| A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Washington Irving |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Biography[1][2][3] |
| Publisher | John Murray (UK) G. & C. Carvill (USA) |
| Publication date | 1828 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Preceded by | Tales of a Traveller |
| Followed by | The Chronicles of the Conquest of Granada |
A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus is a four volume biographical account of Christopher Columbus written by Washington Irving in 1828.[4][5][6] The work was the most popular biography of Columbus in the English-speaking world until the publication of Samuel Eliot Morison's biography Admiral of the Ocean Sea was published in 1942.[7]
Contents |
Irving was invited to Madrid to translate Spanish-language source material on Columbus into English. Irving decided instead to use the sources to write his own four volume biography and history. Irving employed nineteenth century critical methods, but much of his material has been changed by modern research.[8]
Historians have noted Irving's "active imagination"[9] and called some aspects of his work "fanciful and sentimental."[10] One glaring weakness is Irving's enduring story that it was only the voyages of Columbus that finally convinced Europeans of his time that the Earth is not flat. In truth, no educated or influential member of medieval society believed the Earth to be flat. The idea of a spherical Earth had long been espoused in the classical tradition and was inherited by medieval academics. That people believe otherwise was listed in 1945 by the Historical Association (of Britain) as the second of 20 in a pamphlet on common errors in history.[11]