About this item
The race to reach the south pole is one of the most extraordinary stories in human history. In the early 20th century the pole represented one of the last unexplored places on Earth-and thus, for a certain breed of men, one of the most irresistible locations on the planet. Drawing on the archives of the National Geographic Society, which had close ties to all of the great South Pole explorers, THE SOUTH POLE tells the story of the discovery and exploration of Antarctica, through the memoirs, letters, ship's logs and diary entries of the great Antarctic explorers. Beginning with the first glimpse by Captain James Cook in the late 18th century to the remarkable story of Ernest Shackelton's Endurance; from the harrowing story of Robert Falcon Scott, who came within miles of his ultimate goal, to the triumph of Roald Amundsen first to the pole, to the loneliness of Richard Byrd, left alone in Antarctica for an entire winter, The South Pole paints a unique tapestry of the characters, the triumph, and the tragedy that characterized the exploration of the world's last continent.
About the Author
Born and raised in Westfield, New Jersey, went to Princeton and Columbia for undergraduate and advanced degrees, worked for aviation pioneer Sherman Fairchild as his personal historian. When he died in 1972 became a free-lance writer. First book, REALITY POLICE, was a muckraking look at the mental health system. Subsequently went into magazine journalism, wrote for ESQUIRE, AMERICAN HERITAGE, THE ATLANTIC, CONNOISSEUR, PSYCHOLOGY TODAY, GQ, MEN'S JOURNAL, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ADVENTURE, and many other magazines. Was the essays editor of the Pushcart Prize for eighteen years. In 2002 served as a non-fiction judge for the National Book Awards. Edited the Adventure Classics series for National Geographic Books, which included an edition of the JOURNALS OF LEWIS AND CLARK and 24 other books, including THOMAS JEFFERSON TRAVELS, a selection of Jefferson's writings while he was U. S. minister to France. THE MAN WHO ATE HIS BOOTS is his first book for Knopf.
