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\"A middle grade adaptation of Bergreen's adult title of the same name, about Magellan's historic voyage around the globe\"-- Provided by publublisher.

This month is particularly important in the new Age of Discovery, as two of NASA's latest generation of Mars exploration rovers land and transform themselves into roaming scientific laboratories. The robotic geologists will be prospecting Mars for its natural history, signs of water and, by extension, signs of life. The wonders began to unfold this past weekend. The first spacecraft, called Spirit, landed successfully Saturday night. Its identical twin, Opportunity, will set down, if all goes well, in three weeks. (Having learned the painful lessons of recent Mars failures, NASA has embraced redundancy.) The parallels between our methodical exploration of Mars and the Age of Discovery begin with the efforts of Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-'0). This Portuguese nobleman assembled a diverse academy of shipwrights, cartographers and mariners to explore the west coast of Africa, step by step. NASA's Mars team, from robotics experts and computer programmers to planetary geologists, are today's equivalent of that sort of diversity and expertise. Given all these hazards and difficulties, why did [Ferdinand Magellan] go? And why did his backers risk their capital and prestige on his expedition? The answer: greed and glory. If Magellan accomplished his goal, Spain hoped to seize control of the spice trade and, by extension, the emerging global economy. Magellan himself hoped to claim lands and titles and unimaginable wealth to pass on to his heirs.

Berlin also looked to Hollywood to restore luster to his career. During the late '50s and early '60s, numerous MGM screenwriters and producers labored on a musical biography of Berlin's career titled, \"Say It With Music.\" It was to be a lavish, big-budget spectacular, filled with stars. (At one time Julie Andrews was to play a lead.) Berlin even wrote a number of new songs to be included along with his old favorites. But the project was bedeviled by a number of problems, including Berlin's opposition to any attempt to portray him on screen as long as he was alive. In 1958, the British Broadcasting Corp. assembled a large-scale television dramatization of Berlin's life, said to be the most expensive British television production of its day. However, when Berlin got wind of the production, he had his lawyers write the BBC and insist that Berlin be written out of the script. At the 11th hour, the BBC yielded and aired a non-biographical version. In both cases Berlin got his wish that his life not be portrayed on film, even though it meant canceling his pet project, \"Say It With Music.\" Berlin no longer frequents the premises of the legendary [Irving Berlin] Music Co. Though Tin Pan Alley has long since vanished, except in mythology, Berlin's music publishing company continues to thrive. Today it occupies unassuming quarters in an anonymous skyscraper on Sixth Avenue and a West Coast office in a Hollywood high-rise. In a field dominated by large conglomerates, it is one of the few independents left. In the Manhattan office, Berlin's longtime personal secretary, the mercurial Hilda Schneider, energetically discourages fans, journalists and the like from trying to contact her renowned boss. Still, according to Helmy Kresa, who has been Berlin's arranger since 1928, the songwriter continues to run the office by phone from his Beekman Place home. And he is as feisty as ever. \"I talk to him only if he raises hell with me. When he called one day and discovered that I wasn't there {at the office} because I'd taken an early train home, he told me I have to stay in the office until 3 o'clock {everyday}.\" Just because Irving Berlin has chosen to forsake the world does not mean the world has forgotten him. Hardly a year passes without Berlin receiving a major award, though he is never lured from his home to receive them. For example, during \"Liberty Weekend\" on Fourth of July, 1986, Berlin was selected to receive a Presidential Medal, but he was the only honoree not to attend the ceremony in New York Harbor. David L. Wolper, who produced the television coverage, instead showed a clip of Berlin singing \"God Bless America.\" Later, Wolper received some criticism concerning the ostentatiousness of the presentation, but he received support from one master showman - Berlin himself. \"He telephoned me the next day,\" Wolper recalled, \"and said, `I watched all of it, and I wouldn't have changed a thing. Don't believe what you read in the press. When I wrote \"God Bless America,\" they said it was too corny, but it's still around.' \"