Was Henry Hudson one of the boldest explorers of all time, or merely an accidental tourist who stumbled into history?

Was he the world's worst ship's captain, master of four failed expeditions, enabler of at least three mutinies, which ultimately led to his own death at the hands of his crew?

Was he secretly spying for the British while sailing for the Dutch?

In a fascinating mixture of history, travel essay, and politics, Corey Sandler tracks down the Henry Hudson that time has forgotten.

Using Hudson's journals and logbooks as his guidebook, Sandler retraced all four of the captain's known voyages: to the top of the world near the North Pole, to Virginia and New York, and ulitmately deep into the wilderness of the Canadian subarctic.

Updated in 2014 for the Kindle, including a selection of photographs.

Bestselling author Corey Sandler has been a storyteller all his life. He began as a reporter for a small-town daily newspaper and went on to cover two national presidential campaigns and become a newsman for The Associated Press.

He has written more than 150 books on history, sports, travel, computers, and business; several of his titles have become national bestsellers. He has appeared as a guest on NBC’s “Today” show, CNN, National Public Radio, and The Travel Channel.

For the past decade, Sandler has also traveled the world as a destination and special interest lecturer for a luxury cruise line. He has passed the century mark on countries visited, with no intention of retiring his passport.

An accomplished photographer, Sandler illustrates his books and lectures with pictures taken in some of the most famous and most obscure places on earth.

Length: 309 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Page Flip: Enabled

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The surviving records of Henry Hudson's four voyages of 1607-10 are apparently scant but provided enough information to be used in a previous history of his explorations (Donald Johnson's Charting the Sea of Darkness, 1992). Sandler, author of dozens of travel guides, converts the Hudson documentation into a travelogue to several of Hudson's haunts. He traveled somewhat more comfortably than Hudson did, embarking on a cruise ship to Spitzbergen, driving up the Hudson River Valley, and flying to Hudson Bay. Healthily quoting the mariner's logbooks to contrast travel then and now, Sandler also avails himself of the four centuries of history these places have experienced since Hudson sailed by, integrating nuggets of fact with what people have to say about Hudson. Some are quite loquacious on the subject, such as the captain of a replica of Hudson's ship Half Moon. Idiosyncratic, definitely interesting, Sandler will snare the travel/exploration set. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product details

File Size: 5901 KB
Print Length: 309 pages
Publisher: Word Association / Corey Sandler; 2 edition (February 5, 2014)
Publication Date: February 5, 2014
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B00IA9QTBM
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

X-Ray:

Not Enabled

Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Enabled
Screen Reader: Supported

Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,844,148 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #1093 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > World > Expeditions & Discoveries
- #2962 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Biographies & Memoirs > Sports & Outdoor > Adventurers & Explorers
- #3025 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Biographies & Memoirs > Travel

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interesting insight into Henry Hudson

ByGrandma Jon June 12, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

We took a cruise on the Hudson River one fall and read this in preparation and left in in the ship's library for others to read

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More a travelogue than history

Bysir henryon September 5, 2015

Format: Hardcover

Author Corey Sandler warned readers in the outset that there was little documented information on Henry Hudson, his voyages and his fate. He was right--had he stuck to the strict order of business, the book would have been fifty pages, not a burdensome 400 +. The best information of all was provided by Abacuck Prickett and his personal, albeit, somewhat secretive journal of events. The rest of the book is Sandler's personal comments about having traced Hudson's steps 400 years later. Unless one hopes to travel to the front porch of the Arctic Circle and visit places few but the natives inhabit, then much of it is worth skimming. The author's self-important claim to his staunch liberal views was the final straw for me, as it had zero relevance to Henry Hudson. Through labor, I gleaned what I could about the last days of HH, but the best thing even closely related to the book was my 2007 drive down the Hudson River in early July, and standing in awe of such a beautiful site.

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Bare bones history

ByRon Ginzleron November 9, 2014

Format: Paperback

I was looking for a biography of Hudson, but this book, while including the little that is known about him, is half of the author's own experiences in the areas Hudson visited, and the history of those areas since the time of Hudson. I skipped most of this. There's a lot of pieces of Hudson's journals quoted, as well as others who sailed with him. These I found valuable. The author doesn't speculate much about Hudson's fate or the truth about the mutiny, which is refreshing, because so little is actually known, and those who made it back to England may well have been lying to save their own necks. I got what I wanted out of the book.

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Great book!

ByDaniel Calandroon July 31, 2007

Format: Hardcover

I am going to give this 5 stars. I'll list why in a second just let me tell you a few of my issues. First Sandler doesn't seem to interview that many people concerning the Clearwater Sloop, the Hudson River Keeper or the many, many other environmental organizations dedicated to keep the Hudson clean. He also brushes over the Storm King case. Sandler does not mention the Indian Point nuclear power plant.

Ok now that's out of the way let me explain a bit why this book is excellent.

First of all its one-third history, one-third travelogue and one-third PSA for keeping all the places Henry Hudson visited clean. The history part is fairly typical in that we don't know much about Hudson; he may have been a bad captain nothing that new or exciting. But overall it's still interesting and a good introduction for those unfamiliar with Hudson.

Then comes the travelogue sections. These are really interesting mostly because of all the unique people the author met on his travels. In reading the book the former director of Clearwater, Andy Mele, comes off as a pretty genuine guy. He's not a crazy tree hugging hippe but just a regular guy that wants to do some good. Most of the environmentalist people come off this way. Some people may not like this but honestly try spending a night near the Hudson...smell that? Yeah, that's the river. I did enjoy Sandle's search for Hudson's monuments and as he mentions in the introduction the most obvious ones are the Hudson River and New York City.

The best parts are the sections that are basically the PSAs about environmentalism. There are numerous digs at GE for dumping PCBs and our society in general. Having lived for four years about 100 yards from the Hudson I must say it's easily one of the greatest sights in the world. But its also one of the biggest dumps too. I think it's terrible that the river is so polluted that you can't go for a swim or eat a fish from there. I had a picnic with my girlfriend one day in Hyde Park right on the river and it was pretty easy to spot all the trash washed up on the shore. Ok enough gushing as Sandler does a much better job explaining this then I do.

In conclusion just read the book. It's excellent.

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Most of the book is the author's personal experiences and ...

Bybipedon August 30, 2015

Format: Kindle Edition

Most of the book is the author's personal experiences and recent travels to Russia and the Arctic. Although he states in the beginning that few records exist about Hudson's life, the title would have you believe otherwise. If it's Henry Hudson you want to know more about, I'd look elsewhere.

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Know what you're in for

ByD. Fenceon August 29, 2007

Format: Hardcover

If you're considering buying this book you should know what you're in for. If you're expecting a biography of Henry Hudson you'll be disappointed. There is very little on Hudson in this book. What you get is a high-level overview of what Hudson is thought to have done and a whole lot of ramble on Corey Sandler's experiences visiting the places Hudson visited.

There's not a whole lot that's known about Hudson. What there is comes from a few brief surviving documents. You get the text from those documents word-for-word with little if any interpretation from the author. That's the real disappointment of this book. If I wanted to read the text of the original documents I'd look them up myself online. What I wanted was expert interpretation and the telling of the story that these documents seem to describe.

Sandler writes from Nantucket, an island he shares with the great historian Nathaniel Philbrick. But where Philbrick excels at taking scant information and turning it into a fascinating story, Sandler dumps the source information on the page and then rambles on about his own experiences in visiting the same places 400 years later. Unfortunately, it's just not very interesting. Thought you'd learn about Hudson's trip up the river that bears his name? You're going to get a little of that and then a whole lot of information on General Electric, PCBs, the environmental movement, and Pete Seeger.

An earlier reviewer characterized this book as being 1/3 history. I'd put it more at 1/10th. By the end of the book you'll know little about Hudson, but all about Sandler's political views, summer camp experiences, family, feelings, travel preferences, and a whole lot of other personal detail. If that's what you're looking to read about, you'll love it. But if you read the title and thought you were instead going to read a biography of Henry Hudson, you'll be disappointed.

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More a discription of what he saw

A very fscinating discription of those parts of the world, Henry Hudson saw at his voyages and a lot of very interesting information how things developed until today in these...Read more

Published on March 7, 2010 by Peter H. Kayser

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