The Circumnavigators: Small Boat Voyages of Modern Times.

HOLM, Donald.

Item Number: 112307

Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1974.

First edition of Holm’s exhaustive survey of the voyages of the most notable men and women to have circumnavigated the globe. Octavo, original marbled boards, cartographic endpapers, illustrated. From the library of of James Stephen “Steve” Fossett with his bookplate to the pastedown. American businessman and record-setting aviator Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in 2002 in his 10-story high balloon Spirit of Freedom. He completed the 2002 trip in 13 days, 8 hours, and 33 minutes and set records for both the Longest Distance Flown Solo in a Balloon and Fastest Balloon Flight Around the World. Fossett was also one of sailing’s most prolific distance record holders set the Absolute World Speed Record for airships with a Zeppelin NT in 2004. He received numerous awards and honors throughout his career including aviation’s highest award, the Gold Medal of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), which he was awarded in 2002. Fossett disappeared on September 3, 2007 while flying a light aircraft over the Great Basin Desert, between Nevada and California. In very good condition with some toning to the page edges.

As a hobby, Donald Holms studied and analyzed the voyages of nearly one hundred circumnavigators - those who succeeded and failed and those who were never heard from again. In the present volume, the author has compiled the best and most representative of those voyagers in a attempt to define the underlying reasons that have motivated man to leave the comforts of established society to risk their lives in this extraordinary feat.