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Sir Walter Ralegh: A Biography
Klondike Paradise: Culture in the Wilderness
Canyons of the Colorado
Tp on Ab
Christopher Columbus: Master Italian Navigator in the Court of Spain (Explorers)
Geographers: Biobibliographical Studies (Geographers)
Woman in the Bush
A Memoir of Sebastian Cabot
Death Valley in '49: An Important Chapter of California Pioneer History
David Livingstone: A Concise Biography
Sir Francis Drake
Buffalo Bill, the Last of the Great Scouts: The Life Story of Colonel William F. Cody
Andrew Ellicott: His Life and Letters
Sea Fighters from Drake to Farragut
Memoirs of a Yukon Priest
Treasure and Intrigue: The Legacy of Captain Kidd
The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus
The True Story of Christopher Columbus
Louis St. Laurent (The Canadians)
South: The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition 1914-1917
Explorations into the World of Lewis and Clark
Explorations into the World of Lewis and Clark
Trailblazing Sports Heroes
Bush and Arctic Pilot
The Islands of the Sulu Sea

Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado

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not too bad...
an excellent introduction to the ugly but fascinating world of politics
Outstanding look at a fascinating individual

Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado
Marc Aronson
Manufacturer: Clarion Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Sir Walter Raleigh: Being a True and Vivid Account of the Life and Times of the Explorer, Soldier, Scholar, Poet, and Courtier--The Controversial Hero of the Elizabethan Age

ASIN: 039584827X

Book Description

In this extraordinarily well researched and insightful biography, Marc Aronson explores the amazing accomplishments and dismal failures of one of the most flamboyant figures of the Elizabethan age. Best remembered for laying his coat in a muddy puddle so that Queen Elizabeth I could walk across it, Sir Walter Ralegh committed himself to pleasing his monarch and obtaining power in her court. He heroically risked his life in battle time and again, chasing after glory to win her favor. His notoriously ill-fated quest for the mythological golden city of El Dorado was perhaps his grandest attempt, but it also was his undoing, and Ralegh ultimately paid for his mistakes with his life. Despite his shortcomings, he was not only charismatic and brave, he was brilliant as well, and his contributions to the New World and to western culture as a whole were vast and enduring. MAPS, ENDNOTES and BIBLIOGRAPHY, TIMELINE, INDEX.

Customer Reviews:

not too bad..........2007-06-07

did not realize when i bought this book that is basically for children, probably up to the age of 12 or so. for this grade level, it was fine. but this is certainly not a book for adults. it's too simple.

an excellent introduction to the ugly but fascinating world of politics.......2007-05-18

This book reads like an entertaining adventure novel but it is so much more. The court intrigues of Elizabethan England and not so different from the politics of today, both in government and corporations. The author has made a lifelong study of Sir Walter Ralegh and his passion shows. Ralegh's strengths, weaknesses and luck, both good and bad made him who he was and changed the world.The Mechanical Age: The Industrial Revolution in England (World History Library)Colonial Living.

Outstanding look at a fascinating individual.......2000-06-05

Sir Walter Ralegh (the way he spelled it) was so much more than a promoter of tobacco--although he certainly did promote tobacco. He was so much more than a man who lay down his cloak so Queen Elizabeth I would not get her feet wet--a story which may or may not be true. He was a man from a poor background who rose almost as high as one could in Elizabethan England--and then fell about as low. Stunningly researched, brilliantly written, full of fascinating facts (did you know there were no maps of England that showed ROADS until the 1590s), this is young adult writing at its finest.

That Great Lucifer: A Potrait of Sir Walter Ralegh

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The last great Elizabethan

That Great Lucifer: A Potrait of Sir Walter Ralegh
Margaret Irwin
Manufacturer: Allison & Busby LTD
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0749003278
Release Date: 1998-01-01

Product Description

No lover of history can fail to recognize in the man who cast his cape gracefully across a puddle to protect the feet of his queen, the symbol of the Elizabethan Age. For Sir Walther Ralegh was more, much more than the courtier portrayed in the painting. He was truly the Elizabethan incarnate - soldier, sailor, captain of the Queen's guard, explorer and colonizer of the New World, poet, scientist, military engineer and literary patron. In an age both cruel and romantic, the figure of Sir Walter Ralegh stands high above the contemporaries who eventually cast him down. He it was who devised the plan that brought about the destruction of the Armada, who sailed into Cadiz harbor to grapple with Philip of Spain's war fleet and who, before he laid his head on the block, called to the headsman to let him feel the edge of the axe. Margaret Irwin was a noted authority on the Elizabethan Age. In this biography she brings all her skills as a historian and novelist in telling the story of this most remarkable Englishman.

Customer Reviews:

The last great Elizabethan.......2003-01-05

Everyone knows Sir Walter Ralegh as the gallant courtier who spread his cloak across a puddle so that his queen might pass dry-shod. A commoner who never lost his thick Cornish accent, Ralegh was nevertheless precisely the sort of man likely to catch Elizabeth's eye: handsome, intelligent, witty, well-spoken, and possessed of enough pride and independence to speak his mind, even to his queen. The term "Renaissance man" seems coined with Ralegh in mind: He was a poet, soldier, privateer, explorer, scientist, historian.

He could also be stunningly naive, and surprisingly inept at the art of courting favor. His first meeting with James I, Elizabeth's successor, was a disaster. Accustomed to priviledge, Ralegh approached James unannounced, even though the king heartily disliked such surprises. When James observed that he might have had to fight for the throne, Ralegh's response was, "Would to God you had! Then Your Majestry would have known your friends from your foes." An honest sentiment and possibly a shrewd one, it not the sort of observation likely to endear him to the new king. James already had reason to be wary of Ralegh, for some of Ralegh's enemies had been plying James for months with negative reports. Ralegh's recent behavior seemed to support these dark hints: he was one of the few dignitaries who did not bother to contact James after Elizabeth's death to assure the new sovereign of his loyalty. Worse, Ralegh presented the peace-loving king with a proposal for seizing the West Indies from Spain. James had been told that Ralegh was a warmonger and possibly a traitor. With his own eyes he perceived another, more subtle threat: this handsome, powerful, and persuasive man was a living reminder of Elizabethan glories.

Ralegh's fall from power during the reign of James I was as swift and spectacular as his rise under Elizabeth had been. His enemies rejoiced, as did the common folk who then and now love to see the mighty brought low. Ralegh's greatest triumph, perhaps, was the courage and wit he exhibited through his trial, imprisonment, and execution. In a last interview with a friend, he advised him to come to the beheading early if he wished to get a place. "As for me, my place is assured," he quipped. His last words, spoken to the hesitant executioner, were, "What dost fear? Strike, man, strike!"

Margaret Irwin is a novelist as well as a historian, and this comes through in the tone and quality of her writing. This biography is far more entertaining than most fictorical fiction I've read. It's full of telling anecdotes, vivid descriptions, and dead-on characterizations. Considering the complexity of her subjects and the paradoxical nature of Ralegh himself, this is a remarkable achievement.

One minor disappointment was the lack of a bioliography; there were several incidents and anecdotes that I would have liked to explore in more depth. Even so, it's an entertaining story, as well as a window into a fascinating time.

My Just Desire: The Life of Bess Ralegh, Wife to Sir Walter

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My Just Desire: The Life of Bess Ralegh, Wife to Sir Walter
Anna Beer
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Young, beautiful, and connected by blood to the most powerful families in England, Bess Throckmorton had as much influence over Queen Elizabeth I as any woman in the realm—but she risked everything to marry the most charismatic man of the day. The secret marriage between Bess and the Queen’s beloved Sir Walter Ralegh cost both of them their fortunes, their freedom, and very nearly their lives. Yet it was Bess, resilient, passionate, and politically shrewd, who would live to restore their name and reclaim her political influence. In this dazzling biography, Bess Ralegh finally emerges from her husband’s shadow to stand as a complex, commanding figure in her own right.

Writing with grace and drama, Anna Beer brings Bess to life as a woman, a wife and mother, an intimate friend of poets and courtiers, and a skilled political infighter in Europe’s most powerful and most dangerous court. The only daughter of an ambitious aristocratic family, Bess was thrust at a tender age into the very epicenter of royal power when her parents secured her the position of Elizabeth’s Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber. Bess proved to be a natural player on this stage of extravagant mythmaking and covert sexual politics, until she fell in love with the Queen’s Captain of the Guard, the handsome, virile, meteorically rising Ralegh. But their secret marriage, swiftly followed by the birth of their son, would have grave consequences for both of them.

Brooking the Queen’s wrath and her husband’s refusal to acknowledge their marriage, Bess brilliantly stage-managed her social and political rehabilitation and emerged from prison as the leader of a brilliant, fast-living aristocratic set. She survived personal tragedy, the ruinous global voyages launched by her husband, and the vicious plots of high-placed enemies. Though Raleigh in the end fell afoul of court intrigue, Bess lived on into the reign of James I as a woman of hard-won wisdom and formidable power.

With compelling historical insight, Anna Beer recreates here the vibrant pageant of Elizabethan England—the brilliant wit and vicious betrayals, the new discoveries and old rivalries, the violence and fierce sexuality of life at court. Peopled by poets and princes, spanning the reigns of two monarchs, moving between the palaces of London and the manor house outside the capital, My Just Desire is the portrait of a remarkable woman who lived at the center of an extraordinary time.

From the Hardcover edition.

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Founding Father
Amazing
A brilliant summary of the archetypal renaissance man.

