Matthew Flinders: Personal Letters From An Extraordinary Life
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: limited to 2000 copies
Condition remarks:
Book: Very good
Jacket: No dust jacket - cloth/board in good condition
Pages: Good
Few lives in the annals of maritime exploration burn as brightly as that of Captain Matthew Flinders, the audacious Royal Navy navigator who became the first person to circumnavigate and chart the coastline of the continent he named Australia. Matthew Flinders: Personal Letters from an Extraordinary Life, edited by Paul Brunton, presents an intimate and revelatory portrait of this pioneering figure through his own handwritten correspondence — letters that chronicle his voyages, his years of unjust imprisonment on Mauritius by the French, and his deep, enduring love for his wife Ann. Each letter peels back the myth of the naval hero to reveal a man of remarkable intellect, warmth, and quiet resilience, writing candidly from the quarterdeck and the prison cell alike. Brunton, a senior curator at the State Library of New South Wales, brings scholarly authority and a biographer's sensitivity to his editorial work, situating each letter within its precise historical moment and illuminating the broader currents of empire, science, and seafaring that shaped Flinders' world. The collection stands as a significant contribution to Australian historical literature, offering primary-source insight into the Enlightenment-era spirit of discovery that defined an age. For readers drawn to the great age of sail, to the human cost of ambition, or simply to the power of a well-turned letter, this volume poses an irresistible question: what else did this extraordinary man leave unfinished?
Author: Paul Brunton
Format: Hardback
Published: 2002, Hordern House in association with the State Library of New South Wales
Genre: Australian history
Edition: limited to 2000 copies
Condition remarks:
Book: Very good
Jacket: No dust jacket - cloth/board in good condition
Pages: Good
Few lives in the annals of maritime exploration burn as brightly as that of Captain Matthew Flinders, the audacious Royal Navy navigator who became the first person to circumnavigate and chart the coastline of the continent he named Australia. Matthew Flinders: Personal Letters from an Extraordinary Life, edited by Paul Brunton, presents an intimate and revelatory portrait of this pioneering figure through his own handwritten correspondence — letters that chronicle his voyages, his years of unjust imprisonment on Mauritius by the French, and his deep, enduring love for his wife Ann. Each letter peels back the myth of the naval hero to reveal a man of remarkable intellect, warmth, and quiet resilience, writing candidly from the quarterdeck and the prison cell alike. Brunton, a senior curator at the State Library of New South Wales, brings scholarly authority and a biographer's sensitivity to his editorial work, situating each letter within its precise historical moment and illuminating the broader currents of empire, science, and seafaring that shaped Flinders' world. The collection stands as a significant contribution to Australian historical literature, offering primary-source insight into the Enlightenment-era spirit of discovery that defined an age. For readers drawn to the great age of sail, to the human cost of ambition, or simply to the power of a well-turned letter, this volume poses an irresistible question: what else did this extraordinary man leave unfinished?