With Scott to the Pole, Herbert Ponting, illustrated
Hardcover (September 2004)
Through Beau Riffenburgh's narrative and the perfectly
composed images of Herbert Ponting, With Scott to the Pole tells the
story of the triumph and tragedy of Scott's 1910-13 expedition to the
South Pole. Along with four companions, the explorer reached the pole
only to be bitterly disappointed to discover the Norwegian flag planted
there by Roald Amundsen. Scott and his men could no longer hope to secure
the first attainment of the South Pole for the British Empire, and their
despondency shows in the photographs that survived them. Yet with grit
and courage they started on the 800 mile return from the pole. A harrowing
time ensued, By the time they were within 11 miles of a depot which
would have saved them they had already lost two members of the expedition,
and it was at this point that Scott and his remaining two companions
were overcome by a blizzard and died. With Scott to the Pole is a fitting
tribute not only to Ponting's spell-binding aesthetic vision, but also
to a magnificent story of adventure and heroism.
The Worst Journey in the World
Apsley
Cherry-Garrard
This
is widely regarded as being the best Antarctic book ever written, and
by some - the best travel book ever written. Never out of print since
first published in 1922.
paperback
- 665 pages (June 2001)
'Cherry' was the 2nd youngest and one
of the bravest on Captain Scott's famously fatal expedition of 1912
to be the first to reach the South Pole. A classic account of a journey
that has passed into Antarctic folklore.
This book is about courage, misery, starvation,
heroism, exploration, discovery, and friendship. It vividly illustrates
the demands of science and the rigours of travel. It is a record of
the coldest darkest days that can be found on our planet. It is written
beautifully but not obviously, with a subtle artistry.
The "Worst journey" referred
to is not as often thought, that of Scott and his party to the south
pole, but of a five week journey undertaken by Cherry-Garrard and a
small band in the depths of the Antarctic night and winter to obtain
eggs of the emperor penguin. At one point their tent blew away in a
gale, unable to take any action in the ferocious storm, they were forced
to remain in their sleeping bags for a further 48 hours as they became
buried by drifting snow, before it abated for long enough for them to
emerge.
I am so pleased that this book has been published.
Frank Hurley, a young Australian photographer was crucial to the 1914-1917
expedition, not least in that it was the promised sale of the photographs
after the voyage that provided for a substantial amount of the funding.
The book is an oversized collection featuring all
of the official photographer's pictures (including several previously
unpublished color plates). The stark black and white images of the ship
and its men caught in an ocean of ice are both beautiful and chilling.
Photography buffs, historians and adventure
lovers alike will relish the images from one who was surely one of history's
greatest documentary photographers. There are almost 500 photos in black
and white and colour.
If you are a fan of
Antarctic exploration then this wonderful book should be in your library
Endurance,
The Greatest Adventure Story Ever Told Alfred Lansing (Preface)
Paperback
- 277 pages (2001)
Ernest Shackleton never lost a single
man in Antarctica. This is the story that begin with the epic intent
of being the first to cross the Antarctic continent. Shackleton and
his men never even came close to the pole, but theirs was one of the
greatest adventures of all time.
His ship, Endurance, was trapped and
then crushed by sea ice, leaving Shackleton and 27 men adrift on ice
floes. The story of how Shackleton saved all of them and reached South
Georgia Island is one of the epics in the history of survival.
A story so incredible that if it were
written as fiction it would probably be regarded as too fantastic to
be taken seriously.
An excellent and unique historical over-view of
Antarctic voyages, from the very fist by Captain Cook in 1772 to the
end of the heroic age when Shackleton died aboard the Quest at South
Georgia in 1922. There are considerable quotes from diaries, ships'
logs and published accounts of journeys so desperate that explorers
ended up eating the rawhide lashings of their sleds, as well as
their sled dogs.
This book gives a hugely readable synopsis of each
of the major journeys, why they happened, what they were trying to
achieve and what conditions were like. You can therefore choose
which expedition you've have most liked to been on, and which you
would have least liked - though these are often the most fascinating
to read about. Highly recommended - Paul, webmaster.
Mawson's
Will : The Greatest Polar Survival Story Ever Written
Paperback - 300 pages
(March 2000)
Australian Sir Douglas Mawson chose not
to go with Robert Scott to the South Pole in 1911, but instead set out
on a less prestigious expedition to chart Antarctica's coastline. Mawson
set out in a party of three, facing mountains, crevasse-filled glaciers,
and 60-mile-per-hour winds. Six weeks and 320 miles out, one man fell
into a crevasse, along with the tent, most equipment, and all but a
week's supply of food. After losing his other companion and the dogs,
Mawson fought his way back home alone through horrific wind, snow, and
cold to leave his own mark in history. This resonates far deeper than
just an explorer's tale.
