The Devil May Care: 50 Intrepid Americans and Their Quest for the Unknown

By Tony Horwitz

Book Overview

Stripped naked and pursued across cactus-studded plains by a band of armed Blackfoot Indians, John Colter escaped certain death to become the one of the most durable characters in western American history. But Colter's harrowing tale was not beyond the ordinary when compared to the adventures of other American explorers. In The Devil May Care, popular historian and travel writer Tony Horwitz has culled through the American National Biography and selected fifty stirring biographies of adventurers who had no one's footsteps to follow in--and yet contributed enormously to our understanding of the world.
Horwitz introduces us to fascinating individuals such as John Ledyard, the first American to see what would become the Pacific Northwest, and Elisha Kent Kane, America's first arctic hero, who stumbled upon an extremely strange remedy for scurvy while icebound off of Ellesmere Island. Having set off into the unknown many times himself as a foreign correspondent, Horwitz brings a subtle sense of humor and a reporter's eye for detail to a collection that offers a glimpse inside the lives of historic Americans who brazenly challenged danger as they pursued their wanderlust to extreme climates and forbidding environments.
Beginning with a short essay, Horwitz seeks his own definition of exploration, drawing on some of his research into the voyages of Captain James Cook and considering its larger implications throughout history. Archival photographs as well as a lively and personal introduction to each story by Horwitz further enhance the appeal of a volume that winds its way through several centuries of American exploration, affirming that the best adventure stories are the true ones.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195169220
• ISBN13: 9780195169225
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 282 Pages
• Weight: 1.11 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 8.6" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating glimpses into little known lives

This collection of short biographies of persons connected with American adventure is fascinating. Because it is a compilation from a biographical encyclopedia, there are various writing styles from the various authors. Any one of the chapters is interesting, cumulatively they give a sense of the strange and amazing exploits that humans are capable of. The book made me want to go read the entire encyclopedia to learn about the lives of men and women in other fields than adventure. Highly recommended.