Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
OCLC 15814480 | |
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch is a novel by Jean Lee Latham that was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1956.
The book is a children's biography of Nathaniel Bowditch, a sailor and mathematician who published the mammoth and comprehensive reference work for seamen: The American Practical Navigator. It is an epic tale of adventure and learning.
Plot summary
In Revolutionary War–era Salem, Massachusetts, a young Nat Bowditch, the smallest member of a sea-faring family, astounds his schoolteacher with his talent for mathematics. He dreams of someday attending Harvard University but is forced by his family's financial hardships to quit school and work in his father's cooperage. Even that sacrifice is not enough, and his family contracts him into indentured servitude at a chandlery. Determined to continue his education, he uses his nine years as a clerk to teach himself subjects such as trigonometry, calculus, Latin, and French.
Upon the fulfillment of his servitude, he takes a job as a
Reception
Kirkus Reviews called the book "A readable biography of the man who was scarcely out of his teens before he had written the authoritative book on navigation still used at Annapolis".[1] In a retrospective essay about the Newbery Medal-winning books from 1956 to 1965, librarian Carolyn Horovitz wrote of Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, Rifles for Watie, The Witch of Blackbird Pond and The Bronze Bow: "All have value, all are told skilfully. If they lack the qualities of greatness, it is largely because their style has a commercial sameness."[2]
Further reading
Robert E. Berry's Yankee Stargazer, (1941) – a non-fiction biography of Nathaniel Bowditch
References
- ^ "CARRY ON, MR. BOWDITCH by Jean Lee Latham". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved December 7, 2019.
- LCCN 65-26759.