Columbus: The Four Voyages, 1492-1504

Description

He knew little of celestial navigation and nothing of the Pacific Ocean. He went looking for China and thought he found India. He was a self-promoting opportunist who made his great discovery without ever acknowledging it for what it was. Yet for all his flaws, Christopher Columbus was a masterful seaman who, for better or worse, plotted a new course for the world's future. In the first full biography of Columbus in over sixty years, prizewinning author Laurence Bergreen takes the full measure of the explorer's controversial career, spinning an epic tale to match the events of an epic life. 'Laurence Bergreen's Columbus was brilliant, audacious, volatile, paranoid, and ruthless . . . A surprising and revealing portrait.' The New York Times Book Review 'A profoundly private portrait of the most complex, compelling, and controversial creature ever to board a boat. This scrupulously researched, unbiased account of four death-defying journey to the New World reveals the Admiral's paradoxical personality.' USA Today 'Richly illustrated and enhanced with maps that are as legible as they are relevant, Columbus- The Four Voyages is complex in its themes, intriguing in its substance, and sparkling with surprises.' The Washington Times

Laurence Bergreen is the prizewinning author of six previous works of non-fiction. He is a graduate of Harvard University and has written for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Newsweek and Esquire.

"Laurence Bergreen's Columbus was brillliant, audacious, volatile, paranoid and ruthless. What emerges in this biography, a worthy addition to the literature on Columbus is a surprising and revealing portrait of a man who might have been the title charcater in a Shakespearan tradegy." - The New York Times "Laurence Bergreen's ambitious new biography, Columbus: The Four Voyages [is] a spellbinding epic that's simultaneiously a profoundly private portrait of the most complex, compelling, controversial creature ever to board a boat. This scrupulously researched, unbiased account of four death-defying journeys to The New World reveals the Admiral's paradoxical personality." - USA Today "A compelling new book [that] details the explorer's trips to the New World, including three you haven't heard about." - Salon "Once you have read this superb acount of Columbus' four voyages, you will never be content with the cliche about the Italian-born explorer's sailing the ocean blue in 1492. Author of many prize-winning popular history books on topics as diverse as Marco Polo and Al Capone. Laurence Bergreen is a New York-based scholar whose portrayal of the life and times of Christopher Columbus is a tour de force." - Winnipeg Free Press "Laurence Bergreen's new book, refreshingly, is fluid in style in its style and comprehensive in its research. Richly illustrated and enhanced with maps that are as legible as they are relevant. Columbus: The Four Voyages is complex in its themes, intriguing in its substance and sparkling with suprises." - The Washington Times "In this scrupulously fair and often thrilling account of his four vorages to the "New World," Bergreen reveals Columbus as brilliant, brave, adventurous, and deeply flawed . . . A superb reexamination of the character and career of a still controversial historical agent." - Booklist