A Pirate of Exquisite Mind

Resumen del libro

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

Biografía del autor

Diana Preston nació en Londres en 1952 y estudió historia moderna en la Universidad de Oxford. Tras trabajar unos años como periodista especializada en viajes, se ha concentrado progresivamente en la divulgación histórica. Poseedora de una curiosidad y una amplitud de miras inagotables, ha abordado algunos grandes acontecimientos históricos desde una perspectiva que privilegia la intervención de los protagonistas: desde las luchas dinásticas británicas del siglo xviii, a la conquista del Polo Sur o la rebelión de los Bóxers en Pekín. Sus obras han obtenido el aplauso de una crítica y un público exigentes. Antes de Hiroshima. De Marie Curie a la bomba atómica ganó el LA Times Science and Technology Prize en 2005.<br>