Scott of the Antarctic - Hardcover

Elspeth Huxley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689108613 ISBN 13: 9780689108617

Publisher: Atheneum, 1978

Synopsis

"What qualities does a man need in order to become a national hero? He must be a man of action; he must be brave; he must be bold; and it is a great advantage, if not a necessity, that he should die in the attempt to reach his goal."

Robert Falcon Scott was such a man. He led the British Antarctic Expedition in 1911, failed by one month to be the first to plant his country's flag at the South Pole, and died on the return trip from the Pole, just 11 miles from food and shelter.

In this biography, Huxley takes the view that far from being a glamorous explorer, Scott was a reluctant hero, a complex, obstinate and reticent man. "His was the conquest of self," says Huxley, "a feat perhaps more admirable than the conquest of the Pole."

About this title

From the Publisher:

12 1.5-hour cassettes

Review:

"[This] book is one of the finest to be written about the Antarctic and it certainly towers above any other biography of Scott. . . . [Elspeth Huxley] with compassion, insight, and imagination, follows [him] toward the Pole, failure, and death."—Economist (Economist)

"In this book [Huxley] proves again that there is no subject she cannot illuminate."—William F. Buckley Jr., New York Times Book Review (William F. Buckley Jr. New York Times Book Review)

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum
• Publication date: 1978
• ISBN 10: 0689108613
• ISBN 13: 9780689108617
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 303