American author and lawyer Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1815-1882), wrote one of the most persistently popular nonfiction narratives in American letters, Two Years before the Mast. He was also an adviser in the formation and direction of the Free Soil party.

Son of Richard Henry Dana, Sr. (1787-1879), the Massachusetts poet and editor, the younger Dana distinguished himself in 1834, when he abruptly left the security of Harvard undergraduate life and shipped round Cape Horn to California on a tiny hide-trading brig. He returned 2 years later, completed his studies, and in 1840 was admitted to the bar. In the same year Two Years before the Mast was published by Harper and Brothers, and though the publisher had deftly lifted the copyright (paying Dana just $250), the author hoped that the book would at least bring him some law practice.

Dana's hopes were realized--indeed his office filled with sailors and he became...