People still ask me, “What’s it about, really?” Longitude really does describe the discovery of a means for determining position at sea—a challenge that stumped the wisest minds of the world for the better part of two centuries. Many famous scientists, including Galileo, Isaac Newton, and Charles Darwin, appear in the story, but the solution to the “longitude problem” came from an unknown, self-educated clockmaker, John Harrison, who devoted forty years to the effort.

A surprise New York Times bestseller, Longitude went through twenty-nine hardcover printings and was translated into two dozen foreign languages. Soon after its original 1995 publication it won several literary prizes, including the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and “Book of the Year” in England, where it went on the Times bestseller at #1 and stayed there for months. In October 2005, Longitude was reissued in a special tenth anniversary edition with a foreword by astronaut Neil Armstrong.

A lavish Illustrated Longitude, co-authored with William J. H. Andrewes, was published in 1998, but is now out of print.

Reviews

“This is a gem of a book.”—The New York Times

“A simple tale, brilliantly told.”—The Washington Post Book World

“Intricate and elegant…No novelist could improve on the elements of Dava Sobel’s Longitude.”—Newsweek

“A vivid tale of folly, heroism and banditry that happens to be true.”—The Economist

“As much a tale of intrigue as it is of science…A book full of gems for anyone interested in history, geography, astronomy, navigation, clock making, and—not the least—plain old human ambition and greed.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer