In 1519 Captain General Ferdinand Magellan and his fleet set sale on an epic journey that would irrevocably alter the path of history. Now, for the first time award-winning biographer and journalist Laurence Bergreen masterfully interweaves previously unavailable first-person accounts that bring to vivid life Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe. In rich, absorbing prose Bergreen captivatingly details the mutinies, discoveries, deaths, and political betrayals throughout a voyage that proves as spellbinding and shocking today as it did in the sixteenth century.

Laurence Bergreen is the author of four biographies, each considered the definitive work on its subject: Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life, Capone: The Man and the Era, As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin, and Voyage to Mars: NASA's Search for Life Beyond Earth. A graduate of Harvard University, he lives in New York City.