Home
of the Blizzard
Douglas Mawson, Ranulph Fiennes
Rejecting a position on Scott's ill-fated
South Pole team, Australian explorer Douglas Mawson sets off with his
own plans in December 1911 to explore the unknown Antarctic coast south
of Australia. The Home of the Blizzard is Mawson's thrilling
account of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, which set its base
camp in a region of terrific yearlong windstorms and blizzards. Originally
published as a two-volume work in 1915, then abridged and reprinted
in 1930, this edition replicates the best selling 1930 volume, which
has long been out of print.
Unlike most Antarctic expeditions of
his day, Mawson's trek had no pole-hunting ambitions, focusing instead
on scientific inquiry and mapping, which the international media largely
ignored. And indeed, when Mawson left the Antarctic continent, his expedition
had amassed more maps of Antarctica than any other to date. But Mawson's
journey was no more void of adventure than those exploits of his contemporaries.
Mawson's vivid description of the storms, hardships, endurance, tragedy,
and survival make this adventure story well worth resurrecting. When
his two companions perish, Mawson ventures on an unthinkable solo sledge
journey back to his coastal base, a feat nothing short of pure courage.
Great
White South,
Herbert Ponting, Roland Huntford (Introduction)
Paperback - 2001 - 305 pages
A facsimile edition of
Ponting's classic account of Scott's British Antarctic Expedition of
1910-1913. It includes the 175 expedition photographs featured in the
original 1921 text. With a new introduction by Roland Huntford. The
dedication reads " To the Undying Memory of my Late Chief and Comrades"
The original account
of Shackleton's journey as documented by himself, illustrated with classic
black
and white photographs that I've seen on a regular basis since being
interested in Antarctica some 20 years ago and still consider to be among
the best pictures of Antarctica ever taken.
Roald Amundsen was the leader of the Norwegian expedition that was
the first to reach the South Pole, on December 14, 1911, just one
month ahead of Scott's famous expedition. This account was originally
published as two volumes in 1913 and is here reproduced in a single
package for the first time. Amundsen and his team endured frostbite,
snow blindness, and other horrors, all of which are well chronicled
here. The text is supported by many black and white photographs, maps,
and charts. This also includes a new introduction by Amundsen's biographer
Roland Huntford.
Amundsen set out to reach the South Pole
and his focus led to a well earned success. There are few tales in history
and few great men who can truly say they accomplished exactly what they
set out to do in the manner in which they planned. Those who can are
Masters of their field. Amundsen is such a man.
Ice,
Stories of Survival from Polar Exploration
Clint Willis (Editor)
Paperback - 1999 - 372 pages
A greatest hits of polar
literature, featuring satisfyingly long excerpts from accounts of suffering
and courage by the likes of Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Robert Scott, Ernest
Shackleton, Douglas Mawson, Richard Byrd and other noted polar explorers.
It also includes modern writing by Edward Abbey, Barry Lopez, Beryl
Bainbridge and others. With a few photographs.
Sir Ranulph Fiennes: "This
is a very well balanced and meticulously researched book The Coldest
March goes a long way to putting polar history right..."
Susan Solomon is an American senior scientist
and "ozone hole" expert. This is a book of great depth, where she surveys
the evidence about Captain Scott and his tragic attempt to be
the first to reach the South pole. Against the recent descriptions of
Scott as an unprepared and even incompetent adventurer, this explores
and presents evidence on a more human scale and perspective and balances
the rather one sided "conclusions" of other writers.
An essential read for
anyone interested in Scott or the Antarctic.
On 1 August 1914, on the eve of World
War I, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his hand-picked crew embarked in HMS
Endurance from London's West India Dock, for an expedition to
the Antarctic. It was to turn into one of the most breathtaking survival
stories of all time. Even as they coasted down the channel, Shackleton
wired back to London to offer his ship to the war effort. The reply
came from the First Lord of the Admiralty, one Winston Churchill: "Proceed".
And proceed they did. When the Endurance was trapped and finally
crushed to splinters by pack ice in late 1915, they drifted on an ice
floe for five months, before getting to open sea and launching three
tiny boats as far as the inhospitable, storm-lashed Elephant Island.
They drank seal oil and ate baby albatross (delicious, apparently.)
From there Shackleton himself and seven others- -the author among them--went
on, in a 22-foot open boat, for an unbelievable 800 miles, through the
Antarctic seas in winter, to South Georgia and rescue. It is an extraordinary
story of courage and even good-humour among men who must have felt certain,
secretly, that they were going to die. Worsley's account, first published
in 1940, captures that bulldog spirit exactly: uncomplaining, tough,
competent, modest and deeply loyal. It's gripping, and strangely moving.
On December 14, 1911, the classical age
of Polar exploration ended when Norway's Roald Amundsen conquered the
South Pole. His competitor for the prize, Britain's Robert Scott, arrived
one month later but died on the return with four of his men only 11
miles from their next cache of supplies. But it was Scott, ironically,
who became the legend, Britain's heroic failure, "a monument to sheer
ambition and bull-headed persistence. His achievement was to perpetuate
the romantic myth of the explorer as martyr, and... to glorify suffering
and self- sacrifice as ends in themselves."
