Ledyard
Ledyard

Author: Bill Gifford

Publisher: Mariner Books

Published: 2010-09-30

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9780156033053

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Journalist Bill Gifford gives us a life--and follows in the footsteps--of an early American explorer, whose exploits (including walking across all of Russia) and inspired Lewis and Clark.

The Last Voyage of Captain Cook
The Last Voyage of Captain Cook

Author: John Ledyard

Publisher: National Geographic

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13:

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Ledyard's Siberian journals recount a harrowing journey through Russia under the rule of Catherine the Great, while his diary from Alexandria and Cairo provides a brilliant and rare account of Egypt before Napoleon's invasion. Finally, Ledyard's correspondence sheds light on pre-revolutionary Paris and on his friendships with the Marquis de Lafayette, Benjamin Franklin, and Sir Joseph Banks. In his short life, John Ledyard traveled farther than any American had before."--Jacket.

The Making of John Ledyard
The Making of John Ledyard

Author: Edward G. Gray

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2008-10-01

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 0300137818

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During the course of his short but extraordinary life, John Ledyard (1751–1789) came in contact with some of the most remarkable figures of his era: the British explorer Captain James Cook, American financier Robert Morris, Revolutionary naval commander John Paul Jones, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and others. Ledyard lived and traveled in remarkable places as well, journeying from the New England backcountry to Tahiti, Hawaii, the American Northwest coast, Alaska, and the Russian Far East. In this engaging biography, the historian Edward Gray offers not only a full account of Ledyard’s eventful life but also an illuminating view of the late eighteenth-century world in which he lived. Ledyard was both a product of empire and an agent in its creation, Gray shows, and through this adventurer’s life it is possible to discern the many ways empire shaped the lives of nations, peoples, and individuals in the era of the American Revolution, the world’s first modern revolt against empire.

Inventing the American Astronaut
Inventing the American Astronaut

Author: Matthew H. Hersch

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2012-10-08

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 1137025298

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Who were the men who led America's first expeditions into space? Soldiers? Daredevils? The public sometimes imagined them that way: heroic military men and hot-shot pilots without the capacity for doubt, fear, or worry. However, early astronauts were hard-working and determined professionals - 'organization men' - who were calm, calculating, and highly attuned to the politics and celebrity of the Space Race. Many would have been at home in corporate America - and until the first rockets carried humans into space, some seemed to be headed there. Instead, they strapped themselves to missiles and blasted skyward, returning with a smile and an inspiring word for the press. From the early days of Project Mercury to the last moon landing, this lively history demystifies the American astronaut while revealing the warring personalities, raw ambition, and complex motives of the men who were the public face of the space program.