Running Impressions of Polar Exploration Books
For @writemeariver42 and to help myself keep track.
CURRENTLY READING: Snow Widows by Katherine MacInnes
Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition by John Geiger and Owen Beattie
The first thing I read after The Terror launched me headlong into the abyss. A good starting point for anyone wanting to get into the topic, both for the overview of the major players that tee up the next 70 years, and the deep dive into the forensics. The grave exhumation chapter is incredibly moving.
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
The reviews calling this one of the greatest audiobooks of all time have it right on the money. A biased, uncritical, and utterly thrilling account of Shackleton’s most famous expedition (also one of the books that made it so famous). If you don’t fall in love with Frank Worsley I fear for your soul.
In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides
Compared to some of the other commanders, De Long isn’t particularly colorful or intriguing, but the amount of time Sides has us spend with him pulls out his contradictions nonetheless. He’s a straight laced navy man, but even before it gets to life and death, he just tries so damn hard to be kind. Sides does a great job weaving in his theses without beating us over the head with them. A thoroughly researched book that has a masterfully crafted third act; Sides is a great talent. This one is close to my heart.
Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey Into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton
My Roman Empire. While (as described by Sides) De Long’s command was beset by factors beyond his control, de Gerlache’s was… not that. A clown car of an expedition that was also somehow the crucible for the Golden Age of Exploration. I feel somewhat vindicated in my less than objective feelings for these guys by the fact that Sancton actually does some critical source analysis - not that you can truly encapsulate Dr. Cook otherwise. Definitely the most successful (so far!) at making the explorers feel like real human beings.
Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greeley Expedition by Buddy Levy
Going from the Belgica to Greeley was always going to be like flipping to CSPAN after finishing The West Wing. Levy (understandably) doesn’t try to give a group of American Civil and Indian War vets the same color as de Gerlache’s international gang of misfits. Levy also just isn’t a strong enough writer or researcher to elevate his subjects (or speak explicitly about the imperialist overtones) like Sides does. Still worth reading, especially to understand the foundations Greeley laid for comprehending the current climate crisis; and to marvel at the fact that the highest qualifications any of them had as mariners was the photographer being from Nova Scotia.
A First Rate Tragedy by Diana Preston
It’s ironic that this book struck me as more old fashioned, being written in 1998, than the 1922 Worst Journey did. A decent overview of the facts of Scott’s life and expeditions, but not the place to go if you want to know who he is.
The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
I don’t know what I expected with this book - it was my first time reading a first hand account, so I didn’t fully know what to expect - but coming out of it with this tender ache deep in my gut for a few dozen dead white imperialists? Not on my bingo card. But that’s ok. Because these men loved each other, and they loved the world around them, and they loved Britain, and they loved learning, and they loved trying, and they loved the hope that their acts, however large, however small, could mean something. And in the middle of it all, a 24, then 25, then 26 year old who came of age in the ice.
The Worst Journey in the World Graphic Novel, Volume I by Sarah Airriess
I didn’t remember how GOOD a solid works cited makes my brain feel until I read this. Truly a masterpiece. The sheer research that went into this is breathtaking, as is the painstaking work put into connecting every centimeter of every frame to a primary source. It very astutely settles us into Cherry’s rosy-cheeked wonder at the world around him, and how in spite of it all, in spite of it all, the wonder will always live side by side with the horror.
The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen by Stephen Bown
As soon as Bown flattened Roald’s feelings about the Belgica’s Belgian leadership into little more than spite and condescension, I knew to take this book with a few heaps of salt. Bown gets so drawn into describing Roald’s public construction of himself that we end up closer to the construction than the man. It will be interesting to see how I feel about other parts of the book as I read other accounts.
