Reviews of American Traveler

"A fast-paced account of America's first great explorer. John Ledyard was born in 1751 in Connecticut, died in Cairo, and traveled almost everywhere else imaginable in the intervening thirty-seven years. The heart of journalist Zug's bio details Ledyard's travels, of course, but the author is to be commended for paying scrupulous attention to Ledyard's early life as well. In the opening chapter, on Ledyard's childhood, Zug (Squash, 2003, etc.) manages to give a real flavor of colonial life: in just nine pages, we get religion, children's games, family networks, and romance. Chapter two, chronicling Ledyard's brief stint at Dartmouth, begins to suggest Ledyard's temperament. In college, Ledyard read Virgil, directed a play, and went backpacking on what would one day be the Appalachian Trail. But the highlight of his academic career was his exit—after only one year, Ledyard simply took off, running the Connecticut River in a canoe and winding up back at his grandfather's farm in Hartford. At loose ends, the young man decided to travel—"I allot myself a seven year's ramble more," he wrote to a cousin. This "ramble" turned out to be more than postcollege aimlessness; it was a vocation. Zug chronicles the travels, which took Ledyard to the Sandwich Islands with Captain Cook and along the Alaskan coast to look for the Northwest Passage. He spent time in Lapland, St. Petersburg, and Paris, where he was virtually adopted by Thomas Jefferson. The character that emerges is a complicated one: Ledyard was sometimes manic and sometiems overwhelmed by despair; he was a rough explorer, but he loved clothes (in all his letters he described his wardrobe before saying anything about his itinerary or adventures). He was courageous and sociable, but a loner. And he wanted to be famous. Thanks to Zug's fascinating re-creation of his adventuring, Ledyard is well on his way.

Your average bear has never heard of Ledyard, true enough, but this brisk biography should catch the Early-America-Founding-Fathers craze."

— Kirkus Reviews, 15 January 2005

 

In Ledyard's short life (1751-89), his accomplishments included sailing with Captain James Cook on Cook's third voyage and writing about Cook's murder in Hawaii. He formed fur-trading companies with Robert Morris, the Philadelphia financier, and John Paul Jones, the notorious sea captain, and he visited Egypt before Napoleon's invasion opened the country up to Western travelers. Thomas Jefferson asked Ledyard to explore the American continent, the plan calling for him to proceed overland through Russia, cross at the Bering Strait, and head south through Alaska and across the American West to Virginia. This expedition failed after 15 months of traveling, when Empress Catherine the Great had him arrested in Siberia. Zug asserts that during his trip Ledyard's focus was not on the landscape but on the people in it; his letters and journals sparkled with descriptions of customs and habits. This meticulously researched biography of an ingenious explorer will hold the reader's complete attention.

— George Cohen, Booklist, March 2005

 

By the time he was 37, Ledyard (1751-1788) had sailed across the South Pacific, befriended Thomas Jefferson, challenged a Russian governor to a duel in Siberia and become the first U.S. citizen to touch North America's western coast. Zug (Squash: A History of the Game) vividly renders Ledyard's remarkable life in this brisk, exciting book. After failing as a divinity student at Dartmouth, Ledyard fled to the sea, eventually volunteering to serve on what would be the legendary Captain Cook's final voyage. It was an eventful trip: Ledyard got a tattoo in Tonga and venereal disease in Tahiti, and helped slaughter natives in Hawaii. Later, still poor, Ledyard drifted to Paris and socialized with Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and the Marquis de Lafayette. They encouraged Ledyard's wildest scheme: to walk across the world, from Europe to America. The failure of this quest—ended by czarist police in Siberia—prompted Ledyard to volunteer for an even more quixotic expedition, into Africa. It was there that he met a "bleak, anonymous ending" in Cairo, dogged by disease and, Zug suggests, a life of disappointment and hardship. Zug draws on many primary sources, including Ledyard's journals and letters. A shameless self-promoter, an enterprising and original American, Ledyard is superbly resurrected in this stirring, tragic tale.

— Publishers Weekly, 14 March 2005

 

"John Ledyard Sailed with Captain Cook, was arrested in Siberia by Catherine the Great and was likely the first American citizen to see Alaska. Finally, the country's greatest unknown tramp has a biography commensurate with his grand travels."

