Dana << DAY nuh >>, Richard Henry, Jr. (1815-1882), was an American author known for his sea adventure story Two Years Before the Mast (1840). The book became one of the most popular and influential sea stories ever written. Herman Melville said Dana’s book helped inspire him to write his famous sea novel, Moby-Dick.
Dana was born on Aug. 1, 1815, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and died on Jan. 6, 1882. He was forced to leave his studies at Harvard University because of poor eyesight caused by an attack of measles. In 1834, Dana sailed as a seaman from Boston around Cape Horn, arriving in California in January 1835. After spending about 17 months in California, he returned by sea to Boston. Dana kept a journal of his two voyages and his visit to California that became the basis of Two Years Before the Mast. He wrote the book in the form of a diary, realistically describing life at sea and providing a vivid account of Spanish California in the 1830’s.
Dana was active in the antislavery movement before the Civil War (1861-1865) and helped form the antislavery Free Soil Party in 1848. He was also a noted lawyer and wrote The Seaman’s Friend (1841), a manual of customs, terms, and laws relating to the sea. To Cuba and Back: A Vacation Voyage (1859) describes one of Dana’s later sea voyages.
