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$190.80
1. Richard Henry Dana, Jr. 1815-1882
$22.95
2. Richard Henry Dana Jr.: Two Years
 
3. Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
 
$10.00
4. Richard Henry Dana
$12.99
5. Two Years Before the Mast (Signet

1. Richard Henry Dana, Jr. 1815-1882
by Samuel Shapiro
 Hardcover: Pages (1961-06)
list price: US$5.00 -- used & new: US$190.80
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 0870130625
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2. Richard Henry Dana Jr.: Two Years Before the Mast and Other Voyages (Library of America)
by Richard Henry Dana Jr.
Hardcover: 992 Pages (2005-10-06)
list price: US$40.00 -- used & new: US$22.95
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 1931082839
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Editorial Review

Book Description
This volume collects three sea-going travel narratives by Richard Henry Dana, Jr., that span 25 years of maritime history, from the age of sail to the age of steam.

Suffering from persistent weakness in his eyes, Dana left Harvard at age 19 and sailed from Boston in 1834 as a common seaman. Two Years Before the Mast (1840) is the classic account of his voyages around Cape Horn and time ashore in California in the decade before the Gold Rush. Written with an unprecedented realism that challenged the romanticism of previous maritime literature, Dana's narrative vividly portrays the daily routines and hardships of life at sea, the capriciousness and brutality of merchant ship captains and officers, and the beauty and danger of the southern oceans in winter. Included in an appendix is "Twenty-Four Years After" (1869), in which Dana describes his return to California in 1859-1860 and the immense changes brought about by American annexation, the frenzy of the Gold Rush, and the growing commerce of "a new world, the awakened Pacific."

Dana first visited Cuba in the winter of 1859 while the possible annexation of the island was being debated in the U.S. Senate. To Cuba and Back (1859) is his entertaining and enthusiastic account of his trip, during which he toured Havana and a sugar plantation; attended a bullfight; visited chuches, hospitals, schools, and prisons; and investigated the impact on Cuban society of slavery and autocratic Spanish rule.

Journal of a Voyage Round the World, 1859-1860 records the 14-month circumnavigation that took Dana to California, Hawaii, China, Japan, Malaya, Ceylon, India, Egypt, and Europe. Written with unflagging energy and curiosity, the journal provides fascinating vignettes of frontier life in California, missionary influence in Hawaii, the impact of the Taiping Rebellion and the Second Opium War on China, and the opening of Japan to the West, while capturing the transition from the age of sail to the faster, smaller world created by the steamship and the telegraph. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

5-0 out of 5 stars Fascinating true adventures at sea and in foreign cultures told by a fine writer
Reading this terrific volume from the wonderful Library of America (we all owe this essential not-for-profit publisher our support) was one of the most fun reads I have had in quite awhile.Richard Henry Dana, Jr. was a terrific writer and these autobiographical books of his journeys at sea are more interesting and full of adventure than most books of fiction.No wonder they sold so well during his lifetime and beyond.You should get this volume and enjoy reading about life as a working sailor at sea on a sailing ship (and as a passenger on steamers in the later books) during the middle portion of the nineteenth century.It is fascinating.Really!

Dana's father received a law degree from Harvard and eventually closed his practice in favor of his literary leanings.It is natural, then, that Dana would also become educated at Harvard and develop into a very fine writer.After his sophomore year he contracted measles, which affected his eyesight and forced him to leave Harvard because he could not read.Not wanting to add to his father's financial difficulties (when is a publisher of a literary journal not in financial distress?), he joins the crew of a ship called the "Pilgrim" and it is his journal of his two years "before the mast" (ordinary sailors lived in the front of the ship) that became the international sensation.

The author's great gift is to observe keenly the detail that makes his life aboard the ship compelling to us as readers.Almost anyone attempting such a task would convey the boredom and drudgery of such a life without being able to see what would interest people who had never been to sea.How they eat, what the tasks are, how the sails work, what is the relation between the crew and the officers, what happens when a sailor dies and how are his belongings disposed of, and hundreds of pages of interesting stuff.Just one little detail among many that struck me.There was an incident when they suspected they were being chased by a pirate ship and were struggling to maintain distance from the suspected vessel.The captain has the men pouring buckets of water on the sails and once I read it, I understood why.The author doesn't explain why because it would have been obvious to sailors.However, to me in the 21st century, I would never have conceived of pouring water on the canvas to make it hold more wind.

