Bøger af Richard Henry Dana

In 1869 the late Richard Henry Dana, Jr., prepared a new edition of his "Two Years Before the Mast''. In presenting the first 'author's edition' to the public, he has been encouraged to add an account of a visit to the old scenes, made twenty-four years after, together with notices of the subsequent story and fate of the vessels, and of some of the persons with whom the reader is made acquainted.The popularity of this book has been so great and continued that it is now proposed to make an illustrated edition with new material.

A true story of the battered life of a foremast crewman, Two Years Before the Mast is Richard Henry Danäs classic travel narrative, which inspired canonical works such as Moby Dick and Sailing Alone Around the World. As Rod Scher follows Dana (the Harvard dropout-turned-sailor) on his voyages around North America, he annotates Danäs tale with critiques, compliments, tie-ins to today, and little-known facts about both the book and the milieu of Danäs time.

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."