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Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: a biography
By Edward Rice. 1990
An explorer, swordsman, linguist, scholar, writer and lover, Burton travelled to the "forbidden" cities of Mecca and Medina, discovered Lake…
Tanganyika, and survived diseases and wounds. A master of 29 languages, Burton translated classic Oriental literature, such as "The perfumed garden", into English. 2001, c1990.Mission to Tibet
By Michael J Sweet, Leonard Zwilling, Fr. Ippolito Desideri S.J.. 1969
Mission to Tibet recounts the fascinating eighteenth-century journey of the Jesuit priest ippolito Desideri (1684 - 1733) to the Tibetan…
plateau. The italian missionary was most notably the first european to learn about Buddhism directly with Tibetan schol ars and monks - and from a profound study of its primary texts. while there, Desideri was an eyewitness to some of the most tumultuous events in Tibet's history, of which he left us a vivid and dramatic account. Desideri explores key Buddhist concepts including emptiness and rebirth, together with their philosophical and ethical implications, with startling detail and sophistication. This book also includes an introduction situating the work in the context of Desideri's life and the intellectual and religious milieu of eighteenth-century Catholicism.Of a Fire on the Moon
By Norman Mailer. 1970
For many, the moon landing was the defining event of the twentieth century. So it seems only fitting that Norman…
Mailer--the literary provocateur who altered the landscape of American nonfiction--wrote the most wide-ranging, far-seeing chronicle of the Apollo 11 mission. A classic chronicle of America's reach for greatness in the midst of the Cold War, Of a Fire on the Moon compiles the reportage Mailer published between 1969 and 1970 in Life magazine: gripping firsthand dispatches from inside NASA's clandestine operations in Houston and Cape Kennedy; technical insights into the magnitude of their awe-inspiring feat; and prescient meditations that place the event in human context as only Mailer could.A Texas Cowboy
By Richard Etulain, Charles A. Siringo. 2000
After a nomadic childhood, Charles Siringo signed on as a teenage cowboy for the noted Texas cattle king, Shanghai Pierce,…
and began a life that embraced all the hard work, excitement, and adventure readers today associate with the cowboy era. He "rid the Chisholm trail," driving 2,500 heads of cattle from Austin to Kansas; knew Tascosa--now a historic monument--when it was home to raucous saloons, red light districts, and a fair share of violence; and led a posse of cowboys in pursuit of Billy the Kid and his gang. First published in 1885, Siringo's chronicle of his life as a itchy-footed boy, cowhand, range detective, and adventurer was one the first classics about the Old West and helped to romanticize the West and its myth of the American cowboy. Will Rogers declared, "That was the Cowboy's Bible when I was growing up."Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition
By Ilan Stavans, Harold Augenbraun, Alvar Nunez de Vaca, Fanny Bandelier. 1869
This riveting true story is the first major narrative detailing the exploration of North America by Spanish conquistadors (1528-1536). The…
author, Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, was a fortune-seeking Spanish nobleman and the treasurer of an expedition sent to claim for Spain a vast area of today's southern United States. In simple, straightforward prose, Cabeza de Vaca chronicles the nine-year odyssey endured by the men after a shipwreck forced them to make a westward journey on foot from present-day Florida through Louisiana and Texas into California. In thirty-eight brief chapters, Cabeza de Vaca describes the scores of natural and human obstacles they encountered as they made their way across an unknown land. Cabeza de Vaca's gripping account offers a trove of ethnographic information, including descriptions and interpretations of native cultures, making it a powerful precursor to modern anthropology. .On to the Alamo
By John Seelye, Richard Penn Smith. 2003
David "Davy" Crockett (1786-1836) was born in Tennessee, fought alongside Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812, and later served…
three terms in the House of Representatives before heading to Texas, where he died defending the Alamo. Col. Crockett's Exploits and Adventures in Texas, first published after Crockett's death and disingenuously attributed to him, was written by Richard Penn Smith as a narrative that promoted a sanitized account of the Alamo as a heroic effort by Americans to stem the Mexican "invasion" of Texas. The story, which was a huge success in its day, created a myth of the battle that pervaded the collective American memory for more than 150 years and reinforced the image of Davy Crockett as the "King of the Frontier."The Private Journal of William Reynolds
By Nathaniel Philbrick, Thomas Philbrick, William Reynolds. 2004
One of the finest nineteenth-century first-person narratives of a sea voyage in existence, and a principle source for Sea of…
Glory, The Private Journal of William Reynolds brings to life the boisterous world traversed by the six vessels that comprised America's first ocean-going voyage of discovery, the U. S. Exploring Expedition of 18381842. With great eloquence and verve Midshipman William Reynolds describes the harrowing 87,000-mile, four-year circuit of the globe, and relates the story of how the abusive commander of the Ex. Ex. , Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, gradually lost the support of his crew. With a seaman's understanding and an artist's appreciation for the wild beauty that surrounds him, the Journal is a tour de force combining meticulous observations with a young man's sense of wonder and, on occasion, terror as he is tossed about by the tremendous seas. .The Bounty Mutiny
