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The Life of Captain James Cook

Maker Andrew Kippis

Date1788

Object number00000371

NameBook

DimensionsOverall: 45 x 290 x 230 mm, 1.85 kg
Display Dimensions: 290 x 233 x 42 mm

ClassificationsBooks and journals

Credit LineANMM Collection

Terms

DescriptionThis book by the Reverend Andrew Kippis, The Life of Captain James Cook, was written to commemorate the life of Captain Cook and his explorations. Although this biography of Cook proved to be extremely popular and was reprinted numerous times, it has since been criticised due to Kippis' reliance on official records and his failure to produce a more rounded view of both Cook and his achievements. HistoryPublished in 1788, Kippis's 'The Life of Captain James Cook', was written to be the official authorised account of the life of Cook. However, despite the resources available to him and the opportunity to question Cook’s living associates, Kippis relied heavily on the official records and ultimately produced a modest and two-dimensional picture of the explorer which remained the standard until Professor Beaglehole’s Life of Captain Cook was published in 1974. Beaglehole himself deplored the opportunities wasted by Kippis but took perverse comfort in the reflection that no biographer of Cook could “… do any worse than the Rev. Andrew Kippis..”! SignificanceThis work by Andrew Kippis was written as the official biography of Captain Cook nine years after Cook's death in Hawaii.