Martin Dugard (born June 1, 1961 in Maine) is an American author living in Rancho Santa Margarita, Orange County, California. He lives with his wife and three sons. His works include "Chasing Lance", "Surviving the Toughest Race on Earth", Farther Than Any Man: The Rise and Fall of Capt. James Cook, Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone, The Last Voyage of Columbus. and The Training Ground Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Davis in the Mexican War, 1846-1848. His 2008 screenplay, WARRIOR, is currently in post-production as a feature film starring Kellan Lutz and Ashley Greene.
In addition, Dugard's popular blog, The Paper Kenyan, offers readers a daily riff on history, endurance sports, and travel. It can be found online at [1].
Dugard regularly immerses himself in his research to understand characters and their motivations better. To better understand Columbus he traveled through Spain, the Caribbean and Central America. He followed Henry Morton Stanley’s path across Tanzania while researching Into Africa (managing to get thrown into an African prison in the process) and swam in the tiger shark-infested waters of Hawaii’s Kealakekua Bay to recreate Captain James Cook’s death for Farther Than Any Man. On the more personal side of adventure, Dugard competed in the Raid Gauloises endurance race three times, and flew around the world at twice the speed of sound aboard an Air France Concorde. The time of 31 hours and 28 minutes set a world record for global circumnavigation. Dugard’s magazine writing has appeared in Esquire, Outside, Sports Illustrated, and GQ, among others. In 2005, he branched out from writing and adventure to take a walk-on position as head cross-country and track coach at JSerra High School in San Juan Capistrano, a position that he still holds.