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ISBN 9780340412800 (0-340-41280-1, 0340412801)

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The Amundsen Photographs

by Roland Huntford , Roald Amundsen

ISBN 0340412801 (0-340-41280-1)
Hardcover, Hodder & Stoughton

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The Amundsen Photographs: ISBN 0340412801 (0-340-41280-1)
Hardcover, Hodder & Stoughton

Around the World: On Expenses

by Roland Huntford , Roald Amundsen

ISBN 0349106843 (0-349-10684-3)
Softcover, Trafalgar Square

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Around the World: On Expenses: ISBN 0349106843 (0-349-10684-3)
Softcover, Trafalgar Square

ISBN 9780375754722 (0-375-75472-5, 0375754725)

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Farthest North

by Fridtjof Nansen, Roland Huntford

ISBN 0375754725 (0-375-75472-5)
Softcover, Modern Library

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Book summary:

The Modern Library has unearthed a classic. The long out-of-print Farthest North, one of the first titles in the library's Exploration series, recounts Dr. Fridtjof Nansen's epic 1893 pursuit of the North Pole. Like Jon Krakauer, the series' editor, Nansen was the chronicler of one his age's most sensational adventures. But he was also much more: statesman and explorer, scientist and sex symbol, Nansen's singular character and remarkable spirit demand attention and respect. It's hard to fathom how a story with such an alluring hero was forgotten in the first place.

The good doctor entered the limelight after his landmark first crossing of Greenland in 1888. Shortly after, he concocted a brilliant (or lunatic, depending on whom you asked) scheme to conquer the pole. He and a small crew would freeze a specially designed boat in the ice and drift with the Arctic current, which he believed would carry him from the coast of Siberia northwest to the pole. In mid-voyage, he realized that the current would not carry him far enough. Undaunted, he and a companion set out across the ice with a dogsled. Nansen was left for dead, but when he stumbled upon another exploration team more than a year later--having reached farther north than anyone before him--he returned to Norway an international sensation.

This book, the chronicle of that journey, was hurriedly written to capitalize on that sensation. Penned in only two months, it lacks literary polish, but Nansen's eye for detail and indomitable spirit shine through. Because he wrote while still thawing from his adventures, his story has an exciting immediacy, one that the passing of a century has done little to diminish. As a historical document, as an epic adventure, and as a revival of a worthy hero long forgotten, Farthest North is a tale well worth remembering. --Andrew Nieland [via]

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Farthest North: ISBN 0375754725 (0-375-75472-5)
Softcover, Modern Library

ISBN 9780375754746 (0-375-75474-1, 0375754741)

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The Last Place on Earth

by Roland Huntford

ISBN 0375754741 (0-375-75474-1)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Book summary:

On December 14, 1911, the classical age of polar exploration ended when Norway's Roald Amundsen conquered the South Pole. His competitor for the prize, Britain's Robert Scott, arrived one month later--but died on the return with four of his men only 11 miles from their next cache of supplies. But it was Scott, ironically, who became the legend, Britain's heroic failure, "a monument to sheer ambition and bull-headed persistence. His achievement was to perpetuate the romantic myth of the explorer as martyr, and ... to glorify suffering and self-sacrifice as ends in themselves." The world promptly forgot about Amundsen.

Biographer Ronald Huntford's attempt to restore Amundsen to glory, first published in 1979 under the title Scott and Amundsen, has been thawed as part of the Modern Library Exploration series, captained by Jon Krakauer (of Into Thin Air fame). The Last Place on Earth is a complex and fascinating account of the race for this last great terrestrial goal, and it's pointedly geared toward demythologizing Scott. Though this was the age of the amateur explorer, Amundsen was a professional: he left little to chance, apprenticed with Eskimos, and obsessed over every detail. While Scott clung fast to the British rule of "No skis, no dogs," Amundsen understood that both were vital to survival, and they clearly won him the Pole.

Amundsen in Huntford's view is the "last great Viking" and Scott his bungling opposite: "stupid ... recklessly incompetent," and irresponsible in the extreme--failings that cost him and his teammates their lives. Yet for all of Scott's real or exaggerated faults, he understood far better than Amundsen the power of a well-crafted sentence. Scott's diaries were recovered and widely published, and if the world insisted on lionizing Scott, it was partly because he told a better story. Huntford's bias aside, it's clear that both Scott and Amundsen were valiant and deeply flawed. "Scott ... had set out to be an heroic example. Amundsen merely wanted to be first at the pole. Both had their prayers answered." --Svenja Soldovieri [via]

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ISBN 9780349113951 (0-349-11395-5, 0349113955)

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The Last Place on Earth : Scott and Amundsen's Race to the South Pole

by Roland Huntford

ISBN 0349113955 (0-349-11395-5)
Softcover, Little, Brown Book Group Limited

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Book summary:

On December 14, 1911, the classical age of polar exploration ended when Norway's Roald Amundsen conquered the South Pole. His competitor for the prize, Britain's Robert Scott, arrived one month later--but died on the return with four of his men only 11 miles from their next cache of supplies. But it was Scott, ironically, who became the legend, Britain's heroic failure, "a monument to sheer ambition and bull-headed persistence. His achievement was to perpetuate the romantic myth of the explorer as martyr, and ... to glorify suffering and self-sacrifice as ends in themselves." The world promptly forgot about Amundsen.

