cover image Magnificent Voyage: An American Adventurer on Captain James Cook's Final Expedition

Magnificent Voyage: An American Adventurer on Captain James Cook's Final Expedition

Laurie Lawlor. Holiday House, $22.95 (176pp) ISBN 978-0-8234-1575-5

Based on the shipboard journals of John Ledyard, just 25 when he joined Capt. James Cook's crew to discover the Northwest Passage in 1776, Laurie Lawlor's Magnificent Voyage: An American Adventurer on Captain James Cook's Final Expedition is thorough and engaging. Ledyard gained notoriety when he published, in America, his account of Cook's death before British officials had a chance to issue their report; in 1786 Paris, he befriended Thomas Jefferson. Period etchings, maps and primary documents illustrate the text.