By William Bligh, R. D. Madison, Edward Christian. 1788
The names William Bligh, Fletcher Christian, and the Bounty have excited the popular imagination for more than two hundred years.…
The story of this famous mutiny has many beginnings and many endings but they all intersect on an April morning in 1789 near the island known today as Tonga. That morning, William Bligh and eighteen surly seamen were expelled from the Bounty and began what would be the greatest open-boat voyage in history, sailing some 4,000 miles to safety in Timor. The mutineers led by Fletcher Christian sailed off into a mystery that has never been entirely resolved.While the full story of what drove the men to revolt or what really transpired during the struggle may never be known, Penguin Classics has brought together-for the first time in one volume-all the relevant texts and documents related to a drama that has fascinated generations. Here is the full text of Bligh's Narrative of the Mutiny, the minutes of the court proceedings gathered by Edward Christian in an effort to clear his brother's name, and the highly polemic correspondence between Bligh and Christian-all amplified by Robert Madison's illuminating Introduction and rich selection of subsequent Bounty narrativesThe Bounty Mutiny
By William Bligh, R D Madison, Edward Christian. 1788
The names William Bligh, Fletcher Christian, and the Bounty have excited the popular imagination for more than two hundred years.…
The story of this famous mutiny has many beginnings and many endings but they all intersect on an April morning in 1789 near the island known today as Tonga. That morning, William Bligh and eighteen surly seamen were expelled from the Bounty and began what would be the greatest open-boat voyage in history, sailing some 4,000 miles to safety in Timor. The mutineers led by Fletcher Christian sailed off into a mystery that has never been entirely resolved.While the full story of what drove the men to revolt or what really transpired during the struggle may never be known, Penguin Classics has brought together-for the first time in one volume-all the relevant texts and documents related to a drama that has fascinated generations. Here is the full text of Bligh's Narrative of the Mutiny, the minutes of the court proceedings gathered by Edward Christian in an effort to clear his brother's name, and the highly polemic correspondence between Bligh and Christian-all amplified by Robert Madison's illuminating Introduction and rich selection of subsequent Bounty narrativesThe Bounty Mutiny
By William Bligh, R D Madison, Edward Christian. 1788
The names William Bligh, Fletcher Christian, and the Bounty have excited the popular imagination for more than two hundred years.…
The story of this famous mutiny has many beginnings and many endings but they all intersect on an April morning in 1789 near the island known today as Tonga. That morning, William Bligh and eighteen surly seamen were expelled from the Bounty and began what would be the greatest open-boat voyage in history, sailing some 4,000 miles to safety in Timor. The mutineers led by Fletcher Christian sailed off into a mystery that has never been entirely resolved.While the full story of what drove the men to revolt or what really transpired during the struggle may never be known, Penguin Classics has brought together-for the first time in one volume-all the relevant texts and documents related to a drama that has fascinated generations. Here is the full text of Bligh's Narrative of the Mutiny, the minutes of the court proceedings gathered by Edward Christian in an effort to clear his brother's name, and the highly polemic correspondence between Bligh and Christian-all amplified by Robert Madison's illuminating Introduction and rich selection of subsequent Bounty narrativesA Short Walk to the Edge of Life
By Scott Hubbartt, Col. Tom Blase. 2014
"They say I'm crazy. That's OK. I'm just curious and determined."--From Scott Hubbartt's diary, November 2, 2011How Could He Possibly…
Make It Out Alive?It was supposed to be a simple day hike. Scott Hubbartt was a military veteran with years of survival training. Everyone who knew him considered him an expert adventurer.But Scott's trek into the treacherous backcountry canyons of the Peruvian Andes turned into a desperate fight to survive after he became hopelessly lost. As his eight-hour hike lengthened into days, Scott faced dehydration, hunger, and exhaustion. And that's when his true journey began.Chronicling the failures and miracles of a remarkable physical and spiritual passage, A Short Walk to the Edge of Life is the gripping, true story of a man who had to come to the end of himself before he could find his way home.South
By Ernest Shackleton. 1874
Exemplary British expedition leader Sir Ernest Shackleton's (1874-1922) compelling account of his 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition consisting of two ships,…
the HMS Endurance and the HMS Aurora. The goal of the expedition (which it failed to achieve, but not for want of perseverance) was to cross the Antarctic by dogsled, exploring unknown territory and making scientific observations along the way. The plan called for the Endurance, with Shackleton aboard, to establish a base on the shore of the Weddell Sea, while the Aurora did the same at the Ross Sea on the opposite side of the continent. It is a tribute to Shackleton's remarkable energy, his tireless persistence, and his admirable leadership qualities that all members of the Weddell Sea party survived the extraordinary hazards and dangers encountered by the expedition, as did all but three members of the Ross Sea party. Though overshadowed at the time by the outbreak of World War I, the feats of Shackleton and his companions in this expedition are now recognized as ranking among the most memorable in the annals of Antarctic exploration.The Lost Men
