Francis Drake: The Lives of a Hero [Hardcover]

John Cummins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1996 | ISBN-10: 0312158114 | ISBN-13: 978-0312158118

From the rime he was driven to sea by his family's fierce Protestantism and poverty, until his death in 1596, Sir Francis Drake led a life of drama. John Cummins looks at Drake's posthumous legend and its inspirational role throughout later centuries.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This is a full-blooded portrait, based on research in English and Spanish archives, of the greatest seaman of the Elizabethan age. Drake's was a life of drama in which opportunism, courage, greed, religion, international politics and luck all played a part alongside the immense sailing skill and navigational brilliance of the first man to sail his ship all the way around the world.

From Library Journal

Cummins, the editor of the Columbus Journal and the Voyage of Christopher Columbus (St. Martin's, 1992), has written a lively biography of the always fascinating Drake. Among its strengths are Cummins's use of both English and Spanish sources to provide a balanced assessment and his ability to strip away mythology and offer a picture of Drake that includes both his successes and failures. The author also reminds us that separating Drake's occasional moments of glory (circumnavigating the globe, his raid on Cadiz, the defeat at the Armada, etc.) were long periods of boredom and misery-both at sea and on land. Particularly interesting is Cummins's discussion of contemporary accounts of Drake and the growth of his legend as England built a worldwide empire. One drawback is that Cummins fails to engage modern historiography; noticeably absent from his bibliography is much of the recent scholarship on the Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604) and the Spanish Armada. A lesser problem is that Cummins persistently refers to Drake and Elizabethans generally as Lutherans; while the Spanish may have labeled them thus, they were in fact Calvinists. Overall, this worthwhile biography is recommended for most public libraries.
William B. Robison, Southeastern Louisiana Univ., Hammond
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 348 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (January 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312158114
• ISBN-13: 978-0312158118
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,885,570 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A well-written and surprisingly sympathetic portrait., May 19, 2001

By 

Edward Haworth - See all my reviews

This review is from: Francis Drake: Lives of a Hero (Paperback)

I started this book expecting to read of the charismatic sea dog and protestant zealot of school history lessons. Instead a far more complicated picture emerges, a man who to modern eyes is both admirable and despicable - much like the Queen he served.

Here Drake is a man of paradoxes. He started his career on slave ships but grew to despise the trade and became the first European to interact with the Cimarrons - escaped slaves - as equals. Drake was capable of fiery nationalism, and a passionate hatred of Spanish Catholicism but yet consistently treated his Spanish prisoners with the utmost courtesy. Perhaps the greatest duality of Drake was one that was apparent during his own lifetime - his dual service of personal fortune and national, English protestant, interest. To Drake these were not as distinct as they seem today, but perhaps it is the only fault of this book that they are not better resolved.

John Cummins' excellent book practically reads itself, a highly recommended look at an amazing and contradictory man.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A well-written and surprisingly sympathetic portrait., May 20, 2001

By 

Edward Haworth - See all my reviews

This review is from: Francis Drake: Lives of a Hero (Paperback)

I started this book expecting to read of the charismatic sea dog and protestant zealot of school history lessons. Instead a far more complicated and contradictory picture of a man who to modern eyes is both admirable and despicable - much like the Queen he served.

Here Drake is a man of paradoxes. He started his career on slave ships but grew to despise the trade and became the first European to interact with the Cimarrons - escaped slaves - as equals. Drake was capable of fiery nationalism, and a passionate hatred of Spanish Catholicism but yet consistently treated his Spanish prisoners with the utmost courtesy. Perhaps the greatest duality of Drake was one that was apparent during his own lifetime - his dual service of personal fortune and national, English protestant, interest. To Drake these were not as distinct as they seem today, but perhaps it is the only fault of this book that they are not better resolved.

John Cummins' excellent book practically reads itself, a highly recommended look at an amazing and complicated man.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The sixteenth century entrepreneur, August 9, 2000

By 

Christopher Griffen "Commitment to mediocrity!" (Pleasanton, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Francis Drake: Lives of a Hero (Paperback)

Reading about Drake's many seagoing professions, I can't help relating his exploits to those of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. While your average corporate adventurer doesn't risk life and limb on long maritime voyages, the desire for fame and fortune is the same.

Francis Drake, as Cummins presents him, was a man of common birth who sought to make a name and a great deal of wealth for himself. Early in his career he was a slave trader along with John Hawkins, but if we are to believe what Cummins says, he found it distasteful.

He later took to a highly successful career as a corsair and explorer, raiding Spanish shipping for gold and becoming one of the first men to circumnavigate the Earth. Cummins' portrayal of Drake as an egalitarian holds up under scrutiny. He employed men of many backgrounds in his crews including African Cimarrons who had escaped from slavery under the Spanish and fled into the jungles of Latin America.

Cummins explores Drake's exploits in great detail without apparent bias. He doesn't shy away from showing the man's less appealing traits in his portrait. One of the things that stood out was Drake's behavior during the battle with the Spanish Armada. Drake had a hard time suppressing his piratical urges when he often was needed for more military endeavors. Nevertheless, Drake stands out primarily as a man of honor in a tumultuous time.

If you enjoy biographies, history or just a good pirate tale (that's real!) I highly recommend this book. It's a fascinating story of a man whose inner passion and desire for glory drove him to great things.