Explorers
and Trailblazers guided the April 2019 meeting.
The destinations of the explorers differed vastly, as did their
intentions. Some sought to further
science, others went in search of wealth, while others sought inspiration. Their modes of transportation and exploration
also varied; but whether they traveled by rocket, by ship, or by foot, these
adventurers all had stories to tell.
By Rocket
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| Apollo Expeditions to the Moon |
Cortright, Edgar M., ed. Apollo
Expeditions to the Moon. Washington
DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1975. This copy signed by six of the Apollo astronauts at a
special signing event in 2000. Moon
walkers: Allan Bean, Apollo 12, became an artist who painted space scenes, now
deceased; Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14, founder of an institute that researches
the mind and nature of consciousness, now deceased; Dave Scott, Apollo 15,
aerospace consultant; Charles Duke, Apollo 16, businessman and "committed
Christian." Also: Richard Gordon,
Apollo 12, who circled the moon, now deceased, and Walt Cunningham, Apollo 7,
involved in early testing of the Apollo space craft circling the Earth. These astronauts and others not named here
were true explorers and trail blazers in man's greatest adventure, risking
their lives to enter outer space and travel for the first times to another
planet, our Moon.
 |
| Signatures of six Apollo astronauts |
 |
| Earthrise |
Anders, William. Earthrise. December 24, 1968. This famous photo of Earthrise from Apollo 8
circling the moon on Christmas Eve 1968, has been personally signed by Frank
Borman, the commander of Apollo 8, who led the first mission to the moon. Down through the ages of human kind the moon
was always there, always visible, always unattainable. To travel there and explore was only possible
in the realm of science fiction authors: H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, and many
others. Apollo 8 for the first time
broke the bonds of Earth's gravity with a three-man crew who risked their lives
to do what all great explorers have always done: go where no one has gone
before. The astronauts themselves
considered Apollo 8 to be the most significant flight, even more so than
landing on the moon. No human had ever
seen the Earth as a small, lonely globe hanging in the blackness of space. Suddenly the human vision of Earth changed,
for all who saw it, to a precious and unique life-giving planet that should be
preserved and protected. We went to the
moon to discover our beautiful, blue Earth.
By Ship
 |
| A New Voyage Round the World |
Dampier, William. A New
Voyage Round the World.
Philadelphia: D. Goodchild, 2002.
A facsimile edition of Dampier's autobiography and travel book
originally published in 1697. 562
pages. Dampier was a naturalist,
scientific observer; buccaneer, sailor/navigator, and author. He was the first Englishman to explore
Australia, taking historical notes on its fauna, the tides, and its natives,
while searching for and attacking all Spanish ships for their bounty. He was the first person to circumnavigate the
world three times. He kept detailed
notes in journals of all he saw, and later published his observations in
1697. The book became a bestseller, and
went into six editions, the last being in 1717. In addition to plates in the book, laid in at rear of this facsimile edition are
three maps showing various sea routes taken by Dampier.
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| Map plate, A New Voyage Round the World |
By Foot
 |
| Journey Without Maps |
Greene, Graham. Journey
Without Maps. Garden City, NY:
Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1936.
Greene's first travel book, recounting his 1935 four-week walk through the
interior of Liberia. This first US
edition contains the description of "Pa Oakley" (pages 53-56). The first UK edition was withdrawn shortly
after publication due to a libel action brought by a Dr. P. D. Oakley; and
subsequent editions were altered in content, including changing the name to
"Daddy" and the section heading changed to "The Three
Companions." The end papers
reproduce a map of Liberia and the surrounding countries, detailing the trek
taken. This copy is signed by Greene on
the title page.
 |
| End papers, Journey Without Maps |
 |
| Land Benighted |
Greene, Barbara. Land
Benighted. London: Geoffrey Bles,
1938. Barbara Greene, Graham
Greene's first cousin and travel companion on his 1935 trip through Liberia,
recounts the month-long journey by foot from her perspective. The end papers reproduce a map of Liberia and
the surrounding countries, similar to the map found in Journey Without Maps but with the walking path more clearly
labeled. The book was republished in
1981 as Too Late to Turn Back.
 |
| End papers, Land Benighted |
While
not an explorer intrinsically, author Graham Greene set out for West Africa in
1935 in search of an experience, and possibly a story. In an introduction to a later edition of Journey Without Maps, Greene wrote:
It was a period
when 'young authors' were inclined to make uncomfortable journeys in search of
bizarre material, Peter Fleming to Brazil and Manchuria, Evelyn Waugh to
British Guiana and Ethiopia… We were a generation brought up on adventure
stories who had missed the enormous disillusionment of the First War; so we
went looking for adventure… I had never been out of Europe; I had not very
often been outside England, and to choose Liberia and to involve my cousin
Barbara, a twenty-three-year-old-girl, in the adventure, was, to say the least,
rash.
Barbara
published Land Benighted two years
after Graham's Journey Without Maps,
which infuriated Graham. In the
introduction to the 1981 edition of Barbara's account, Paul Theroux concluded
of the two books, "Few journeys have been so well recorded." Readers of both books, however, find that
while Graham and Barbara are mostly in agreement on the basic facts and details
of the adventure, the interpretations of their experiences, as a thirty-one-year-old
male and a twenty-three-year-old female, respectively, are markedly different.
