Explorations: An Autobiography (Phoenix Giants)

by RobertBallard (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1996

  $5.86

  A voyage of discovery in which intrepid explorers, plant hunters, collectors and observers of human behaviour record their impressions and Laura Stoddart comments on them in her entrancing illustrations. Here, in brief quotations from poems, diary entries, memoirs, novels and histories we see stout Cortez silent upon a peak in Darien, Montgolfier waving from his balloon, Darwin taking notes on the Beagle, John Tradescant triumphantly bringing home the pineapple, Marco Polo discovering spaghetti in China, Stanley shaking hands with Dr Livingstone in Africa, and medieval travellers' reports of strange practices in India and Mongolia. We watch the intrepid Jane Digby crossing the Arabian desert on horseback, see young gentleman ambushed by bandits on the Grand Tour, eavesdrop on ladies of the Raj airing their domestic problems, and share Lucy Honeychurch's transports of delight in Florence in A Room with a View. Maps, Mughal miniatures, gondolas, gardens, mountains and all the wonders of the world are subject matter for Laura Stoddart's exquisite pictures, peopled with her tiny but infinitely expressive figures. Humorous, affectionate with a sharp eye for human foibles, Explorations is the perfect theme for this talented young artist whose distinctive work has already brought her a devoted following.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1995

  $14.10

  In 1985, Robert Ballard the oceanographer, using a miniature diving bell complete with sophisticated underwater camera craft, discovered the long lost wreck of the White Star liner the Titanic , two miles deep in the north Atlantic. Two years later, using the same equipment he rediscovered the wreck of the World War II German battleship, the Bismarck . Since then, he has conducted dramatic underwater surveys of the lost World War II ships of Guadalcanal in the pacific, and most recently, the Cunard liner, the Lusitania , the ship whose sinking off the Irish coast brought the Americans into World War I. But Ballard has also held intelligence jobs in the US Navy and found hitherto unknown marine life on the Pacific ocean floor.