Morrel Benjamin (1 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. In good condition. Well-preserved in part from a great binding. Very attractive 20th-21st c binding. Water staining throughout text block, does not affect text. Mostly conjuring on the edges and corners of pages. Mild foxing and lightly toned, as to be expected. Great frontispiece of Morrell. Binding tight and intact. A solid, readable copy. Please see photos. Benjamin Morrell was an American sea captain, explorer and trader who made a number of voyages, mainly to the Atlantic, the Southern Ocean and the Pacific Islands. In a ghost-written memoir, A Narrative of Four Voyages, which describes his sea-going life between 1822-1832, Morrell included numerous claims of discovery and achievement, many of which have been disputed by geographers and historians, and in some cases have been proven false. He ended his career as a fugitive, having wrecked his ship and misappropriated parts of the salvaged cargo. Despite his reputation among his contemporaries for untruth and fantasy, Morrell has been defended by some later commentators who, while questioning his general reliability, maintain that not all his life was fraud and exaggeration. His work went onto inspire Herman Melville and Edgar Allen Poe with Moby Dick and The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.