Dimensions
152 x 229 x 35mm
One of the greatest stories of exploration never told: veteran Journalist William Carlsen brings to life the extraordinary lost story of once-famed 19th century American explorer John Lloyd Stephens, who rediscovered the ancient Mayan civilization in the jungles of Central America When they set out to explore the jungles of Central America, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of the Species was still twenty years away. In the West, the bible was the basic template of history, and most people believed the world was less than 6,000 years old. What John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood discovered-the wondrous ruins of Mayan civilization-would change western thinking forever. No longer was it so easy to discount native groups and societies as savages left behind by the modern world; here was evidence of their own stunning modernity. In Jungle of Stone, William Carlsen (retired San Francisco Chronicle reporter who was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his articles on the AIDS crisis) brings to life this extraordinary story, uncovering the rich history of the ruins as he himself follows Stephens and Catherwood's path through present day Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. Part travel narrative, part exploration of the Mayans' remarkable past - and western attempts to make sense of it - Jungle of Stone offers a window into one of the great exploration stories of the 19th century. Drawing upon Stephens's journals (which became his bestselling Incidents of Travel in Yucatan) and Catherwood's magnificent drawings, Carlsen artfully tells the story of the Mayans and the monuments they left.
