Atlantis Rising : The True Story of a Submerged Land-Yesterday and Today - Hardcover

Sullivan, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684855240 ISBN 13: 9780684855240

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1999

Synopsis

Period woodcuts, underwater photographs, and full-color illustrations combine with witty commentary to present a fascinating study of the mysterious lost city of Atlantis and its inhabitants.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Sullivan, an assistant managing editor at Life, has written about the oceans for Sports Illustrated and other magazines. He is also an acclaimed Santalogist, and author of Flight of the Reindeer: The True Story of Santa Claus and His Christmas Mission. Frank McCourt has said that reading Sullivan is "like sitting by the fire with a lively and scholarly shanachie." Sullivan lives in Westchester County, New York, with his wife and daughter.

Reviews

Profusely illustrated and oddly charming, this hybrid of tall tale, oceanography and ancient history is written with a sophisticated sense of whimsy. In the opening chapter, the mysterious Atwater, a (fictional) oceanographer, alerts the author to the existence of Atlantis. Sullivan (Flight of the Reindeer: The True Story of Santa Claus) then pursues the Atlanteans through (actual) library research and dozens of (actual) interviews. The real Atlantis, mentioned in Plato's dialogues, was a Greek island destroyed by a volcano. Condemned to live in the ocean, its human inhabitants, according to Sullivan, "coveted (and eventually developed) sonar capabilities equal to the porpoise's and electronic sensing instincts like those of the hammerhead shark." Today's Atlanteans are peaceful, intelligent and very funny: they "miraculously saved" Titanic survivors, but sabotaged the floating set of the movie Waterworld. On a more serious note, the fictive Atlanteans' health is endangered by very real marine pollution. Sullivan describes (actual) Victorian archeologists' digs at Troy and Crete and explains how volcanic eruptions work. Biologist Bill Gilbert (How Animals Communicate) explains how whales' mammalian ancestors returned from land to sea. And literary critic Christopher Benfey outlines what Plato's fable of Atlantis may have meant. Wolff's many attractive drawings ably counterfeit ancient maps and naturalists' sketches. Once they disentangle the facts from the fish tales, readers will finish Sullivan's book amused, enlightened and perhaps even moved to save the creatures who really do live in the world's great oceans. Agent, Sloan Harris. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0684855240
• ISBN 13: 9780684855240
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 96