El Dorado And Other Pursuits

Evan S. Connell, recognised as one of the most important voices in American literature, was the author of seventeen books, including Mrs Bridge, Mr Bridge and the bestselling Son of the Morning Star, his account of Custer's final battle at the Little Big Horn, and his book about the crusades, Deus lo Volt! In 2009 he was nominated for the Man Booker international prize. He lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico and died in 2010, aged 88.

"Quite simply, a great book... Combining the poet's vision with the narrative sweep of a born storyteller and painstaking historical research, Connell revives the lost sense of awe and wonder that, along with the misery and privation, must have marked these epic voyages of body and mind" Los Angeles Times "Connell is one of those exuberant American historians who believe so passionately that everything must be fun that the reader sometimes pines for a piece of dry gravitas. Nevertheless, these essays, on a theme of exploration, contain enough rattling yarns to silence even this cynic" Herald "A survey of great feats of exploration, a compendium of a lifetime's reading of adventure, a book of wonders, florid history, provisional 'facts' and catchy ironies, laconic heroism and scabrous villainies, cryptic deaths and other endings" New York Times Book Review