— Southwest Airlines Spirit Magazine, March 2005

 

"There were plenty of adventures, the stuff of which movie epics are made. His life would furnish material for a rousing television series, and James Zug tells the story with zing and lots of action. It's exciting reading....Zug wrote the biography and edited the National Geographic book simultaneously, tracking down every Ledyard source he could find, unearthing some previously unknown tidbits. Both books contain maps and illustrations to add to their appeal, and both are fine additions to the local history book shelf."

— Carol W. Kimball, The Day (New London), 11 April 2005

 

"He was known as Ledyard the Traveler, and for good reason. And yet it's probably fair to say that not too many people have ever heard of John Ledyard, the son of a sea captain who was born in Connecticut in 1751 and died along the Nile in 1789. But if anyone loved to travel—and he was the consummate explorer—it certainly was Ledyard. He sailed with Captain Cook, visited Egypt and. along with Thomas Jefferson, concocted the idea of walking around the (known) world. 'Fame not fortune was his shibboleth.' writes James Zug, as he celebrates the life of America's first great explorer in this every readable tome. Lovers of travel surely will appreciate and find inspiration in Ledyard's colorful life."

—June Sawyers, Chicago Tribune, 17 April 2005

 

"Zug aims to clear out 216 years of cobwebs, biographical sugarcoating and outright lies to reintroduce Ledyard to America....Will Zug restore Ledyard to icon status?"

— Peter Walsh, Vox of Dartmouth, 18 April 2005

 

"James Zug '91 faced a difficult task in fitting this free spirit into a biography, yet he succeeds masterfully. American Traveler is a first-rate tale, which achieves that rarest biographical accomplishment—it allows the readers to catch its subject's dreams. Ledyard's tale is told gleefully, in a way befitting his unique persona. In Zug's recounting, the adventurer's story is told succinctly, much like a travel diary, ever focusing on the journey at hand and Ledyard's overarching dream rather than lapsing into unnecessarily flowery accolades of prose. Zug successfully makes Ledyard understandable to modern-day readers, and does so unobtrusively, through inflation-adjusted monetary sums and the application of modern medical diagnoses. Zug doesn't intend to distort or embellish Ledyard's importance, but rather is content to stoke the coals of memory in the hope that a flame will rise."

— Kale S. Bongers, Dartmouth Review, 22 April 2005

 

"In many ways the archetype of the restless explorer, John Ledyard traveled the world when America itself was terra incognita. He was the first American citizen to step on the west coast of the continent. He also served before the mast on the greatest circumnavigation in the age of sail and made an epic solo journey across the sepulchral wastes of Siberia. Ledyard had an elastic imagination, and although his career was chiefly distinguished by its range of failures, his story is gripping, as he had the habit of appearing in the most exciting place at the most interesting time....In his lively new biography...Zug, the author of Squash: A History of the Game, paints a convincing portrait....Zug has researched the material with diligence. His prose is clear and sober throughout, and the pace of his narrative never flags."

— Sara Wheeler, New York Times Book Review, 17 April 2005 (See also: Editor's Choice, 24 April 2005)

 

"James Zug is a one-man catalyst for a Ledyard revival. Aside from American Traveler, a deeply researched, page-turner of a biography, he has edited the Last Voyage of Captain Cook: the Collected Writings of John Ledyard, a paperback published by National Geographic that includes the famous Cook voyage account and Ledyard's letters and journals from Siberia and Egypt, where he died (of dysentry) in 1789. His final letter, written from Cairo as he was waiting to join a caravan, was to Jefferson: 'I shall not forget you. Indeed it would be a consolation to think of you in my last moments.' Let's hope he did."

— Stuart Ferguson, Wall Street Journal, 29 April 2005

 

"Zug's coverage of Cook's voyage is particularly pleasing with useful quotes from several journals, not just Ledyard. Ledyard wrote many letters later in life and Zug uses them to illuminate Ledyard's character and approach to life. Zug gives an extensive list of his own sources, with one of the best lists for Cook enthusiasts! He adds that 'Ledyard's most profound legacy was that he forged a new, American archetype: the heroic explorer.' After reading this excellent book I understand why."

