No comments about River of Love "By Way of War".

No comments about An early history of Spirit Lake & the Toutle River Valley.

No comments about The Life Of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane And Of Other Distinguished American Explorers (1858).

No comments about Daniel Boone.

1 comments about New Columbus.

1. Historian Frederick J. Pohl shakes up the common conceptions of the man known to the world as Christopher Columbus in this biography, published in 1986. If you haven't studied Columbus since this time, you may not know Columbus at all.

   Pohl submits that the man who sailed under the name Christopher Columbus was born Juan Colon on the island of Majorca, son of a Jewish mother and an absent, dispossessed nobleman. As a result, Colon spent his life seeking the kind of power that had been denied the father he never knew. Convinced that finding a shorter trade route to India would mean wealth and power to its discoverer, Colon began a long public relations campaign to thus cash in on his abilities as navigator and ship's captain. Unable to get the Portugese to finance his expedition, he was forced to turn to Ferdinand and Isabel of Spain, but, since his family was still outlawed from a failed revolt years earlier, he was forced to assume the identity of a Genoese merchant whom he knew had died at sea: Cristoforo Colombo. Pohl describes Colon's career in fascinating detail, including all of the so-called voyages of discovery, and even goes into the successes of Americo Vespucci at some length.

   While it is not this reviewer's intention to pass critical judgement on Pohl's scholarship, the very outrageousness of some of these claims inclines one to wonder about their veracity. The notes at the end of the book clearly show that there are and always have been many unanswered questions about Columbus, and the net effect of this book may be more confusing (and sensationalist) than enlightening. The first couple of chapters weren't particularly good; the story was disjointed and episodic, and the positioning of the maps further on in the book, combined with the subject's unfamiliar name, make this section disconcertingly cryptic: "Where is Majorca? Who is this Juan Colon? Where in blazes is Castile? Why aren't we talking about Columbus?" While the solutions to these questions are eventually presented (in one form or another) Pohl should probably have been more forthright from the beginning instead of trying to spring surprises on his readers. After all, this book is being read in a country where three out of ten students can't find Canada on a map, let alone Navarre. All this aside, Pohl presents us with an entertaining account of one man's extraordinary life in relatively simple, straight-forward language. If you're interested in this period of history, and you're ready for a radically different viewpoint on this famous explorer, Pohl's book is worth discovering.

No comments about Christopher Marlowe and Richard Baines: Journeys Through the Elizabethan Underground.

No comments about Livingstone (Headway Guides for Beginners Great Lives Series).

1 comments about Across the Pond: Chapters from the Atlantic.

1. I sailed the Atlantic on a variety of vessels for upwards of a decade, so a history of that ocean is fascinating. This book covers the entire history, in simple but evocative language. This book is a must for cryise ships and for those who have aspirations to sail.

2 comments about The Way It Was.

1. Mr. Barbani's autobiography takes the reader from his humble beginnings in the Bronx on a world tour through one fascinating experience after another - sometimes funny, sometimes touching, sometimes bizarre, but never dull. I couldn't stop laughing when I read the episode about how to kill a pig. Mr. Barbani's prose sets the mood and pulls us into each scene, yet never lets the us forget his New York origins. I recommend this book to all those who don't have the opportunity to go to all the places and do all things the things described in this book - which includes virtually everyone.



2. While there may be some armchair adventurers who will also enjoy this book, it has a special appeal to those of us who have labored on foreign shores for many years, far from the comforts of home and in sometimes remote and difficult circumstances. Mr. Barbani takes it all in with a sense of humor that is the key to his many years of living and working abroad. A good portion of this book deals with Spain in the 1960's, during the last years of the Franco dictatorship, and before that country started on it's long march to a stable democracy. Those who experienced Spain during that period will relate to much of this material, such as the Samual Bronston Studios presence in Madrid that produced so many of the epoch films of the mid-1960's and the personalities and rouges of that era. This is also an interesting read for anyone who has had, or is thinking about, overseas employment in the new global economy, whether they are a new arrival or an experienced world traveler. And there are more than a few good laughs, too!

No comments about The Female Shipwright.