Sir Walter Ralegh (Phoenix Press)
Robert Lacey
Manufacturer: Phoenix Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Martin Frobisher: Elizabethan Privateer
Big Chief Elizabeth: The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in America

ASIN: 1842120891

Book Description

Colorful and exciting, Sir Walter Ralegh became a favorite of Queen Elizabeth. This world-famous explorer conceived and organized the colonizing expeditions to America; introduced potatoes and tobacco to England, and ended up in the Tower, following his secret wedding to Bess Throckmorton where he was executed. Along with his more well-known exploits, this insightful study--the first based on an accurate chronology of Ralegh's own writings--offers startling disclosures about his other love affairs, an illegitimate child, and a failed suicide attempt.

Customer Reviews:

Founding Father.......2002-03-21

Like his later compatriate Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Walter Ralegh is one of those historical figures about whom virtually everyone knows something. From the old yarn about cloaks and puddles (though this actually happened), to his sponsorship of the tobacco industry (this happened too), to his tragic expedition to the Orinoco, Ralegh lore is a recurring theme in school history classes on both sides of the Atlantic. Lacey's great achievement is to blend these facets of his life seamlessly with the other, less familiar, episodes. One of the most interesting revelations is that for all the early and mid-life glories of his Elizabethan years - the poetry, the daring exploits and bon mots - his "finest hour" was in adversity, when (under sentence of death in the Tower) he wrote his brilliant multi-volume "History of the World." This is one of those rare biographies (Carlo D'Este's "Patton" comes to mind as another) where the reader is completely absorbed into the subject's mind and world.

Amazing.......2001-10-11

I had always loved Ralegh's poetry, I fell enamored of the fictional account of his life entitled "Death of a Fox" by George Garrett some 30 odd years ago, but had never really comprehended the sweep of Ralegh's life. In his own way, according to Lacey, Ralegh's household became almost the equivalent of our Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Draper Labs, or even NASA. The story about the cloak and Elizabeth is true, but the depth of his love for his wife was new to me.

Fascinating, well-written book. Truly fascinating man.

A brilliant summary of the archetypal renaissance man........1999-08-15

To write a biography of a man with as much vitality and variety as Ralegh would seem at first sight a daunting task for any author: however well the tale is told, it will pale beside the real life exploits of this, the most remarkable of Englishmen.

The success of Robert Lacey's account is largely due to the way he reflects the multifaceted nature of his subject in the book's structure. There are some 50 chapters, divided into seven sections, each charting the ups and downs of Ralegh's uniquely chequered career. From country upstart to royal favourite, from privateer to traitor in the Tower, his life was never still - a continuum of change within a world that was constantly reassessing itself.

It is above all an account of a man who was almost uniquely human: capable of immense bravery and ingenuity, creativity and arrogance, one moment acquitting himself with a rare brilliance, the next with sublime recklessness. Ralegh was the epitome of man, warts and all, and a man who struggled daily to achieve ends that were destined to lie forever beyond him, whether they were glories of the gold of El Dorado or the love of his virgin Queen.

Far from being a trip down the honeysuckled lane of nostalgia, this is a book that is uniquely relevant to the present day. Many readers will be aware of the legends of Ralegh's bejewelled cloak, or acquainted with verses of his gilded poetry; many more will be surprised to learn that he was the founding father of the British colony, and that his experiments in Munster, Virginia and Guyana led directly to the vast empire that was only a couple of centuries later to cover one third of the globe. Yet he was in his explorations and expeditions a great philanthropist, and his treatment of the local inhabitants in the Americas was to earn him a respect that lasted many generations, as opposed to the legacy of mistrust and hatred that the Spanish pioneers engendered.

Ralegh was a man whose talents and faults, when fuelled by his rare energy, shone like beacons. He lived the kind of life that most of us only dream of, and few can live up to. Lacey's greatest achievement is never to lapse into the kind of starry-eyed hero-worshipping that often accompanies biographies of remarkable men. It is a profoundly moving book, particularly in its final chapters, when the voice of Ralegh in his final speech before his execution is allowed to resonate down the years with few embellishments and, as such, is all the more powerful. The book is a testament to the unique powers of one man: the man, to the powers that lie within us all.

A Play of Passion: The Life of Sir Walter Ralegh

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A Play of Passion: The Life of Sir Walter Ralegh
Stephen Coote
Manufacturer: Papermac
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Sir Walter Ralegh (Study in English)
Stephen J. Greenblatt
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0300016344

Five remarkable Englishmen;: A new look at the lives and times of Walter Ralegh, Captain John Smith, John Winthrop, William Penn, James Oglethorpe

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Five remarkable Englishmen;: A new look at the lives and times of Walter Ralegh, Captain John Smith, John Winthrop, William Penn, James Oglethorpe
Denis Meadows
Manufacturer: Devin-Adair
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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Sir Walter Ralegh;: A biography
W Stebbing
Manufacturer: Lemma Pub. Corp
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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Sir Walter Ralegh (Men and books)
Philip Edwards
Manufacturer: Longmans, Green
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Sir Walter Ralegh;: A study in Elizabethan skepticism,

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Sir Walter Ralegh;: A study in Elizabethan skepticism,
Ernest Albert Strathmann
Manufacturer: Octagon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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