I loved those books when I was a kid, and I was crushed when I found out that he had died in a sailing accident. As an 11 year old, my ambition was to meet him some day.
Although I have forgotten much of which I read, I still visualize him swimming the Panama Canal and exploring the sacrificial wells of the Incas (or was it the Mayans) in his 2nd volume. I should re-read those books.
I can remember it well, one of my finest days. I made the great achievement of completing the reading of the Book Of Marvels. It was the longest and biggest book I had ever read. It was a great achievement. I was about 11 as well.
It was my favorite and I read it over and over.
I attended a lecture at church by a Princeton scholar on the Dead Sea Scrolls. He said the largest block ever quarried was in the Temple in Jerusalem. I sat up straight because I knew and remembered the picture in the BOM of the largest quarried block still by the roadway near Balbeck. I copied the picture and the passage and sent it to Princeton to show him the error in his ways.
When I was 40, for my birthday, The special edition of the BOM was my present from my mom.
He is still my hero. I long to visit Santa Sophia or the Taj Mahal and get locked up overnight and have it all to myself.