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| Author: Jason Roberts |
He was known simply as the Blind Traveler -- a solitary,
sightless adventurer who, astonishingly, fought the
slave trade in Africa, survived a frozen captivity in
Siberia, hunted rogue elephants in Ceylon, and helped
chart the Australian outback. James Holman (1786-1857)
became "one of the greatest wonders of the world
he so sagaciously explored," triumphing not only
over blindness but crippling pain, poverty, and the
interference of well-meaning authorities (his greatest
feat, a circumnavigation of the globe, had to be launched
in secret). Once a celebrity, a bestselling author,
and an inspiration to Charles Darwin and Sir Richard
Francis Burton, the charismatic, witty Holman outlived
his fame, dying in an obscurity that has endured --
until now.
This is a spellbinding and moving rediscovery of one
of history's most epic lives. Drawing on meticulous
research, Roberts ushers us into the Blind Traveler's
uniquely vivid sensory realm, then sweeps us away on
an extraordinary journey across the known world during
the Age of Exploration.
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From Publishers Weekly
In this vibrant biography of James Holman (1786-1857), Roberts, a contributor
to the Village Voice and McSweeney's , narrates the
life of a 19th-century British naval officer who was mysteriously blinded
at 25, but nevertheless became the greatest traveler of his time. Holman
entered the navy at age 12, at the height of the Napoleonic Wars. When
blindness overcame him, Holman was an accomplished sailor, and he engineered
to join the Naval Knights of Windsor, a quirky group who only had to live
in quarters near Windsor Castle and attend mass for their stipend. For
many blind people at the time, this would have been the start of a long
(if safe) march to the grave. Holman would have none of it and spent the
bulk of his life arranging leaves of absence from the Knights in order
to wander the world (without assistance) from Paris to Canton; study medicine
at the University of Edinburgh; hunt slavers off the coast of Africa;
get arrested by one of the czar's elite bodyguards in Siberia; and publish
several bestselling travel memoirs. Roberts does Holman justice, evoking
with grace and wit the tale of this man once lionized as "The Blind
Traveler."
© 1997-2005 Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. |
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$26.95 (hardcover)
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