Last Place On Earth is a complex
and fascinating account of the race for this last great terrestrial
goal. It is also biographer Ronald Huntford's rather heavy-handed
attempt to restore Amundsen to glory. Though this was the age of
the amateur explorer, Amundsen was a professional: he left little to
chance, apprenticed with Eskimos and obsessed over every detail. While
Scott clung fast to the British rule of "No skis, no dogs", Amundsen
understood that both were vital to survival and they clearly won him
the Pole.
Amundsen in Huntford's view is the
"last great Viking" and Scott his bungling opposite: "stupid... recklessly
incompetent", and irresponsible in the extreme-failings that cost
him and his teammates their lives. Yet for all of Scott's real or exaggerated
faults, he understood far better than Amundsen the power of a well-crafted
sentence. Scott's diaries were recovered and widely published, and if
the world insisted on lionizing Scott, it was partly because he told
a better story. Huntford's bias aside, it's clear that both Scott and
Amundsen were valiant and deeply flawed. "Scott... had set out to be
an heroic example. Amundsen merely wanted to be first at the pole. Both
had their prayers answered."
ps this is often used as a book for inspirational
management
Shackleton's
Way, Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer
Margot Morrell,
Stephanie Capparell
Hardcover - 2000 - 224 pages
A handbook
for leaders. The authors - a Wall Street Journal reporter and a financial
expert - use the Shackleton story to illustrate principles of leadership,
including the importance of hiring an outstanding crew, creating camaraderie
and leading effectively in a crisis. With a sampling of Frank Hurley
photographs, and interviews with business leaders who have been inspired
by "The Boss." Shackleton mania is continuing apace, this the second
(and best) book for executives on Shackleton's instinctive leadership
abilities.
In Shackleton's Forgotten Men Lennard
Bickel honours the memory of a group of men who carried out some of
the most heroic and devoted journeys ever made in Antarctica. This
is the stirring account of the little-known, tragic expedition launched
by Ernest Shackleton in 1915 to provide support for his own Antarctic
expedition that would follow. These journeys were made to set up
depots across the Great Ice Shelf to supply the coming Shackleton expedition,
a crossing of the Antarctic continent from the Weddell Sea to the Ross
Sea.
But the group lost their ship and supplies
when a fierce polar gale ripped the ship from its moorings, and had
to haul sledges almost 2000 miles across the hostile interior of Antarctica.
Despite enduring unimaginable deprivation, from bad weather to disease
and madness, this heroic band accomplished their mission, laying the
way for Shackleton and his men. But Shackleton and his men never came
and the drama of their own disastrous journey has until now overshadowed
the extraordinary story of those brave men who came before them. Lennard
Bickel tells the story of these forgotten heroes in a gripping account,
drawing largely from interviews with one team member, Dick Richards,
and from the diary of another.
From the golden days
to modern high-tech polar expeditions, food -- or the lack of it --
plays a critical role. This is the book for anyone who has ever wondered
about hoosh, pemmican and all the rest. The author, a biochemist, looks
at the nutrition and diet of explorers, linking developments in food
preservation techniques to the history of polar exploration. He includes
a survey of the fateful journeys of Franklin, Greely, deLong, Robert
Cook, Frederick Peary, Mawson, Amundsen, Shackleton and Scott. With
menus, ample quotes from early journals, and extensive notes.
A fully illustrated biography of the boat that took
Shackleton and his small rescue party from Elephant Island to South
Georgia on a mission to get help for the rest of the team left stranded
by the sinking of their ship the Endurance in the Antarctic pack
ice.
Written by the founder of the James Caird Society
and available via their site for £20 + £1.50 p&p (UK) + £2.50 airmail
shipping, hardback edition. Books are usually
dispatched within 3 working days.
Note, the James Caird is preserved intact and displayed
in Dulwich college London. The James Caird Society arrange dinners close
to the boat on a regular basis.
Captain
Scott
Ranulph Fiennes
Hardcover - 460 pages
(13 October, 2003)
Ranulph Fiennes is often described as the "Greatest
Living Explorer". Having experienced the deprivations, the stress
and the sheer physical pain that Scott endured, Sir Ranulph Fiennes
is well qualified to write the biography of Captain Scott. He tells
the story of Scott's life and discusses how his achievements have been
viewed after his death.
A book that reassesses Scott in the light of evidence
that was revealed after the Huntford book
"The Last Place on Earth" in particular,
that painted Scott as something of an incompetent egotistical character
against Amundsen's "Viking Hero". Fiennes is the man to cut through
the sometimes over dramatic prose of writers who have no idea what it
is really like to put themselves in extreme positions and achieve their
goals.
Who do you ask about what the moon's surface is like?
Neil Armstrong or someone with a comfy chair and powerful telescope?
Star book
Mawson's
Will : The Greatest Polar Survival Story Ever Written
Great
White South, 
South:
The
Coldest March
Shackleton's
Boat Journey
The
Last Place on Earth 
Shackleton's
Way, Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer
Shackleton's Forgotten Men
Captain
Scott
