Two Years Before the Mast - Softcover

Dana, Richard Henry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1604595590 ISBN 13: 9781604595598

Publisher: SMK Books, 2015

Synopsis

Richard Henry Dana dropped out of school and became an ordinary deckhand on the brig Pilgrim. The perilous journey from Boston, begun in 1834, took the ailing yet determined youth past Cape Horn and around the Americas, concluding in the Mexican territory California. This expedition inspired Two Years before the Mast, a first-hand account of "the life of a common sailor" a work that combines history, philosophy, and personal experience.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Tracing an awe-inspiring oceanic route from Boston, around Cape Horn, to the California coast, Two Years Before the Mast is both a riveting story of adventure and the most eloquent, insightful account we have of life at sea in the early nineteenth century. Richard Henry Dana is only nineteen when he abandons the patrician world of Boston and Harvard for an arduous voyage among real sailors, amid genuine danger. The result is an astonishing read, replete with vivid descriptions of storms, whales, and the ship's mad captain, terrible hardship and magical beauty, and fascinating historical detail, including an intriguing portrait of California before the gold rush. As D. H. Lawrence proclaimed, "Dana's small book is a very great book."

From the Back Cover:

"Possesses . . . the romantic charm of Robinson Crusoe."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

About this edition

• Publisher: SMK Books
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1604595590
• ISBN 13: 9781604595598
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 312