Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
Tony Horwitz was a native of Washington, D.C., and a graduate of Brown University and Columbia University�s Graduate School of Journalism. He worked for many years as a reporter, first in Indiana and then during a decade overseas in Australia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, mostly covering wars and conflicts as a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. After returning to the U.S., he won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting and worked as a staff writer for The New Yorker before becoming a full-time author.
Four of his books were national and New York Times bestsellers: A Voyage Long and Strange, Blue Latitudes, Confederates in the Attic, and Baghdad Without A Map. His other work includes Mississippi Wood, a documentary on PBS about Southern loggers; The Devil May Care, a collection of fifty tales about intrepid Americans; and contributions to State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America and The New Gilded Age: The New Yorker Looks at the Culture of Affluence, Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War and Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War.
Horwitz was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and a visiting scholar at the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University. He lived with his wife, author Geraldine Brooks, and their sons, Nathaniel and Bizu, on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, until his sudden death in May 2019 aged 60, while on book tour with for Spying on the South.
Tony Horwitz's website
This bio was last updated on 05/28/2019. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.
Blue Latitudes focuses on the voyages
of the eighteenth-century navigator James Cook. What drew you to Captain
Cook?
Initially, I was drawn more to Cook's voyages than to Cook himself. The
man went everywhere: he touched every continent except Antarctica, and he only
missed that by a hundred or so miles. In the past, writers have focused on
Cook's considerable maritime achievements as a navigator and mapmaker. But to
me, the most compelling part of his story is what happened on land: the drama of
'first contact' between Europeans and native peoples. Island after island,
Cook and his men stepped off their ship with no idea whether they'd be greeted
with embraces or arrows. They knew little or nothing of the cultures they
were about to encounter, and islanders knew even less of them. Yet somehow they
had to find a way to communicate, trade, and get along -- and remarkably, for
the most part they did.
This is an experience we simply can't have
today, no matter how far we travel. The only remotely similar experience
would be if a spaceship landed in our backyard and aliens stepped out to greet
us -- except that Hollywood has prepared us even for that. Cook experienced
'first contact' ...
Mark Adams is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Meet Me in Atlantis and Turn Right at Machu Picchu. A writer for many national magazines, including GQ, Men's Journal, and New York, he lives near New York City with ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Blue Latitudes
Try:
Tip of the Iceberg
by Mark Adams
John Balzar is Senior Vice President, Communications, of the Humane Society of the United States. He joined the executive staff in 2007 after a 33-year career as a journalist, writer, and adventurer.
His opinion columns ...
(more)
If you enjoyed:
Blue Latitudes
Try:
Yukon Alone
by John Balzar
We recommend 6 similar authors
The Stone Home
by Crystal Hana Kim
A moving family drama and coming-of-age story revealing a dark corner of South Korean history.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
Use what talents you possess: The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
