Synopses & Reviews
Fifty first-hand accounts of intrepid travel through the wild polar wastelands form Sir John Franklin's starvation march through Alaska in 1821 to Vassilli Gorshkovsky's trip aboard a creaking Russian icebreaker.
Synopsis
The white deserts of the Poles are shrinking. The scenes of legendary heroism by the likes of Scott and Shackleton have inspired expert editor Jon E. Lewis to put together the definitive, single-volume collection of eyewitness exploration and adventure in both the Arctic and Antarctica. Above all else this is a book about human daring and endurance--Oates stepping outside, Pen Haddow struggling solo northwards, Byrd locked out of his hut in a blizzard, Peary losing his toes to frostbite but plodding on as the mercury dropped. These journeys, by boat, dog sled, foot, airship, on skis and so on, are our passport to some of the last great wildernesses. 'A magnificent, almost Venetian landscape with canals between lofty hummocks on both sides, water-squares with ice-fountains and stairs down to the canals', recorded Andree Salomon in his diary after his balloon crashed on to Arctic drift ice. Yet we now know, as some of the later travelers discover, that the ice caps are under threat, so that this volume is also an homage to wonderlands that are already slipping away from us.
Synopsis
< div=""> Fifty first-hand accounts of intrepid travel through the wild polar wastelands form Sir John Franklin& #8217; s starvation march through Alaska in 1821 to Vassilli Gorshkovsky& #8217; s trip aboard a creaking Russian icebreaker.< iv="">
About the Author
Jon E. Lewis is the editor of several Mammoths, including The Mammoth Book of The Edge, The Mammoth Book of Endurance and Adventure, and The Mammoth Book of Wild Journeys.