CHARLES CORN is a native Georgian, Graduated from Washington and Lee University, and took a graduate degree in English from George Washington University. A former officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, he has worked as an editor at several New York and Boston publishing houses, including Dutton, where he served as editor in chief. The author of DISTANT ISLANDS, which Anne Lamott hailed as "beautiful, innocent, fascinating, and wonderfully written," and which Martin Cruz Smith called "a book to inspire your dreaming," Corn now devotes himself full time to writing. His work has appeared in the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, THE NEW YORK TIMES, and ISLANDS magazine, to name a few. He lives in San Francisco and is a frequent and recognized visitor to the Spice Islands.
"Corn serves up a mesmerizing blend of rambunctious history, exotic travelogue and seafaring adventure." -Publishers Weekly"A book of pure delight, a story I hoped would never end." -George Garrett, Author of Death of a Fox"Beautifully written, handsomely designed, qualities all too rare these days." -San Francisco Chronicle"Charles Corn's book is learned, colorful, and beautifully researched-a must for any history buff." -Bill Barich, author of Big Dreams
"Corn serves up a mesmerizing blend of rambunctious history, exotic
travelogue and seafaring adventure." -Publishers Weekly
"A book of pure delight, a story I hoped would never end." -George
Garrett, Author of Death of a Fox
"Beautifully written, handsomely designed, qualities all too rare
these days." -San Francisco Chronicle
"Charles Corn's book is learned, colorful, and beautifully
researched-a must for any history buff." -Bill Barich, author of
Big Dreams
The Moluccas, or Spice Islands, located at the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago, held the European imagination in thrall since 1509, when Magellan's attempt to establish an outpost there ended in defeat. The Catholic explorer led the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe in search of these islands fabled for nutmeg, clove, mace, ginger and cinnamon. Corn (Distant Islands) serves up a mesmerizing blend of rambunctious history, exotic travelogue and seafaring adventure as he tracks the exploits of European and American colonizers vying for supremacy in the spice trade over four centuries. His cast of characters includes dispossessed Basque aristocrat Francis Xavier, who cofounded the Jesuits, and Jonathan Carnes, a Salem, Mass., sea captain. Corn explores how the confrontation between Europeans and islanders resonated in many areas; the encounter influenced metaphysical poetry, set Holland and England at loggerheads and spawned an interracial society that upset the planters' hierarchy. The author also unveils a vipers' nest of politics among the islands' Muslim rulers. In an epilog he records his 1994 trip to Sumatra and the Spice Islands, which are far more hospitable than they were in the age of discovery. (Feb.)
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