A Pirate of Exquisite Mind: Explorer, Naturalist, and Buccaneer: The Life of William Dampier
New York: Berkley Books, 2005. 1st Printing. Trade Paperback. Very Good. Item #2343159
ISBN: 042520037X
First printing. Edge wear.
ix, 372 pp. Seventeenth-century pirate genius William Dampier sailed around the world three times when crossing the Pacific was a major feat, was the first explorer to visit all five continents, and reached Australia eighty years before Captain Cook. His exploits created a sensation in Europe. Swift and Defoe used his experiences in writing Gulliver's Travels and Robinson Crusoe. Darwin incorporated his concept of "sub-species" into the theory of evolution. Dampier's description of breadfruit was the impetus for Captain Bligh's voyage on the Bounty. He was so influential that today he has more than one thousand entries in the Oxford English Dictionary, including such words as chopsticks, barbecue, and kumquat. Anthropologists still use his work.
Price: $5.00