Ian Boreham, Cook's Log (Captain Cook Society newsletter), April-June 2005

 

"Scenes of life at sea, particularly in the age of sail, have always captivated those of us who live inland. Zug presents a wealth of detail in his description of the daily lives of sailors who faced storms, tropical diseases, and at times the risk of supplementing the diet of cannibals. Fully a quarter of the crew of Cook's first expedition had not returned, but Ledyard seems not to have been one to dwell on statistics....The author provides much more than the wanderings of an eccentric adventurer. While in Paris Ledyard became the friend of Thomas Jefferson and Marquis de Lafayette, and it is interesting to read about how their paths crossed his. Of interest also is the description of pre-Revolutionary France. There was a great deal of restlessness afoot during this period, and Zug does it justice. American Traveler is a fine piece of work."

— J. Lane Goodall, Richmond Times Dispatch, 8 May 2005

 

"Zug tells all this in a style rich in detail, demonstrating a strong command of his source material, and gets through Ledyard's busy life in 286 pages. This book is admirably peppered with Ledyard's best, almost epigrammatic, observations, culled from his journals and letters....It is easy to see why Herman Melville, drawn to telling his own tales of romance and intellectual adventure, was a fan (he even cited Ledyard in Moby Dick). As Zug notes, Ledyard's travel writing is fascinating because it focuses on people, not things, and he is an unusually generous and fair-minded observer of the natives he encountered. These two volumes are welcome additions to the literature of exploration and adventure."

— Edward Achorn, The Weekly Standard, 4 July 2005

 

"On March 31, 1779, John Ledyard, sailing with Capt. James Cook's third voyage around the world, became the first American citizen to set foot on the west coast of North America. Going ashore on Vancouver Island, now part of Canada, was only one of several "firsts" for this remarkable individual who dreamed of walking the world. After sailing around the globe on Cook's 1776-1780 expedition, Ledyard later made an epic land journey across a third of the earth. The story of his unusual life and quirky character is compellingly told by James Zug in "American Traveler." In addition to a detailed account of Ledyard's colorful career, Zug provides a penetrating insight into various aspects of 18th century life in Colonial America, England, France and Russia....After a stint in the British army, Ledyard was able to switch to the British navy, enlisting as a marine and securing an assignment aboard the Resolution, one of Capt. Cook's two-vessel fleet that was to embark on an 80,000-mile journey. Among those on board were William Bligh, master of the Resolution, and Lt. John Gore, of Virginia, Ledyard's closest friend among the officers. Zug's description of the history-making voyage offers a realistic-and disturbing-portrait of the harsh life aboard sailing vessels of the times. Rich material for the book was gleaned from Ledyard's extensive correspondence and detailed journals. His 1783 memoir of Capt. Cook's last voyage offers the only account that Cook was as much to blame as the islanders for his slaying on a Hawaiian beach in 1779....Although Ledyard was well known in the 19th century, his accomplishments have slipped from view. Zug's lively account of Ledyard's life and times should restore the traveler's name to the prominence it deserves."

— Barrett Richardson, Virginian-Pilot, 4 December 2005

 

"It is a beautifully written, exciting volume....I found it was a book I was reluctant to put down...What I find both amazing and delightful, about the James Zug book is not just th e story, but the scope of the author's study. We learn about John Ledyard but also are told about the men who shared his dreams and who helped shape his attempts to know more about hte world during what we now refer to as the Age of Exploration. Ledyard could embark on a wilderness adventure carrying less equipment than those of us today would carry on an afternoon climb of Mt. Monadnock. We thank him for breaking trail, but we thank James Zug for helping us to follow his winding, difficult but exhilarating path."

— William B. Rotch, Milford Cabinet, 4 April 2008

 

"In John Ledyard we see the roots of it all—everything that makes Americans oxymorons, wise fools of the world and universal sophomores. How could Ledyard be so omnipresent and so not there? Travel so much and never arrive? Be so best and first and most with such worst and last and least ways about him? His every failure is a foundation upon which American success has been built. If you are confused by Americans, read American Traveler."

— P. J. O'Rourke

 

"My only previous encounter with John Ledyard was as a correspondent with Thomas Jefferson who said he intended to walk around the world. He never quite made it. I always wondered where this weird traveler came from and ended up. Now I know. Zug tells his story with zest, in the spirit of America's first global foxtrotter."

— Joseph J. Ellis

 

"Outsize, rambunctious, bold, a great dreamer—deeply flawed but filled with an insatiable sense of adventure—John Ledyard was the 'first' in a long line of great American explorers. From his first canoe trip at Dartmouth to his attempt to walk across the world, Ledyard is a great American story, told here with verve and intelligence by James Zug."

— Evan Thomas