A Pirate Of Exquisite Mind: The Life Of William Dampier

Diana Preston, Michael Preston

Transworld, Dec 14, 2010 - Biography & Autobiography - 512 pages

William Dampier, (1651-1715), was an English adventurer and pirate who preyed on ships on the Spanish Main. Poor and ill-educated and determined to make his fortune, he nonetheless had a passion for exploration and scientific research.

Dampier was the first to map the winds and currents of the world's oceans; led the first recorded party of Englishmen to set foot on Australia - 80 years before Cook; wrote about Galapagos wildlife 150 years before Darwin, who drew on Dampier's notes in his own work; was the first travel writer: A NEW VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD was instant bestseller when it was published in 1697 - said to have influenced the novels of Swift and Defoe.

A man full of contradictions: he who achieved so much 'blew it' later in life, declining into scandal, failure and even farce. A unique man ahead of his time, he lived a large part of his life among pirates yet managed to preserve what Coleridge called his "exquisite refinement of mind". A classic example of the best narrative history.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Stbalbach - LibraryThing

A Pirate of Exquisite Mind says it all, Dampier straddled 16th century privateers like Francis Drake, and enlightened explorers of the 18th century like Captain Cook, a bit of both. This book was ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - JBD1 - LibraryThing

A decent overview of the life of William Dampier, who could indeed be described as a pirate, explorer, naturalist, &c. given all the various and disparate things that he managed to do during his career. A bit overly digressive at times, but other than that, a good read.

About the author

Diana Preston is an Oxford-trained historian, writer, and broadcaster who lives in London. She is the author of The Road to Culloden Moor; A First Rate Tragedy: Robert Falcon Scott and the Race to the South Pole; The Boxer Rebellion and Wilful Murder: The Sinking of the Lusitania. Michael Preston, Diana Preston's husband, read English at Oxford University and is now an historian and traveller.

Bibliographic information

• Title: A Pirate Of Exquisite Mind: The Life Of William Dampier
• Authors: Diana Preston, Michael Preston
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Transworld, 2010
• ISBN: 1446429180, 9781446429181
• Length: 512 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Historical; Biography & Autobiography / Military; Biography & Autobiography / Political