Credit: Sigrid Estrada

Laurence Bergreen

Thursday, September 29, 7:00 p.m.

Columbus: The Four Voyages 

From the author of the Magellan biography, Over the Edge of the World, a mesmerizing new account of the great explorer.

Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a trading route to China, and his unexpected landfall in the Americas, is a watershed event in world history. Yet Columbus made three more voyages within the span of only a decade, each designed to demonstrate that he could sail to China within a matter of weeks and convert those he found there to Christianity. These later voyages were even more adventurous, violent, and ambiguous, but they revealed Columbus's uncanny sense of the sea, his mingled brilliance and delusion, and his superb navigational skills. In all these exploits he almost never lost a sailor. By their conclusion, however, Columbus was broken in body and spirit. If the first voyage illustrates the rewards of exploration, the latter voyages illustrate the tragic costs- political, moral, and economic.

Laurence Bergreen, an award-winning biographer, historian, and chronicler of exploration. is the author of several award-winning biographies, including those of Louis Armstrong, Al Capone, Irving Berlin, and James Agee.  His book, Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu, was a groundbreaking biography of the iconic traveler.  Warner Brothers is developing a feature film based on this book starring Matt Damon and written by William Monahan, who won an Oscar for “The Departed.”

Mr. Bergreen graduated from Harvard University .  He is a member of PEN American Center, The Explorers Club, the Authors Guild, and the board of the New York Society Library.Laurence Bergreen is the author of several award-winning biographies, including those of Louis Armstrong, Al Capone, Irving Berlin, and James Agee. He has written for many national publications including Esquire and Newsweek, taught at the New School for Social Research, and served as Assistant to the President of the Museum of Television and Radio in New York. Bergreen has also served as a nonfiction judge for the National Book Awards and as a judge for the PEN/Albrand Nonfiction Award. 

Members get in FREE! General Admission requires purchase of event book OR a $10 gift card (admits 2).