1497 to that of Estevan Gomez in 1524-1525. In part two Mr. Harrisse describes the early cartography, the maps of Seville and St. Die, the Portuguese Charts and the Lusitano-Germanic maps, of which he distinguishes five types. Part three presents a catalogue of the oldest maps of America; Part four, a chronology of voyages from 1431 to 1504; and part five, biographies of pilots and cartographers for the period 1492-1550."-Hurlbut, Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York. Vol. 24 (1892), pp. 565-578. Hardbound. To Which Are Added, A Chronology Of One Hundred Voyages Westward, Projected, Attempted, Or Accomplished Between 1431 And 1504, Biographical Accounts Of The Three Hundred Pilots Who First Crossed The Atlantic, And A Copious List Of The Original Names Of American Regions, Caciqueships, Mountains, Islands, Capes, Gulfs, Rivers, Towns, And Harbours

Book Description

Color is rarely the sole focus of a poster, especially since color photography is a given component of most advertising. Thus it is often assumed that the graphic design world will always be brightly colored. But as this latest volume on the Poster Collection of the Zurich Museum für Gestaltung sets out to prove, there are advantages to working in black and white. In a compilation of international posters created over the last 40 years, Poster Collection 09 brings to light a surprising variety of approaches where the color of the paper and the black of the ink are the only materials at hand. Those materials alone provide the creative will with the tools it needs to create a succinct statement. Examples come via designers like A.G. Fronzoni, Werner Jeker, James Victore and Büro Destruct, and range from the political manifesto to the poetic abstraction, from modernist cool to postmodern eclectic. Essay by Lars Müller.~Foreword by Felix Studinka. Paperback, 6.75 x 9.5 in./64 pgs / 0 color 0 BW0 duotone 0 ~ Item D20087

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