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The Landmark series for children, both American and World, is a wonderful, with few exceptions, collection of books written in the 1950s and 1960s and published by Random House. The publisher chose well-known authors, some of whom were novelists and some of whom had not written for children before, and had a historical consultant for each title to make sure that the writing was accurate. There are 122 American Landmark books and 63 World Landmark books. The reading level is fairly broad, intended for upper elementary to early high school levels. The books were intended to convey sound history or biography but in such a manner as to not detract from the intrinsic interest of the story, as history textbooks often do, but to bring out the fascination and drama of the history or historical character being discussed. History is at heart a series of stories, especially at this level, and should be told as such. For the overwhelming majority of the 185 titles, this effort was successful.
Number 55 in the World Landmark series is Hero of Trafalgar: The Story of Lord Nelson by A. B. C. Whipple. The author was a famous journalist, writer, and maritime historian, so he had the appropriate expertise to write this Landmark book about a famous naval hero. A.B.C. Whipple’s full name was Addison Beecher Colvin Whipple. His parents must have had fun picking out those names and it must have been almost a foregone conclusion that their son, when he was an adult, would go by the initials A.B.C. - who wouldn’t? Whipple’s maritime knowledge also came in handy when he wrote two other World Landmark books on nautical themes, #35 Famous Pirates of the New World and #122 The Mysterious Voyage of Captain Kidd.
The reverence for Admiral Lord Nelson and what he did for Great Britain can be seen in Trafalgar Square in London, which boasts an impressive 169-foot-high monument capped by a triple life-size statue of Nelson. The four corners of the square are marked with enormous bronze statues of seated lions. When I first saw children playing on those statues, I thought that this sight must have inspired C.S. Lewis’ vision of Aslan in the Narnia Chronicles. At Portsmouth, England, which has been the heart of the British Navy for centuries, the ship H.M.S. Victory is preserved as a living monument to Nelson. When I visited there, I was thrilled to see a brass plate on the deck marking the spot where Nelson was struck down by a French sniper’s bullet at the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar, where before his death Nelson led the British fleet to victory over the combined French and Spanish fleet during the Napoleonic Wars.
Nelson had a relatively short life, 1758 to 1805, with his first command at age 20. He went on to win many important naval battles during the Napoleonic wars (see the World Landmark book on Napoleon), culminated by perhaps his greatest battle, the Battle of Trafalgar. He is considered to be one of the greatest admirals in history due to his leadership and his grasp of strategical and tactical skills. He paid a price for his victories - by the time of his death, he had already lost one arm and one eye in battle. He is perhaps remembered the most for his signal to his fleet right before the Battle of Trafalgar. In those days, signals from ship to ship were carried by signal flags. The type, color, and arrangement carried coded information. His famous signal was: England expects that every man will do his duty.
A knowledge of Admiral Lord Nelson is a key part of knowing British history. The age of fighting sail, frigates and sloops and men of war is an interesting and exciting period of history and has inspired many novel series set in that time, with authors such as O’Brien, Forester, and Kent. G.A. Henty, who wrote wonderful middle and high school level historical fiction, has an excellent book with Nelson as a supporting character, By Conduct and Courage.