About this title: Captivating tale of true adventures recounts, with wry good humor, the hardships of a two-year voyage aboard a diminutive and leaky craft. Enhanced with 119 original photographs.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. 2000-Paperback-Cover shows some shelf-wear. ---Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Date Published: 1986-01-04
ISBN-13:9780710301390ISBN:0710301391
Description: Good. Good title in good condition. Pages are clean and tight. Covers show some edgewear and bumping. Former library copy with usual stickers, stamps, and markings. Satisfaction guaranteed. If item not as described, return for refund of purchase price. read more
Edition: Third Impression
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Sheridan House Inc, Dobbs Ferry, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1993
ISBN-13:9780924486463ISBN:0924486465
Description: Very Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Clean text/ tight binding/ spine NOT creased/ light edgewear. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Dover Publications, Mineola, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780486412481ISBN:0486412482
Description: Very Good. No Jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Pages are clean and unmarked. Cover corners and ends of spine are unmarred. Binding is tight. 340pp. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780792262442ISBN:0792262441
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Edition: Later Printing
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: KPI [1986], London and New York
Date Published: 1986
ISBN-13:9780710301390ISBN:0710301391
Description: Near Fine. Later [2nd] printing thus. "Jack London's account of the fulfillment of his boyhood dream of sailing the Pacific in the wake of Herman Melville and Robert Louis Stevenson". 307 pages. Near Fine copy with minor corner crimping. read more
"This book is a testament to Jack London's marriage. They hired a company to build their boat so they can sail around the world. Just about everything broke on their Pacific crossing and how they coped with it. It's a good read."
"On April 23, 1907, Jack London sailed out of San Francisco Bay to Hawaii, accompanied by his wife and a small crew, aboard the ship he built, the Snark. The details of that journey, which would take London and crew throughout the South Pacific and ultimately to Australia, are recounted in The Cruise Of The Snark.
On their journey, they encountered an amazing variety of hospitality from nearly everyone they met, the exception being the cannibals of the Solomon Islands. They also encountered an astonishing variety of illness, which ultimately forced London to call of the expedition.
What's interesting about this book is to look at what the South Pacific (and even the world in general) was like in 1907, especially in light of reading Diamond's Guns, Germs & Steel. London maintains a sort of genial good nature throughout his writing about the voyage of the Snark but the diseases and illnesses he's talking about were passed back and forth from outsiders to residents and from residents to outsiders. And those diseases and illnesses caught and carried by London and his crew could not have been easy to bear. They would develop fevers and live ulcers that ate their skin on an almost regular basis by the time their journey came to an end.
The chapter on the leper colony on Molokai in Hawaii was particularly interesting. Until the disease was cured in the 40's, all Hawaiians diagnosed with Hansen's Disease (leprosy) were sent to a colony on the island of Molokai. This colony was the center of much sensationalist journalism, so much so that London claimed one resident asked him to set things straight by writing about what the colony was really like. London was obviously affected by the people he met on Molokai because his description has a loving quality to it.
The other chapter that stood out for me was on surfing, how London saw it and how he learned to do it. Surfing was first observed by Europeans in 1767, but it's still pretty groovy to read about a man learning to surf in 1907.
And a great mystery was cleared up! London describes a group of natives from Tanna Island. "Before we could catch our breaths a swarm of black Tannese was alongside and aboard - grinning, apelike creatures with kinky hair and troubled eyes, wearing safety pins and clay pipes in their slitted ears..." That's where the fashion came from! The island of Tanna! I thought at first London was calling something a safety pin that differed from what I understand to be a safety pin. However, research tells me the safety pin was invented (or reinvented, apparently) in 1849 by one Walter Hunt. That means those islanders very well could have been wearing safety pins!
My one complaint is that the book is a bit jumbled in places and a little repetitive. The Cruise Of The Snark could use a good editing and some footnotes.
"London's use of language is really beautiful. I didn't expect that so much. The book was so contemporary sounding, it really stands up to the test of time. There was humor and adventure. As far as sailing and travl books go this was an excellent read."
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