THE SOUTH SEA SHILLING

An admirable first book and companion piece to Borden's He Sailed with Captain Cook Mr. Swenson's inspiration to write a biography of Cook came from war years spent in the Pacific where a natural interest in the ocean and islands needed no cultivation. His feelings show up in the book -- Cook's life from his incongruous occupation as a haberdasher's helper in the coast town of Staithes to his violent death years later in the Hawaiian islands -- all of it full of excitement and irony, is dramatically handled, in a manner that spares few punches and is worthy of the importance of his voyages.