Winchester, Simon. Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms and A Vast Ocean of A Million Stories. Harper/HarperCollins.
What does the most prolific historian of a still new century choose next to explore after tackling everything from volcanoes to the Oxford English Dictionary? Write a "biography" about the Atlantic Ocean! Its name is of unknown origin and was first used in the fifth century B.C. by the Greek historian Herodotus. The Atlantic's birth is said to have been the end product of a continental split between South America and Africa. Ancient Phoenicians took the initial step in exploring the divide by visiting the coast of Spain and finding a dye from snails that was worth more than gold. Romans who conquered Britain would go no further west out of fear. It would take another fifteen hundred years before the navigator Americo Vespucci's travels along the Brazilian coast verified there was a new continent on the other side rather than the "India" hoped for by Columbus. Winchester weaves in literary perspectives about the Atlantic including Shakepeare's "The Tempest" (a new movie version starring Helen Mirren is currently out in theaters) and Melville's "Moby Dick."
Also by Simon Winchester at Merrick Library:
A Crack In The Edge Of The World
The Fracture Zone: A Return To The Balkans
Krakatoa: The Day The World Exploded
The Man Who Loved China
The Map That Changed The World
The Meaning Of Everything
The Professor And The Madman
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