Polar Regions

By the winter of 1854, the men had been trapped for almost two years, their ship frozen in a bank of ice somewhere below the North Pole. Some had lost limbs to scurvy and frostbite; some had succumbed to Arctic hysteria; all of them were starving, reduced to eating the rats that seemed impervious to the vise-like cold. All but a handful of the fifty-odd sled dogs were long dead, victims of rabies and lockjaw. Thousands of miles away, people in America were convinced the crew of the Advance was dead, too.

But one person remained undaunted: Elisha Kent Kane, the unlikely captain of the ill-fated ship whose previous trip to the remote and mysterious Arctic had made him one of the most famous men in the United States. Small of stature, poetic, and sickly, Kane was nonetheless determined to fulfill his voyage’s mission: to find survivors of the celebrated Arctic expedition of Sir John Franklin, and to prove the existence of a legendary Open Polar Sea that circled the North Pole. Before William Peary and Frederick Cook, there was Kane, the man who set the stage for the golden age of Arctic exploration that would follow. Under his calm yet unrelenting leadership, the crew of the Advance spent two years exploring the frozen realm of the Arctic Archipelago, going farther north than any expedition had before. But when it was finally time to return home, the ice had other ideas.

“Farthest North” tells the little-known story of one of the most gripping Arctic expeditions of all time. Despite sickness, mutiny, gnawing hunger, and the malevolent cold, Kane and his men made discoveries that influenced theories about the Ice Age and developed survival strategies that would be the model for generations of future explorers.

In the tradition of Apsley Cherry-Girard’s classic book “The Worst Journey in the World,” this tale of survival and discovery captures polar exploration at its best—which is to say, its most miserable. For them, the pain. For us, the pleasure.

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Todd Balf is a former senior editor at “Outside” magazine and the author of “The Last River,” “Major,” and “The Darkest Jungle,” the bestselling account of a disastrous mid-nineteenth-century U.S. Navy expedition that was searching Panama’s Darién rainforest for a canal route to connect the Atlantic and Pacific.

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Praise for "Farthest North":

“Before there was Amundsen, before there was Shackleton, Nansen, Peary, and a host of lesser ice-frosted glory hounds, there was Elisha Kent Kane, quite possibly the most colorful, literate, intelligent, and romantic explorer ever to walk the floes. Kane, a sensation in his day, has been all but forgotten. But here, in this brisk and engrossing survival narrative, Todd Balf restores Kane to his rightful place as one of America's most fascinating folk heroes.”
— Hampton Sides, bestselling author of "Blood and Thunder" and "Ghost Soldiers"

Move over, Shackleton: there’s a new Arctic-expedition hero in town, and his name is Elisha Kane. I couldn’t put down Todd Balf’s thrilling story of Kane’s adventure, not just because it’s a jaw-dropping chronicle of human toughness and ingenuity, but also because it provides rich lessons for us all about leadership, limits, and what it means to push the boundary of the possible. "Farthest North" is an instant classic, richly deserving of a place on the shelf beside "Endurance."
— Daniel Coyle, bestselling author of "Lance Armstrong’s War" and "Hardball"

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

In 1910 hoping that the study of penguin eggs would provide an evolutionary link between birds and reptiles - a group of explorers left Cardiff by boat on an expedition to Antarctica. Not all of them would return. Written by one of its survivors, The Worst Journey in the World tells the moving and dramatic story of the disastrous expedition.

In this grand and astonishing tale, Alec Wilkinson brings us the story of S. A. Andrée, the visionary Swedish aeronaut who, in 1897, during the great age of Arctic endeavor, left to discover the North Pole by flying to it in a hydrogen balloon. Called by a British military officer “the most original and remarkable attempt ever made in Arctic exploration,” Andrée’s expedition was followed by nearly the entire world, and it made him an international legend.
 
The Ice Balloon begins in the late nineteenth century, when nations, compelled by vanity, commerce, and science, competed with one another for the greatest discoveries, and newspapers covered every journey. Wilkinson describes how in Andrée several contemporary themes intersected. He was the first modern explorer—the first to depart for the Arctic unencumbered by notions of the Romantic age, and the first to be equipped with the newest technologies. No explorer had ever left with more uncertainty regarding his fate, since none had ever flown over the horizon and into the forbidding region of ice.
 
In addition to portraying the period, The Ice Balloon gives us a brief history of the exploration of the northern polar regions, both myth and fact, including detailed versions of the two record-setting expeditions just prior to Andrée’s—one led by U.S. Army lieutenant Adolphus Greely from Ellesmere Island; the other by Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian explorer who initially sought to reach the pole by embedding his ship in the pack ice and drifting toward it with the current.
 
Woven throughout is Andrée’s own history, and how he came by his brave and singular idea. We also get to know Andrée’s family, the woman who loves him, and the two men who accompany him—Nils Strindberg, a cousin of the famous playwright, with a tender love affair of his own, and Knut Fraenkel, a willing and hearty young man.
 
Andrée’s flight and the journey, based on the expedition’s diaries and photographs, dramatically recovered thirty-three years after the balloon came down, along with Wilkinson’s research, provide a book filled with suspense and adventure, a haunting story of high ambition and courage, made tangible with the detail, beauty, and devastating conditions of traveling and dwelling in “the realm of Death,” as one Arctic explorer put it.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

"Part adventure story, part leadership guide, this intriguing book examines Shackleton's legendary Antarctic expedition through the lens of business--to reveal a set of powerful strategies for corporate leaders. In the chronicles of extraordinary adventures and against-the-odds survival, nothing compares to the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his team of South Pole explorers. Stranded in the frozen sea for nearly two years, they endured extreme temperatures, hazardous ice, dwindling food, complete isolation, and perpetual blackness. Yet, despite the seemingly insurmountable obstacles, the group remained cohesive, congenial, and mercifully alive--a fact that speaks not just to luck but to an unparalleled feat in leadership. Now, for the first time ever, Leading at the Edge draws on this amazing story to reveal the power of effective organizational leadership under conditions of uncertainty, ambiguity, and rapid change. The book uncovers 10 lessons-- complete with stirring examples from the Shackleton expedition, as well as contemporary business case studies of the strategies in action--on what it takes to be a great leader. Readers learn how to: * Set a personal example with vivid symbols and behaviors * Instill optimism while staying grounded in reality * Reinforce the team message constantly * Find something to celebrate and something to laugh about * Have the courage to take big risks, and more. For managers and executives who feel stressed out or stretched thin, these memorable strategies will help bring order to chaos--and success in the face of the most daunting adversity."

Four books on the Sagas of Icelanders:

Contents

The Prose Edda
Cormac?s Saga
Grettir the Strong
Frithiof the Bold

591 pages.