Overview
Before Fridtjof Nansen's Greenland expedition of 1888, the vast impenetrable arctic regions exasperated nineteenth-century scientists. The twenty-six-year-old thought he knew better. Convinced that he would succeed by skiing, a sport practically unknown at the time, he put together a group of only six members to cross the arctic interior of Greenland for the first time. They would pull their own sledges and, on a shoe-string, arrange transport to Greenland on two steam liners to drop them off in the icy Arctic sea. They could only afford a basic camera to document their trip. Astonishingly, this audacious but much criticised plan succeeded! Nansen's riveting expedition classic including his diary entries are here republished for the first time in full. His words and captivating expedition photographs caught with a student camera set in motion a golden age of exploration.
Full Product Details
Author: Fridtjof Nansen
Publisher: Gibson Square Books Ltd
Imprint: Gibson Square Books Ltd
Dimensions:
Width: 15.60cm
, Height: 1.30cm
, Length: 23.40cm
Weight: 0.267kg
ISBN: 9781783342303
ISBN 10: 1783342307
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 30 November 2023
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order
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Reviews
'A modern Viking' Daily Mail 'The visionary Norse explorer' Jon Krakauer
'Nansen was the last of the Nordic gods... Tall, blond, and ridiculously handsome... The First Crossing Of Greenland is a... thrilling account of his earliest adventure... It was a hideous journey... Hair froze fast to headgear, beards solidified so that the lips could not be opened to speak... Polar exploration tends to attract more testosterone than talent... One man towers over the other ice-encrusted sledgers: Fridtjof Nansen, colossus of the glaciers... Of all the frozen beards... only Nansen communicated a sense of the true subjugation of the ego that endeavour can bring. Failure, he acknowledged, would mean ""only disappointed human hopes, nothing more"".' Sara Wheeler, Guardian; 'Seminal... demythologised the polar environment and revolutionised modern polar travel with the introduction of skis.' Roland Huntford, The Times; 'Nansen defied that conventional wisdom, which dictated explorers proceed from the known to the unknown to maintain a line of retreat, by sailing first to the largely uncharted eastern coast of Greenland.' Times Higher Education; 'The visionary Norse explorer.' Jon Krakauer
'A modern Viking' Daily Mail 'The visionary Norse explorer' Jon Krakauer
Author Information
Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930) was the spiritual mentor to Amundsen, Scott and Shackleton and single-handedly made polar expeditions as popular as they are now. Drawn to extremes, obstinate and a restless Faustian character, he was a gifted writer, scientist and diplomat who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922.
