Farther Than Any Man: The Rise and Fall of Captain James Cook Paperback – July 30, 2002

There are dozens, probably hundreds of books on Cook and surrounding people and events in his life. This book by Dugard is a distinguished part of that. I've had unusual luck with Cook books, I am thrilled by the stories. Dugard took the whole Cook story and put it in one little book. But what a book! Great new insights and anecdotes. Thrilling to read. For a contrast, author Peter Aughton did it in three books, and those are simply great to read, I wish they were all twice as long, I never get tired of the stories.

The author indulges in hero worship while he carefully documents the life choices and caprice of destiny as applied to a dogged man, an institutional man, nonetheless enterprising and ambitious within the constraints of his circumstances. His excesses only increased as time passed and his mind was obviously affected by age, perhaps hardship, definitely hormone changes, and he crossed the fragile line between discipline and dementia. It cost him his life. Anything might have: a leak in the boat, a torn sail, or a change in the wind, but having survived all these other hardships it was actually the wind of his mind, which began to blow out of control. The overall accounting is not favorable and yet he did, in effect, travel farther than almost any other man, whose logs have reached us. Despite its prosaic journalistic style, a compelling book.

Liked how it was written as a story of his life and accomplishments! What an explorer!!! Author included a lot of additional detail surrounding the main events giving it more historical context. Loved the book!!

This is a wonderful book filled with information that explains the life of Captain Cook. The book provides information that most of us never knew about the captain. I learned a lot from the book and now better understand who Captain Cook was.

Wonderful record and depiction of Captain Cook and his life and accomplishments. Excellent writing and descriptions of events and locations as well as character studies.

Well told story of a complicated explorer. Sad to see a talented sailor lose the vision and compassion that led to success. Book helps tie together the Early exploration efforts around the globe.

I had read another book about Cook but couldn’t finish it, it was so dull. This book was the opposite. While remaining factual, the author told a great story. He made history exciting. I highly recommend this book.

It’s amazing how much Martin DuGard has managed to learn about Captain James Cook. It’s equally amazing how he manages to bring Cook’s adventures to life 250 years after the fact. And it’s not just the historical record that DuGard recreates so clearly, but also intangibles, like Cook’s state of mind. It takes an exceptionally skilled writer to convincingly transport the reader to the deck of a ship roving the South Pacific so long ago. Even a simple thing like Cook’s introduction of adjectives in his logbooks becomes meaningful for the reader. The scene in which Cook is murdered is rendered so clearly that it is easily visualized, and not easily forgotten. Farther Than Any Man is a remarkable biography of a remarkable man – by a remarkable author.