Full Product Details
Author: Stephen R. Bown
Publisher: Aurum Press
Imprint: Aurum Press
ISBN: 9781781310748
ISBN 10: 1781310742
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 05 September 2013
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Availability: Not yet available
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.
Reviews
Stephen Bown delivers an intensely researched, thoroughly enjoyable life of one history's best explorers. As the author demonstrates, Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) was certainly the most skilled polar explorer. Obsessed with adventure from boyhood, the teenage Amundsen led companions on exhausting attempts to cross the mountains of his native Norway during winter. He joined the 1897 Belgian Antarctic expedition, receiving a painful education on the consequences of poor planning. In 1903, he outfitted a fishing boat with a crew of six and crossed the Northwest Passage from Greenland to Alaska. Moored for two years in the Arctic, he eagerly learned from the local Inuit. The lessons he learned-ignorance of which killed many polar explorers-included: Animal-skin clothes trump wool, and transportation requires dogs and skis. The crossing gave Amundsen international celebrity, making it easier to finance an expedition to the North Pole. When both Robert Peary and Frederick Cook claimed to have reached it (a controversy that persists), Amundsen aimed for the South Pole, announcing the decision before Robert Falcon Scott announced his expedition. Superbly organized and supplied, Amundsen's expert skiers and dog handlers won the race in 1911 and survived, while Scott's less efficient team died. After World War I, Amundsen failed to reach the North Pole by plane but succeeded by dirigible, finally disappearing in 1928 while flying to rescue another expedition. A superb biography of a fiercely driven explorer who traveled across the last inaccessible areas on earth before technical advances made the journey much easier. Kirkus review Kirkus Review 'Captivating...Bown makes a compelling case that Amundsen deserves renewed recognition for his outstanding achievements.' Publishing Weekly 'An enjoyable and informative biography' Booklist
Author Information
STEPHEN BOWN was born in Ottawa and graduated in history from the University of Alberta. Specialising in the history of science and exploration, his books include Sightseers and Scholars: Scientific Travelers in the Golden Age of Natural History and the internationally successful Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail.
