Last Voyage of Captain Cook: The Collected Writings of John Ledyard (National Geographic Adventure Classics) [Paperback]

John Ledyard (Author), James Zug (Editor)

Book Description

Series: National Geographic Adventure Classics | Publication Date: March 1, 2005

John Ledyard, the man who dreamed of crossing the United States on foot 20 years before Lewis and Clark, who salled with Captain Cook, formed a fur-trading company with John Paul Jones, and explored Russian Siberia at a time when it was a vast blank marked "unknown" on the map is perhaps the greatest and least-known explorer of all time. After leaving Darmouth in 1772, Ledyard took to the seas and found himself at Gibraltar, where he enlisted then deserted from the British Navy. He reported for duty with Captain Cook in Plymouth, England. With Cook he explored Tasmania, New Zealand, Tahiti, the coast of what would become California and Oregon, Nootka Sound, the Beiring Sea, Unalaska Island, China, and Java, all the while observing and recording in his journals the exotic ports of call and native cultures. On land he walked two-thirds of the way across Russia before being arrested by guards of Catherine the Great and deported to Poland. Returning to England he was engaged by Sir Joseph Banks to explore overland routes from Alexandria to the Niger and it was on this expedition, in Cairo, where Ledyard died of an overdose of vitriolic acid. He was 38. In his short life Ledyard saw more of the world than any person of the 18th century. His tales of adventure captivated his contemporaries like Jefferson; and earned him the nickname "the American Marco Polo." He had a capacious and curious intellect, a boundless imagination, and his writing sparkles with bright, incisive prose. John Ledyard forged a new American archetype. Before him, Americans did not by and large travel great distances. They stayed close to home, huddled in their bleak outposts in the New World. Exploration was piecemeal, hesitant, mostly a matter of getting just to the next mountain range. By going to all parts known and unknown, Ledyard created the persona of the explorer. He made the traveling life glamorous. He salled the seven seas and touched six continents. He persisted despite continual failure. He invented a profession. He had a title like Lewis the cooper or O'Reily the collier: he was Ledyard the Traveler. 1. The text of the book he wrote and published, Journal of Captain Cook's Last Voyage. It was originally published in Hartford in 1783. It was reprinted twice in 1963, by Oregon State University Press (with extensive annotation and introduction) and by Quadrangle Books in Chicago (with no annotation and introduction, as a part of their series of reprinting "Americana Classics"). 2. The journal of his Siberian expedition. The journal was unpublished in his lifetime. 3. A selection of letters. There are about thirty-five letters extant. We would reprint perhaps a dozen of his more substantive letters, concerning Paris in the 1780s and his journey through Europe and Russia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: National Geographic (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0792293479
• ISBN-13: 978-0792293477
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,382,951 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #37 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( C ) > Cook, James

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars intersting and insightful, June 22, 2006

By 

G. Hopman (Kentucky) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Last Voyage of Captain Cook: The Collected Writings of John Ledyard (National Geographic Adventure Classics) (Paperback)

This book can not be said to hold up to many of the writings about any of the voyages of Captain Cook. I also agree that the letters are of no worth. However, for anyone that has read other books about Captain Cook it is a very interesting book. There are many things that Ledyard writes, which differ with the accounts that Cook records, which makes it an interesting look at what some of the crew thought about the third voyage. If you have never read anything about Captain Cook, DO NOT start wiht this book. If you have read anyhting about Cook already then this book will please you.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth getting second-hand but only at these prices (at time of writing 18 cents), October 10, 2007

By 

Michael "Michael" (Hamburg, Germany) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Last Voyage of Captain Cook: The Collected Writings of John Ledyard (National Geographic Adventure Classics) (Paperback)

Although I agree with the criticisms of the other two reviewers, I found Ledyard's journal on Cook's voyage interesting reading, and worth paying a few dollars postage for. But as there are only about 115 pages worth reading, I'd feel disappointed with this book if I'd bought it new, or paid more than a few dollars plus postage for it. Apparently, this is about the only chance you have of reading Ledyard's journal without going to antique book auctions. But more gifted writers may have covered this voyage better, and few readers will wade through the rest of the book in its entirety, letters and all. More interesting perhaps is the biography of Ledyard's life, written by James Zug. Just because a man led an exciting life doesn't mean he was a great writer.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not worth your time, January 2, 2006

By 

Molly Johnson - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Last Voyage of Captain Cook: The Collected Writings of John Ledyard (National Geographic Adventure Classics) (Paperback)

This book is not nearly as interesting, enriching, or well written as the other books in this series. (I highly recommend the Voyage of the Beagle by Darwin, for example.) Publishing a whole volume of Ledyard is really overkill, and misstates his importance as a writer and historian. While the 20-page account of Cook's murder and the, er, unpalatable aftermath of his death is riveting, the rest of Ledyard's journal is dull. The private letters that make up the latter half of the book have little of interest to the general reader. For much better travel adventure about the same regions that Ledyard covers here, read Darwin (see above), or the Mutiny on the Bounty trilogy by Nordhoff and Hall, or Farley Mowat (especially The Siberians).