Robert Elton Berry

Nathaniel Bowditch was born in Salem in 1773, the descendant of shipmasters. Though he had an incredible mind for mathematics, Nathaniel's father apprenticed him at a young age and the young boy self-educated himself to become America's foremost navigator and astronomer.

When I was a child, I read Carry On, Mr. Bowditch multiple times, and I loved the fact that he taught himself what he was interested in, and kept notebooks on the subject. When I reread it recently, I found myself wanting a more in-depth, adult biography. He was a truly brilliant man, and his thirst for knowledge was astonishing. This account is extremely readable, includes a nice list of sources, and has a footnote for nearly every story told with direct quotation marks. I could have done with more notes, in fact, but if the "Among the Sources" list is any indication, he used more manuscripts than previously written biographies, so I was less annoyed than I might have been otherwise. I discovered to my great interest that his notebooks, or "Commonplace books," were among the collections of the Boston Public Library when this book was written. I found myself less involved towards the end as Bowditch begins working for insurance companies and for Harvard. A fascinating account if you're interested in New England or navigational history.… (altro)