Safe return doubtful: The heroic age of polar exploration - Softcover

Maxtone-Graham, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0760712220 ISBN 13: 9780760712221

Publisher: Barnes & Nobel Books, 1999

Synopsis

The expedition stories in Safe Return Doubtful are hair-raising, and cover every aspect of the polar game: men, ships, sledges, rations, frostbite, scurvy and, always, the dogged search for the poles.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

An expedition leader's death by arsenic poisoning; charges of cannibalism; over eight decades, 751 lives lost in quest of the North Pole; the heroics and tragedy of the race to the South Pole: in the literature of adventure, the story of polar exploration is second to none. It was the ultimate challenge of man against the elements with no technological support. Maxtone-Graham ( The Only Way to Cross ) reviews the early expeditions to the ArcticGeorge Nares, Charles Hall, John Franklin et al.then focuses at length on Fridtjot Nansen and his voyage in Fram . This, according to the author, was the start of the heroic age. Moving south, Maxtone-Graham recounts briefly other voyages, including de Gomery in Belgica (with Frederick Cook and Roald Amundsen aboard), the first group to winter over on Antarctica, and the first Robert Scott expedition, which was followed by Ernest Shackleton's attempt at the Pole. He takes us north again to the Peary-Cook imbroglio, and is inclined to believe that Robert Peary reached the North Pole. The heroic age of polar exploration ended with Amundsen and Scott, with triumph and disaster. This is a grand sto ry, vividly told. Photos.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

A history of the efforts to reach the North and South Poles from Parry's Arctic expedition of 1827 to the achievement of the South Pole in 1911-12. The major heroes such as Nansen, Peary, and Amundsen are treated at some length, and numerous minor figures are covered as well. Maxtone-Graham, author of several books on ocean liners (e.g., Liners to the Sun ), has written a readable, generally accurate account which will be enjoyed by polar buffs who want both their poles in the same volume.
- J.F. Husband, Framingham State Coll. Lib., Mass.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Barnes & Nobel Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0760712220
• ISBN 13: 9780760712221
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 364