Charting the Sea of Darkness: The Four Voyages of Henry HudsonNATIONAL BOOK AWARD NOMINEE Long regarded as the most magical of the European dynasties, the Rothschild family today remains one of the most powerful and wealthy in the world. No family in the past two centuries has been so constantly at the center of Europe's great events, has featured such varied and spectacular personalities, has had anything close to the wealth of the Rothschilds. In Frederic Morton's classic tale, the family is brought vividly to life. Here you'll meet characters as lively as you can imagine: Mayer, long-time advisor to Germany's princes, who broke through the barriers of a Frankfurt ghetto and placed his family on the road to wealth and power; Lord Alfred, who maintained a private train, private orchestra (which he conducted), and private circus (of which he was ringmaster); Baron Philippe, whose rarefied vintages bear labels created by great artists, among them Picasso, Dali, and Haring; and Kathleen Nica Rothschild de Koenigswarter, the "jazz baroness," in whose arms Charlie Parker died. The family itself has been at the center of some of the most crucial moments in history: the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, the development of the Suez Canal, the introduction of Jews in the House of Lords. Through it all, the Rothschild name has continued to represent the family ideal: a shrewd business and financial sense, activity in the Jewish community and the arts, and an always luxurious-and often eccentric-lifestyle. Nominated for a National Book Award when it was first published in 1962, Frederic Morton's The Rothschllds is here reissued with a new afterword by the author, bringing the tale of this extraordinary family to the present. |
Contents
List of Illustrations | ix |
CHAPTER | xxii |
Charting the Sea of Darkness 1 | 17 |
Copyright | |
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15 miles 30 miles aboard afternoon Arctic ashore Barents boat brought calm Captain Cathay charts coast course crew Davis Davis Strait Discovery Dutch east southeast eight o'clock England explored Fair weather fathoms Figure found our latitude four o'clock Frobisher gale of wind Gerardus Mercator Greenland Groneland Half Moon headed Henry Greene Henry Hudson Holland Hondius Inlet Island Jodocus Hondius John journal Juet's July June Kara Sea latitude little wind master mate midnight morning Muscovy Company noon north northwest northern Northwest Passage Nova Zembla o'clock at night Peter Plancius Purchas returned river Robert Bylot Robert Juet route Samuel Purchas shallop shoal shore sight sounded south by west south southwest southeast by east southwest by west Spain Spitzbergen steered north steered northeast steered west Strait sunshining weather tacked thick fog tion Today took voyage walrus weighed anchor west by north west southwest Willem Barents