Henry Hudson: Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World's Least Understood Explorer

by Corey Sandler

Tragic Legacy of New World's Least Understood Explorer in Age of Discovery.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction

431 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2007

Reviews

[Ramesh Naidu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading the book felt haphazard for the most part but at the end, the author bought it to a close in a stunning finale and tied it neatly together. Paraphrasing the author below.

The reason for Henry hudson never being avenged was that the search for fortune was far more important than the search for justice and that's the reason why he is one of the least known most important explorers, disappearing without a fortune, knighthood or even a painting!!!

[Olga Vannucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

A route around the Arctic,
What he went to explore,
'Til in trip number four,
His men set him adrift.

[Larry Hostetler · Rating 3 out of 5]

The rating suffered because what sounded like a biography (according to my interpretation of the title) turned out to be a biography of Henry Hudson (as much as could be) and what one finds when traveling in his path in the 21st century.

The biographical part was interesting, and I enjoyed learning about Hudson and exploring in the early 1600s. The intent of his exploring was to find an alternative passage to Asia, either across the top of Russia or through what is now Canada. Neither was successful during his time, but the accounts of his travails while searching makes for good reading.

Unfortunately, I was not sufficiently prepared by the title or forward for extensive excursions into the history of some of the places Hudson encountered. Time (and pages) spent in remote islands north of Russia was enlightening, but when I was looking for Hudson's story I slogged through pages about the frozen north and how the people live in such bleak settings.

So, too, the history of the Hudson River and development of Hudson Bay were lengthy detours from the story I thought I was going to read. Too lengthy for me. The impact of pollution on the Hudson river and impact of building power plants around Hudson Bay was far less interesting to me than even the history of Hudson Bay Company. I picked up what I thought would be history and had to read far too much about the environment.

But I learned along the way, and there were snippets of knowledge gained from forays into the modern world. The perspectives on piloting a 1600s ship from the Captain of a modern recreation was elucidating. Unfortunately, there was too little of that and too much of General Electric and Hydro Quebec, neither of which provided insight into the life and travels of Henry Hudson.

Perhaps it is the publisher who is responsible for misleading, but the author could have explained more in the beginning about the book being what he found following in the path of Hudson while trying to uncover some of the story of his life.

[Don]

Little specific information is known about Henry Hudson, but Sandler makes a fascinating attempt to find out more and discovers the impact that Hudson’s explorations have even today. Between 1607-1610, Hudson made four voyages attempting to find a passable arctic route, both northeastward over Scandinavia, and to the fabled Northwest Passage. He was each time blocked by ice. On his third voyage, he made a u-turn across the Atlantic to the North American coast, where he eventually sailed through the promising New York Harbor and up the river that today bears his name. His fourth voyage through what is now known as Hudson Bay ended in disaster, a possible mutiny, and the explorer’s death (probably in the dead end of James Bay). Sandler weaves history and travelogue as he retraces 25,000 miles of voyages and visits the places explored by Hudson.

[Bryan Holmes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very thorough and interesting book on Henry Hudson, about whom little is known. Sandler does a great job describing Hudson's journeys and the problems he encountered, and he gives excellent, current descriptions of the places Hudson visited. The book has two big drawbacks: 1) There are no good maps - for a book about journeys, this is hard to understand - the only maps are tiny and lack detail. 2) The book could be about 100 pages shorter - during the last few chapters, I kept expecting the book to end, but the author drags it out for another chapter, then another... At least half of the book is really about the present state of northern Canada, and has nothing to do with Hudson. Overall, a good book if you have the patience to get through it.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like the popular account of Magellan's voyage, this too was well-written and easy-to-read for the basic details of what is known about Hudson's life and voyages, and indeed, why he is an interesting figure. What I particularly liked (and could see other readers NOT liking) was that Sandler complemented Hudson's journeys with his own 21st century experiences in the same places. But such present-day accounts add to the relevance of the 17th c. journeys, and demonstrate the enormity and awesome-ness of those first European voyages-- and the not-so-benign ramifications that are still felt from them 400 years later.

[Tiffany · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pretencious- looking biography, but nonetheless interesting.

I picked this book up at the library because I thought I should learn more about Henry Hudson. After all I now live just minutes from the Hudson River.