Biographer Ronald Huntford's attempt to restore Amundsen to glory, first published in 1979 under the title Scott and Amundsen, has been thawed as part of the Modern Library Exploration series, captained by Jon Krakauer (of Into Thin Air fame). The Last Place on Earth is a complex and fascinating account of the race for this last great terrestrial goal, and it's pointedly geared toward demythologizing Scott. Though this was the age of the amateur explorer, Amundsen was a professional: he left little to chance, apprenticed with Eskimos, and obsessed over every detail. While Scott clung fast to the British rule of "No skis, no dogs," Amundsen understood that both were vital to survival, and they clearly won him the Pole.

Amundsen in Huntford's view is the "last great Viking" and Scott his bungling opposite: "stupid ... recklessly incompetent," and irresponsible in the extreme--failings that cost him and his teammates their lives. Yet for all of Scott's real or exaggerated faults, he understood far better than Amundsen the power of a well-crafted sentence. Scott's diaries were recovered and widely published, and if the world insisted on lionizing Scott, it was partly because he told a better story. Huntford's bias aside, it's clear that both Scott and Amundsen were valiant and deeply flawed. "Scott ... had set out to be an heroic example. Amundsen merely wanted to be first at the pole. Both had their prayers answered." --Svenja Soldovieri [via]

More editions of The Last Place on Earth : Scott and Amundsen's Race to the South Pole:

The Last Place on Earth : Scott and Amundsen's Race to the South Pole: ISBN 0349113955 (0-349-11395-5)
Softcover, Little, Brown Book Group Limited

ISBN 9780349114927 (0-349-11492-7, 0349114927)

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Nansen

by Roland Huntford

ISBN 0349114927 (0-349-11492-7)
Softcover, Little, Brown Book Group Limited

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Behind the great polar explorers of the early twentieth centuryAmundsen, Shackleton, Scott in the South, and Peary in the Northlooms the spirit of Fridtjof Nansen, the mentor of them all. He was the father of modern polar exploration, the last act of territorial discovery before the leap into space began. A restless, unquiet Faustian spirit, Nansen was a Renaissance Man born out of his time in Norway. He was an adventurer, an artist and historian, and a diplomat who had dealings with Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin, and played a part in the Versailles Peace Conference.

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Nansen: ISBN 0349114927 (0-349-11492-7)
Softcover, Little, Brown Book Group Limited

New Totalitarians

by Roland Huntford

ISBN 0713902604 (0-7139-0260-4)
Hardcover, Allen Lane

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New Totalitarians: ISBN 0713902604 (0-7139-0260-4)
Hardcover, Allen Lane

Scott and Amundsen

by Roland Huntford

ISBN 0330280902 (0-330-28090-2)
Softcover, Pan Macmillan

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Book summary:

The fascinating story of the explorers and their race to the South Pole

At the beginning of the 20th century, the South Pole was the most coveted prize in the modern age of exploration. In this brilliant dual biography, every detail of the great race to the South Pole during 19111912, between Britain's Robert Scott and Norway's Roald Amundsen, is examined and reassessed. Roland Huntford gives a fascinating account of the realities which faced both men. He describes the driving ambitions of the era and the complex, often deeply flawed individuals who were charged with carrying them out. This�reissue is updated�to include an�exclusive interview with the author. Unabridged.

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Sea of Darkness

by Roland Huntford

ISBN 0002221012 (0-00-222101-2)
Hardcover, Collins

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ISBN 9780349107448 (0-349-10744-0, 0349107440)

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Shackleton

by Roland Huntford

ISBN 0349107440 (0-349-10744-0)
Softcover, Little, Brown Book Group Limited

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Ernest Shackleton was the quintessential Edwardian hero. A contemporary - and adversary - of Scott, he sailed on the 'Discovery' expedition of 1900, and went on to mount three expeditions of his own. Like Scott, he was a social adventurer; snow and ice held no particular attraction, but the pursuit of wealth, fame and power did. Yet Shackleton, and Anglo-Irishman who left school at 16, needed status to raise money for his own expeditions. At various times he was involved in journalism, politics, manufacturing and City fortune-hunting - none of them very effectively. A frustrated poet, he was never to be successful with money, but he did succeed in marrying it. At his height he was feted as a national hero, knighted by Edward VII, and granted GBP20,000 by the government for achievements which were, and remain, the very stuff of legend. But the world to which he returned in 1917 after the sensational 'Endurance' expedition did not seem to welcome surviving heroes. Poverty-stricken by the end of the war, he had to pay off his debts through writing and endless lecturing. He finally obtained funds for another expedition, but dies of a heart attack, aged only 47, at it reached South Georgia. [via]

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