ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

HAMPTON SIDES is best-known for his gripping non-fiction adventure stories set in war or depicting epic expeditions of exploration.

He is the author of the bestselling narrative histories Ghost Soldiers, Blood and Thunder, Hellhound On His Trail, In the Kingdom of Ice, and On Desperate Ground.

His most recent work, The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook, will be published in April 2024 from Doubleday.

Hampton has been a contributor to Outside, National Geographic, Smithsonian, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and many other newspapers and magazines.

His journalistic work, collected in numerous published anthologies, has been twice nominated for National Magazine Awards for feature writing.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

From New York Times bestselling author Hampton Sides, an epic account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, which culminated in Captain James Cook’s death in Hawaii, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to this dayOn July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution.

Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach on the island of Hawaii, Cook was killed in a conflict with native Hawaiians.

How did Cook, who was unique among captains for his respect for Indigenous peoples and cultures, come to that fatal moment?