Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls

Description for DESPERATE JOURNEYS, ABANDONED SOULS: TRUE STORIES OF CASTAWAYS AND OTHER SURVIVORS by Edward E Leslie with a foreword by Sterling Seagrave:

From Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson to Alive! and Adrift, tales of maroons, castaways, and other survivors have captivated readers of all ages. In DESPERATE JOURNEYS, ABANDONED SOULS, Edward E. Leslie brilliantly recounts the most remarkable stories of survival from the 1500s to the present, including those of Alexander Selkirk, the model for Robinson Crusoe; Margurite de la Rocque, marooned off the Labrador by her uncle for the crime of fornication; the "Poor Englishman," who lived for a year on a barren rock in the North Atlantic; the crew of the whaleship Essex, immortalized in Moby Dick; Joseph Knowles, the fraudulent "Yankee Tarzan"; Antoine de Saint-Exupéry; several World War II survivors; and many others.

Leslie not only tells the tales of survivors but also investigates their moral dilemmas, their personalities, and their influence on society, literature, and art. Beautifully written, impeccably researched, and impossible to put down, DESPERATE JOURNEYS, ABANDONED SOULS is an unforgettable exploration of a subject of perennial fascination.