By Kelly, Tyler-Lewis. 2006
In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton sailed south aboard the Endurance to be the first to cross Antarctica. Shackleton's endeavor is…
legend, but few know the astonishing story of the Ross Sea party, the support crew he dispatched to the opposite side of the continent to build a vital lifeline of food and fuel depots. When the Ross Sea ship, the Aurora, broke free of her moorings and disappeared in a gale in 1915, she left ten men stranded on the continent with only the clothes on their backs and little hope of rescue. Against all odds, the men decided to go forward with their mission, sledging 1,700 miles in a record-setting two-year odyssey. They never imagined that their immense sacrifice was futile -- for Shackleton never set foot on the continent, and the Endurance lay crushed at the bottom of the Weddell Sea. Inexperienced and poorly equipped, the men of the Ross Sea party endured the unspeakable suffering of malnutrition, hypothermia, and extreme weather conditions with fortitude. With their personal journals and previously unpublished documents, Kelly Tyler-Lewis brings us close to these men in their best and bleakest times and revives for us their heroic, astounding story of survival in the most hostile environment on earth.Caminando el Amazonas
By Ed Stafford. 2011
La apasionante narración del histórico recorrido de un hombre a lo largo de todo el Amazonas--y a través del medio…
ambiente de mayor diversidad biológica del planeta. En abril del 2008, Ed Stafford inició su trayecto para convertirse en el primer hombre en caminar por todo lo largo del Amazonas. Comenzó en la costa pacífica del Perú, y cruzó la cordillera de los Andes para encontrar la fuente oficial del río. Su viaje lo condujo a través de partes de Colombia y por medio del Brasil, mientras burlaba animales peligrosos e indígenas de machete en ristre, al tiempo que sufría lesiones, se enfrentaba al clima y confrontaba sus propios temores y dudas. Pero Stafford no se dio por vencido. En su agotador viaje de 860 días y más de 4,000 millas, Stafford fue testigo directo de la devastación de la deforestación selvática, de la presión con que viven las tribus a causa de la pérdida de su medio ambiente natural, así como de la naturaleza en su manifestación más genuina y cruda. Caminando el Amazonas, asombroso de principio a fin, es tan apasionante como los libros de Bill Bryson, Jon Krakauer y David Grann Caminando el Amazonas es la historia inolvidable de una aventura sin precedente.The Man Who Quit Money
By Mark Sundeen. 2012
In 2000, Daniel Suelo left his life savings-all thirty dollars of it-in a phone booth. He has lived without money-and…
with a newfound sense of freedom and security-ever since. The Man Who Quit Money is an account of how one man learned to live, sanely and happily, without earning, receiving, or spending a single cent. Suelo doesn't pay taxes, or accept food stamps or welfare. He lives in caves in the Utah canyonlands, forages wild foods and gourmet discards. He no longer even carries an I. D. Yet he manages to amply fulfill not only the basic human needs-for shelter, food, and warmth-but, to an enviable degree, the universal desires for companionship, purpose, and spiritual engagement. In retracing the surprising path and guiding philosophy that led Suelo into this way of life, Sundeen raises provocative and riveting questions about the decisions we all make, by default or by design, about how we live-and how we might live better.Hidden Cities
By Moses Gates. 2013
In this fascinating glimpse into the world of urban exploration, Moses Gates describes his trespasses in some of the most…
illustrious cities in the world from Paris to Cairo to Moscow. Also, exclusive to this e-book, are firsthand accounts from the author's fellow travelers and family. Gates is a new breed of adventurer for the 21st century. He thrives on the thrill of seeing what others do not see, let alone even know exists. It all began quite innocuously. After moving to New York City and pursuing graduate studies in Urban Planning, he began unearthing hidden facets of the city--abandoned structures, disused subway stops, incredible rooftop views that belonged to cordoned-off buildings. At first it was about satiating a nagging curiosity; yet the more he experienced and saw, the more his thirst for adventure grew, eventually leading him abroad. In this memoir of his experiences, Gates details his travels through underground canals, sewers, subways, and crypts, in metropolises spanning four continents. In this finely-written book, Gates describes his immersion in the worldwide subculture of urban exploration; how he joined a world of people who create secret art galleries in subway tunnels, break into national monuments for fun, and travel the globe sleeping in centuries-old catacombs and abandoned Soviet relics rather than hotels or bed-and-breakfasts. They push each other further and further--visiting the hidden side of a dozen countries, discovering ancient underground Roman ruins, scaling the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges, partying in tunnels, sneaking into Stonehenge, and even finding themselves under arrest on top of Notre Dame Cathedral. Ultimately, Gates contemplates why he and other urban explorers are so instinctively drawn to these unknown and sometimes forbidden places--even (and for some, especially) when the stakes are high. Hidden Cities will inspire readers to think about the potential for urban exploration available for anyone, anywhere--if they have only the curiosity (and nerve!) to dig below the surface to discover the hidden corners of this world.What Am I Doing Here?
