Two Years Before the Mast [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION. Richárd Henry Dana, the author of Two Years befőve the Mast, came of a distinguished New England family, and was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in August, 1815, His father, alsó named Richárd Henry, was the son of FrancisDana, for somé time United States minister to Russia, afterwards chief-justice of Massachusetts, and ranks as one of the pioneers of American literature. Although his best work was in the field of literary criticism, he was noted alsó as a poet, publishing The Dying Raven in 1821 and The Buccaneer in 1827. A collection of his prose and verse appeared in 1833. His son inherited his literary talents, which are conspicuously displayed in the work before us, which is probably the most graphic and truthful picture of life at sea that has ever been given to the public. The way in which it came to be written was as follows :-Young Dana, while at Harvard University, which he entered in 1832, became troubled with an affection of the eyes that prevented him from continuing his studies. He therefore, as he telis us in his first chapter, determined to see what an entire change of lile and a long absence