Sentry edition

John Wesley Powell's contributions to the opening of the West, and to the scientific study of the nation.

This is the first definitive biography of the real Tom Sawyer--the fun-loving practical joker whose youth in a Mississippi River town typifies the Golden Age of American Boyhood. No major writer ever made more of his boyhood than did Samuel Clemens whose growing up has become a part of our common heritage.

The Harvard educated historian relates the history of seafaring Massachusetts during the period when the clipper ship dominated the seas. In his preface Morison states that this is "no catalogue of ships, or a naval chronicle, but a story of maritime enterprise; and of the shipping, seaborne commerce, whaling and fishing belonging to one American Commonwealth."