Christopher Columbus

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Christopher Columbus ranks among the most famous explorers of all time for having sailed the Atlantic in 1492 in search of the Far East but instead finding America. Born of Genoese parents, he had early seafaring experience in the Mediterranean, and later gained knowledge of the European and African north Atlantic coastline. The project of sailing westward across the Atlantic in search of the Indies emerged first in the 1480s, but it was not until October 1492 that his fleet of three small ships made its historic landfall on one of the Bahamas. Columbus made three more crossings of the Atlantic and many more discoveries, but his later life was marred by political intrigue. In 1506, a year and a half after his return from his final trip to the New World, he died still trying to recover the honour and fame that he thought was his due.

FROM THE CRITICS

AudioFile - AudioFile Review

We all know Christopher Columbus discovered America, but did you know he was actually searching for the West Indies? This and other lesser-known facts are tastefully read by Martyn Read in this abridged biography. Read narrates this seafaring tale with British pomp and circumstance. His crisp words sound as arrogant as the subject was purported to be. Columbus believed he was God's gift to the field of navigation and didn't let anyone forget it. This is a nice glimpse of the man behind the mast. A.G.H. � AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine