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Critically Recognized
  • The Starship and the Canoe by Kenneth Brower book cover
  • The Starship and the Canoe by Kenneth Brower book cover
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The Starship and the Canoe

by Kenneth Brower

Two visions of exploration

$19.13 USD
$31.89 USD $19.13 USD
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Awards & Recognition

  • Critical praise

    Publishers Weekly praise

    Praised as superbly written and as a book that grips the imagination.

AlbakiReads Editorial

Two visions of exploration

Kenneth Brower’s book brings together Freeman Dyson’s ambition to explore space and his son George’s plans to travel by kayak through the coastal wilderness of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Their projects set intergalactic reach alongside close engagement with remote landscapes, while the father-and-son relationship connects these distinct ways of imagining exploration. First published in 1978, the account is framed by modern science, adventure, family, and the natural world. Its geographical and intellectual range makes it as much a portrait of two individual visions as a book about the places and possibilities they seek to explore.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in Freeman Dyson and his family life
  • Those drawn to accounts of exploration spanning space and wilderness
  • Readers interested in science alongside geography and the natural world

Themes

Father-son relationshipSpace explorationWilderness explorationScience and the natural world

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

"The Starship and the Canoe is neither a wilderness survival manual nor a book of blueprints. It is another of those rare books impossible to define: the kind that seeks you in time. And you will know it, live it, and consult it thereafter simply by name." --Chicago Sun-Times

"In the tradition of Carl Sagan and John McPhee, a bracing cerebral voyage past intergalactic hoopla and backwoods retreats." --Kirkus Reviews

Originally published in 1978, The Starship and the Canoe is the remarkable story of a father and son: Freeman Dyson is a world-renowned astrophysicist who dreams of exploring the heavens and has designed a spaceship to take him there. His son George, a brilliant high school dropout, lives in a treehouse and is designing a giant kayak to explore the icy coastal wilderness of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Author Kenneth Brower describes with stunning impact their lives and their visions of the world. It is a timeless tale framed by modern science, adventure, family, and the natural world.
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