The Crossing: The Extraordinary Story of the First Man to Swim the English Channel. This item is unavailable.The Crossing: The Extraordinary Story of the First Man to Swim the English Channel

The Crossing tells the colorful story of Matthew Webb, the first person to swim across the English Channel. Webb was born in 1848, learned to swim as a boy in the River Severn, and joined the merchant marine, where he received a medal for bravery for diving after a seaman who had fallen into the Atlantic. A natural showman, he gained sponsors for what was considered an impossible feat, to swim from Dover to Calais. The author, editor of Women's Realm magazine, skillfully recreates the physical agony of Webb's crossing and his triumphant return as he sailed into Dover to the wild applause of crowds jammed on the pier. His exploit made Webb famous and gave the new sport of swimming an enormous boost. Newspapers described him as "probably the best-known and most popular man in the world" and his achievement "a matter of national importance." As his fame faded, however, Webb tried to keep himself in the public eye with a series of dubious public appearances, such as spending 60 hours in a glass tank at the Royal Westminster Aquarium, exploits that gradually ruined his health. Finally, for $10,000 he attempted to swim across the Niagara rapids and was crushed in the whirlpool below the falls. The author sympathetically places Webb's descent from national hero to desperate promoter in the context of the Victorian quest for novelty and the bizarre. Besides being the well-written biography of an eccentric daredevil, The Crossing is a fascinating piece of social history. --John Stevenson

The Crossing tells the colorful story of Matthew Webb, the first person to swim across the English Channel. Webb was born in 1848, learned to swim as a boy in the River Severn, and joined the merchant marine, where he received a medal for bravery for diving after a seaman who had fallen into the Atlantic. A natural showman, he gained sponsors for what was considered an impossible feat, to swim from Dover to Calais. The author, editor of Women's Realm magazine, skillfully recreates the physical agony of Webb's crossing and his triumphant return as he sailed into Dover to the wild applause of crowds jammed on the pier. His exploit made Webb famous and gave the new sport of swimming an enormous boost. Newspapers described him as "probably the best-known and most popular man in the world" and his achievement "a matter of national importance." As his fame faded, however, Webb tried to keep himself in the public eye with a series of dubious public appearances, such as spending 60 hours in a glass tank at the Royal Westminster Aquarium, exploits that gradually ruined his health. Finally, for $10,000 he attempted to swim across the Niagara rapids and was crushed in the whirlpool below the falls. The author sympathetically places Webb's descent from national hero to desperate promoter in the context of the Victorian quest for novelty and the bizarre. Besides being the well-written biography of an eccentric daredevil, The Crossing is a fascinating piece of social history. --John Stevenson