February 19, 2007
“The Endurance: Shackleton’s legendary Anarctic expedition” by Caroline Alexander
In the spirit of what the weather channel keeps referring to as an “Arctic blast,” I reminded myself of what cold really is by reading “The Endurance: Shackleton’s legendary Anarctic expedition” by Caroline Alexander. The book retraces Ernest Shackleton’s ill-planned attempt to be the first to hike across Antarctica and is assisted by the ample use of ship photographer Frank Hurley’s salvaged film record of the events.
Alexander approaches the story chronologically, providing context for the expedition by summarizing previous Antarctic explorations and the international competition surrounding them. For the story of the Endurance, Alexander draws material from the diaries, letters and later remembrances of the crew. Photographs and quotations punctuate many of the anecdotes of life aboard the Endurance, as well as the freezing hell endured after its’ sinking. The book makes great use of the existing photographs of the ordeal and they do quite a lot to make these unbelievable circumstances more real to the reader. The ship’s photographer captured impossible, fascinating images, such as the enormous wooden Endurance being cracked like a bundle of twigs by mere shifts in the Antarctic ice.
A good story like this makes it a lot easier to bear temperatures at just barely below freezing for a few weeks!
ISBN: 0375404031
Sara, reference assistant
Posted by jnardine at 09:24 AM | Comments (0)