The Twenty-one Balloons — William Pene DuBois

This is the story of the most incredibly fabulous voyage around the world in the history of travel.

Professor William Waterman Sherman left San Francisco on August 15th, 1883, in a balloon, with the intention of flying across the Pacific Ocean. He was picked up three weeks later in the Atlantic Ocean clinging to the wreckage of a platform which had been flown through the air by twenty balloons. His only stop between San Francisco and the Atlantic Ocean was a brief sojourn on the island of Krakatoa, which blew up just after he left it in what is considered to be the most violent eruption of all time.

Telling of life on Krakatoa, and filled with the best of balloon inventions, more than half this book is based on scientific truths. The rest is absolute nonsense. The author has made no attempt whatsoever to separate the two, feeling certain, after close association with Professor William Waterman Sherman, that this voyage was completely authentic, word for word, no matter how fantastic it may prove to the reader.