First Light is honored to welcome Hampton Sides to Austin to celebrate the paperback release of the New York Times Bestseller—and store favorite—THE WIDE WIDE SEA. This lecture-style event will feature a presentation from Mr. Sides, with the opportunity for attendees to ask questions about his work.

Tickets include admission and a signed copy of THE WIDE WIDE SEA. Drinks will be available for purchase.

About the book

On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution. Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach on the island of Hawaii, Cook was killed in a conflict with native Hawaiians. How did Cook, who was unique among captains for his respect for Indigenous peoples and cultures, come to that fatal moment?

Hampton Sides’ bravura account of Cook’s last journey both wrestles with Cook’s legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titanic efforts and continual violence that characterized exploration in the 1700s. At once a ferociously paced story of adventure on the high seas and a searching examination of the complexities and consequences of the Age of Exploration, THE WIDE WIDE SEA is a major work from one of our finest narrative nonfiction writers.

About the author

Hampton Sides is the author of The New York Times bestselling histories On Desperate Ground, In the Kingdom of Ice, Hellhound on his Trail, Blood and Thunder, and Ghost Soldiers, which won the PEN USA Award for Nonfiction. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.