By Bruce Chatwin. 1989
In this collection of profiles, essays and travel stories, Chatwin takes us to Benin, where he is arrested as a…
mercenary during a coup; to Boston to meet an LSD guru who believes he is Christ; to India with Indira Ghandi when she attempted a political comeback in 1978; and to Nepal where he reminds us that 'Man's real home is not a house, but the Road, and that life itself is a journey to be walked on foot'Wine to Water
By Doc Hendley. 2012
The captivating story of an ordinary bartender turned humanitarian who's changing the world through clean water. Doc Hendley never set…
out to be a hero. A small-town bartender, Doc loved his Harley, music, and booze. Then he learned about the world's water crisis, and decided to help by hosting fundraisers. But he wanted to do more and soon found himself traveling to one of the world's most dangerous hot spots: Darfur, Sudan. Doc was immediately cast into a crisis zone. The Sudanese government was wiping out entire villages through horrific state-sponsored genocide--and one of the chief weapons was water. By dumping corpses in water sources and shooting up water bladders, Janjaweed terrorists doomed hundreds of thousands of citizens to dehydration, disease, and death. At just twenty-five years old, Doc was inexperienced, untrained, and in constant danger--but he stepped up to save lives. Alternatively begging international organizations for funding and dodging trigger-happy Janjaweed, Doc began drilling and repairing wells, bringing drinking water to those who desperately needed it. Wine to Water is his story about braving tribal warfare in far-flung regions of the world, and an inspirational tale of how one ordinary person can make a difference.Dog Man
By Martha Sherrill. 2008
This is the story of how one man's consuming passion for dogs saved a legendary breed from extinction and led…
him to a difficult, more soulful way of life in the wilds of Japan's remote snow country As Dog Man opens, Martha Sherrill brings us to a world that Westerners know very little about - the snow country of Japan during World War II. In a mountain village, we meet Morie Sawataishi, a fierce individualist who has chosen to break the law by keeping an Akita dog hidden in a shed on his property. During the war, the magnificent and intensely loyal Japanese hunting dogs were donated to help the war effort, eaten, or used to make fur vests for the military. By the time of the Japanese surrender in 1945, there were only sixteen Akitas left in the country. The survival of the breed became Morie's passion and life - almost a spiritual calling. Devoted to the dogs, Morie is forever changed. His life becomes radically unconventional - almost preposterous - in ultra-ambitious, conformist Japan. For the dogs, Morie passes up promotions, bigger houses, and prestigious engineering jobs in Tokyo. Instead, he raises a family with his young wife, Kitako - a sheltered urban sophisticate - in Japan's remote and forbidding snow country. Their village is isolated, but interesting characters are always dropping by - dog buddies, in-laws from Tokyo, and a barefoot hunter who lives in the wild. Due in part to Morie's perseverance and passion, the Akita breed strengthens and becomes wildly popular, sometimes selling for millions of yen. Yet Morie won't sell his spectacular dogs. He only likes to give them away. Morie and Kitako remain in the snow country today, living in the traditional Japanese cottage they designed together more than thirty years ago - with tatami mats, an overhanging roof, a deep bathtub, and no central heat. At ninety-four years of age, Morie still raises and trains the Akita dogs that have come to symbolise his life. In beautiful prose that is a joy to read, Martha Sherrill opens up the world of the dog man and his wife, providing a profound look at what it is to be an individualist in a culture that reveres conformity - and what it means to live life in one's own way, while expertly revealing Japan and Japanese culture as we've never seen it before.