Books with author Richard Henry Dana Jr.

Dana writes that this is intended to give a perspective to the daily life of the common sailor in 1840, rather than the gentleman or officer. 368 pages, Abridged from the original to be suited to 'Modern Readng,' or the younger reader. Illustrated covers, endpapers, and throughout the text by Robert Frankenberg. Youth Fiction published in the late 1940's. A classic.

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Two Years Before the Mast is a book by the American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834 and published in 1840. It is of note that he did not set out to write Two Years Before the Mast as a sea adventure, but to highlight how poorly common sailors were treated on ships. It quickly became a best seller.

The steamer is to sail at one P.M.; and, by half-past twelve, her decks are full, and the mud and snow of the pier are well trodden by men and horses. Coaches drive down furiously, and nervous passengers put their heads out to see if the steamer is off before her time; and on the decks, and in the gangways, inexperienced passengers run against everybody, and mistake the engineer for the steward, and come up the same stairs they go down, without knowing it.

How is this book unique? Free AudiobookIllustrations includedUnabridgedTwo Years Before the Mast is a memoir by the American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., published in 1840, having been written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834. A film adaptation under the same name was released in 1946. The term "before the mast" refers to the quarters of the common sailors — in the forecastle, in the front of the ship. His writing evidences his later sympathy with the lower classes; he later became a prominent anti-slavery activist and helped found the Free Soil Party. Dana did not set out to write Two Years Before the Mast as a sea adventure, but to highlight how poorly common sailors were treated on ships. It quickly became a best seller.

This book has probably infected more young men with sea fever than any other volume ever written. In the years after its publication in 1840, however, the novel had a less romantic influence: its realistic portrayal of the common sailor's dismal treatment at sea awakened contemporary social conscience and led to maritime reform. Richard Henry Dana (for whom Dana Point in California is named) shipped from Boston as an ordinary seaman on the vessel "Pilgrim" in 1834. He sailed 'round the Horn to California where he remained for a year, most of the time collecting hides from seaside ranches.

Richard Henry Dana dropped out of school and became an ordinary deckhand on the brig Pilgrim. The perilous journey from Boston, begun in 1834, took the ailing yet determined youth past Cape Horn and around the Americas, concluding in the Mexican territory California. This expedition inspired Two Years before the Mast, a first-hand account of "the life of a common sailor" a work that combines history, philosophy, and personal experience.