And this is what is so important about the books today.It is an eyewitness account of a real world that has all but vanished.You can see that when he wrote his later books on his trip to Cuba and his journey circumnavigating the globe, that the world described of California in the 1830s was already vastly different by 1859.His observations of the places he visits are compelling and full of just the right details.Hawaii, China, Japan, India, Egypt, and more come to life in fascinating ways.

"Two Years Before the Mast" was purchased by Harpers for $250 and sold hugely.The very helpful chronicle of Dana's life included in this volume estimates that Harpers earned $10,000 by 1842 and $50,000 during the 28 years the firm held the copyright.However, don't feel badly for Dana, he sold the foreign rights, made good money as a speaker, and was in demand as a writer of other books.

I strongly recommend this book.While it certainly has a different role for us than it had for its contemporary readers, its opening us to a world gone bye gives us new insights into our own world, our history, and thereby our own lives.

Just have a dictionary handy for the nautical terms and other word usages that have changed since those days.Or have a couple of web pages handy on sailing ships.The book has notes that explain some things that one can't find in dictionaries, but even learning this new vocabulary is fascinating.In reading material on the web to learn more about what I was reading in the book, I learned how an anchor is drawn up and into the hold.The cable that goes around the capstan and the rest of that rigging is tied to the chain of the anchor with temporary nippers.This work was done by boys with small and quick hands and this is why we call boys nippers.

It is especially nice to read the words of someone who actually lived the material in this book rather than having it filtered and interpreted for me by some modern writer.However well intentioned a modern writer or historian might be, they will end up distorting the world in which Dana lived.His ability to write so well gives us a vehicle for seeing his world as he lived in.What a treat!

This is a wonderful edition of these books and the Library of America makes them a delight to hold, read, and have on your shelf (after you read them).

Enjoy!

5-0 out of 5 stars A welcome and strongly recommended addition to both academic and community library collections
Richard Henry Dana, Jr. was a 19th century author whose writings about his experiences as a common seaman on a merchant ship were immensely popular. Now The Library of America has compiled his writings into a single volume under the knowledgeable editorship of Thomas Philbrick (Professor Emeritus of English, University of Pittsburgh). The writings include "Two years Before the Mast & Other Voyages: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea"; "To Cuba and Back: A Vacation Voyage"; and "Journal of a Voyage Round the World, 1859-1860". Enhanced with a Chronology, "Note on the Texts", and "Notes", Dana is printed on acid free paper and is a welcome and strongly recommended addition to both academic and community library collections.
... Read more


3. Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
by Robert L. Gale
 Textbook Binding: Pages (1969-06)
list price: US$12.95
Isbn: 0805701842
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4. Richard Henry Dana
by Charles Francis Adams
 Paperback: Pages (1982-10)
list price: US$17.90 -- used & new: US$10.00
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 0877541736
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5. Two Years Before the Mast (Signet Classics)
by Richard Henry Dana
School & Library Binding: Pages (1999-10)
list price: US$15.75 -- used & new: US$12.99
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 0808577158
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Editorial Review

Book Description
Tracing an awe-inspiring oceanic route from Boston, around Cape Horn, to the California coast, Two Years Before the Mast is both a riveting story of adventure and the most eloquent, insightful account we have of life at sea in the early nineteenth century. Richard Henry Dana is only nineteen when he abandons the patrician world of Boston and Harvard for an arduous voyage among real sailors, amid genuine danger. The result is an astonishing read, replete with vivid descriptions of storms, whales, and the ship's mad captain, terrible hardship and magical beauty, and fascinating historical detail, including an intriguing portrait of California before the gold rush. As D. H. Lawrence proclaimed, "Dana's small book is a very great book."Download Description
Two Years Before the Mast was praised by Ralph Waldo Emerson as: "a voice from the forecastle. Though a narrative of literal, prosaic truth, it possesses something of the romantic charm of Robinson Crusoe. Few more interesting chapters of the literature of the sea have ever fallen under our notice." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (49)

