A Pirate Of Exquisite Mind: The Life Of William Dampier

(Paperback)

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A rip-roaring swashbuckler about a forgotten 17th century English hero who, starting as a poor, piratical buccaneer, became a famed round-the-world explorer. William Dampier, (1651-1715), was an English adventurer and pirate who preyed on ships on the Spanish Main. Poor and ill-educated and determined to make his fortune, he nonetheless had a passion for exploration and scientific research. Dampier was the first to map the winds and currents of the world's oceans; led the first recorded party of Englishmen to set foot on Australia - 80 years before Cook; wrote about Galapagos wildlife 150 years before Darwin, who drew on Dampier's notes in his own work; was the first travel writer- A NEW VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD was instant bestseller when it was published in 1697 - said to have influenced the novels of Swift and Defoe. A man full of contradictions- he who achieved so much 'blew it' later in life, declining into scandal, failure and even farce. A unique man ahead of his time, he lived a large part of his life among pirates yet managed to preserve what Coleridge called his "exquisite refinement of mind". A classic example of the best narrative history.

Reviews

Lively... extraordinary life - an unlikely combination of plundering and pioneering achievements in natural history and exploration * The Sunday Times *
Gripping and well-researched... An impressive achievement * Guardian *
This long overdue biography wonderfully brings to life one of the most important explorers of the seventeenth century -- Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the Sea
This eloquently enthusiastic biography, besides charting Dampier's astonishing achievements, offers fascinating information about his times * The Age, Melbourne *

Author Bio

Diana Preston is an Oxford-trained historian, writer, and broadcaster who lives in London. She is the author of The Road to Culloden Moor; A First Rate Tragedy- Robert Falcon Scott and the Race to the South Pole; The Boxer Rebellion and Wilful Murder- The Sinking of the Lusitania. Michael Preston, Diana Preston's husband, read English at Oxford University and is now an historian and traveller.