Longitude

A story told well. That it's true, and had a huge effect on mariners, adds all the more to this "gem of a book" as the NY Times praised it. Telling time and its relation to travel/navigation on the seas meant the difference between life and death. And now Walker & Company has brought back this book which it first published in 1995, in an affordable softcover, yet it still has a color signature featuring time pieces and artwork of the players. If you missed the book the first time out, you can make-up for it now. You won't be disappointed. Contents: Imaginary Lines The Sea Before Time Adrift in a Clockwork Universe Time in a Bottle Powder of Sympathy The Prize Cogmaker's Journal The Grasshopper Goes to Sea Hands on Heaven's Clock The Diamond Timekeeper Trial by Fire and Water A Tale of Two Portraits The Second Voyage of Captain James Cook The Mass Production of Genius In the Meridian Courtyard   by Dava Sobel 184 pp., softcover