4-0 out of 5 stars Everyone from California should read this
This is a good read for anyone who loves adventure and a great read for anyone interested in Californian history.More to the point, this book was *THE* book on California for Americans living between 1840 and 1860.Dana's insights into the culture, customs, and early history of California are fantastic, as are his predictions (one of which is that California would one day become an economic powerhouse).

This book was listed by National Geographic as one of the 100 best adventure books written.The adventure portions are definitely interesting (clinging to life ropes 100 feet above deck during a blizzard at Cape Horn is hard to beat for a real-life experience), but the nautical jargon is a bit pedantic at times.It is the small pauses between the sailing that hold the most interest, at least to this reader.And the final, bittersweet return to California in 1859 holds perhaps the most interesting passages.It is here we see Dana come to grips with a common theme - the reconciliation of nostalgia with progress. (And what a quick progress it is - from a single shanty in 1835 to 100,000 citizens in San Fransisco in 1859!)

My personal favorite passage is a comment that is probably as true today as it was in his time - the difficulty in understanding a life other than your own if you fail to adventure once in a while."His is one of those cases which are more numerous than those suppose who have never lived anywhere but in their own homes and never walked but in one line from their cradles to their graves."

5-0 out of 5 stars A classicworth the effort
A book even a landlubber like me could love! Before the Mast is a name most of us have heard. I just assumed it was a novel until I read it on suggestion of one of the guides at Mystic Seaport during a recent visit. Dana was a brave 19 year old fellow to sign up voluntarily as a common sailor living before the mast on a hazardous trip from Boston to California around The Cape near Antartica. His account of the trip is justifiably enduring for many reasons including the description of pre gold rush unpopulated California still under Spanish rule. There's even a Cpt. Bligh-like character to be feared. Speed read the parts describing all the sails unless that's your thing!

5-0 out of 5 stars The Hobo Philosopher
This is another book that I read aloud to my wife as we set about on our own adventure of "Hobo-ing America" in our little Chevy van.
I was thrilled by the fact that they brought their hides from California to the little tanning and leather processing community of Lowell, Massachusetts. I was raised in Lawrence - just down the road.
I picked up this book because it was a travel adventure about sailing around the world. I didn't know at the time that it was a Classic and that it had changed the life and working conditions for seaman at that time. My dad was also a seamen - at a much later date though. He served as a merchant marine during WWII. My wife and I were harboring the fantasy that after we finished our tour of the USA we might then sail "around the world".
We didn't.
This was a truly great adventure story and it is a true account - not a dramatized rendition. It was dramatic enough as fact. I loved it.
Mr. Dana being the son of a wealthy business man brought a truly conservative approach to the viewing of a sailors life.
William Z. Foster who also gives an account of life aboard commercial wind sailed vessels presents a much harsher view in his book "Pages from a Worker's Life". His account written several decades later also questions the exaggerated conservative notion that "improvements" were actually sustained or made in earnest for the sailors.

5-0 out of 5 stars The most exciting book ever!

If you like adventure and thrill, then Two Years Before the Mast is the book for you. Some parts of this book we will have you sitting on the edge of your seat.

In Two Years Before the Mast Richard Henry Dana went on a ship that was going around the tip of South Americia. From storms in the Atlantic to icebergs in the Pacifac. They were going to California to trade. It was very hard on the sailors.

This book is mostly about adventure an hardships. Richard Henry Dana went on this boat because his eyeshurt because he was reading too much. He took a break but he did not know what lie ahead of him.

I would highly recommend this book because it is very exciting and thrilling. I would recommend thi book to readers that love excitement.

5-0 out of 5 stars A Must-Have for the Nautical Library
Two Years Before the Mast is a genuine classic -- a must-read for anyone interested in ships and the sea and in American maritime history. ... Read more


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