Which English writer published The Principal Navigations in 1589?

The English writer who published The Principal Navigations in 1589 was Richard Hakluyt.

Hakluyt was an Anglican clergyman, editor and advocate of English overseas expansion. His first edition, titled The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation, gathered accounts of English travel by sea and overland. It drew on explorers’ reports, letters, merchant records and eyewitness testimony.

The 1589 book appeared as a large single volume divided into three parts. It covered English activity toward Asia, the northern and northeastern seas, and the Americas. Hakluyt was not chiefly a ship captain; his importance lay in collecting, editing and promoting the knowledge needed for future voyages and colonies.

A much larger revised edition appeared in three volumes between 1598 and 1600. That later edition is why dates can cause confusion: 1589 marks the first edition, while 1598–1600 refers to the expanded version. Samuel Purchas was another important travel compiler, but he published Purchas his Pilgrimes later, beginning in 1625.