Toward Antarctica

Toward Antarctica PDF

Author: Elizabeth Bradfield

Publisher: Red Hen Press

Published: 2019-05-09

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 1597098264

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“The most original piece of travel writing about the Antarctic region I have read in years . . . Bradfield is a literary tour guide in the best sense.” —Elizabeth Leane, author of Antarctica in Fiction: Imaginative Narratives of the Far South A poet and a naturalist, Elizabeth Bradfield documents and examines her work as a guide on ships in Antarctica through poetry, prose, and photographs, offering an incisive insider’s vision that challenges traditional tropes of The Last Continent. Inspired by haibun, a stylistic form of Japanese poetry invented by seventeenth-century poet Matsuo Basho to chronicle his journeys in remote Japan, Bradfield uses photographs, compressed prose, and short poems to examine our relationship to remoteness, discovery, expertise, awe, labor, temporary societies, “pure” landscapes, and tourism’s service economy. Antarctica was the focus of Bradfield’s Approaching Ice, written before she had set foot on the continent; now Toward Antarctica furthers her investigation with boots on the ground. A complicated love letter, Toward Antarctica offers a unique view of one of the world’s most iconic wild places. Like having a poet’s behind-the-scenes tour of a natural history museum . . . the exquisite landscape and wildlife come into vivid view; so does the gutsy work and responsibility of being a naturalist guide.” —Alison Hawthorne Deming, author of Zoologies: On Animals and the Human Spirit

Beyond the Barrier

Beyond the Barrier PDF

Author: Eugene Rodgers

Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Published: 2012-04-15

Total Pages: 589

ISBN-13: 1612511880

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When this book originally appeared in 1990, it was hailed as an important new work because of the author's access to Adm. Richard E. Byrd's just-released private papers. Previous books on the legendary polar explorer had to rely on sources subject to the admiral's vigilant censorship or the control of his heirs and friends. With this study Eugene Rodgers provides a scrupulously honest and objective account of Byrd's 1929 expedition to Antarctica. Without discrediting the expedition's success or Byrd's leadership, Rodgers shows that the admiral was not the saintly hero he and the press depicted. Nor was the expedition without its problems. Interviews with surviving members of the expedition together with a wealth of other new material indicate that Byrd, contrary to his claims, was not a good navigator--his pilots usually had to find their way by dead reckoning--and that he was not on the actual flight that discovered Marie Byrd Land. The book further reveals a crisis over drunkenness among the men (including Byrd), the admiral's fear of mutiny, and his rewriting of news stories from the pole to embellish his own image.

Below the Convergence

Below the Convergence PDF

Author: Alan Gurney

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2007-02-27

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 9780393329049

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This wonderfully written book tells of the first Herculean expeditions to Antarctica, from astronomer Edmond Halley's 1699 voyage in the Paramore to the sealer John Balleny's 1839 excursion in the Eliza Scott, all in search of land, glory, fur, science, and profit. Life was harsh: crews had poor provisions and inadequate clothing, and scurvy was a constant threat. With unreliable--often homemade--charts, these intrepid explorers sailed in the stormy waters of the Southern Ocean below the Convergence, that sea frontier marking the boundary between the freezing Antarctic waters and the warmer sub-Antarctic seas. These men were the first to discover and exploit a new continent, which was not the verdant southern island they had imagined but an inhospitable expanse of rock and ice, ringed by pack ice and icebergs: Antarctica.

Antarctica

Antarctica PDF

Author: Gabrielle Walker

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2013-01-15

Total Pages: 463

ISBN-13: 0547536976

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The acclaimed science writer presents a wide-ranging exploration of Antarctica’s history, nature, and global significance in this “rollicking good read” (Kirkus). From the early expeditions of Ernest Shackleton to David Attenborough’s documentary series Frozen Planet, the continent of Antarctica has captured the world’s imagination. After the Antarctic Treaty of 1961, decades of scientific research revealed the true extent of its many mysteries. Now former Nature magazine staff writer Gabrielle Walker tells the full story of Antarctica—from its fascinating history to its uncertain future and the international teams of researchers who brave its forbidding climate. Drawing on her broad travels across the continent, Walker weaves all the significant threads of life on the vast ice sheet into a multifaceted narrative, illuminating what it really feels like to be there and why it draws so many different kinds of people. She chronicles cutting-edge science experiments, visits to the South Pole, and unsettling portents about our future in an age of global warming. “We are all anxious Antarctic watchers now, and Walker's book is the essential primer.”—The Guardian, UK

The Ice

The Ice PDF

Author: Stephen J. Pyne

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 2016-06-01

Total Pages: 466

ISBN-13: 0295805234

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“The Ice is a compilation of more about ice than you knew you wanted to know, yet sheer compelling significance holds attention page by page. . . . Pyne conveys a view of Antarctica that interweaves physical science with humanistic inquiry and perception. His audacity as well as his presentation warrant admiration, for the implications of The Ice are vast.”—New York Times Book Review

Swimming to Antarctica

Swimming to Antarctica PDF

Author: Lynne Cox

Publisher:

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 357

ISBN-13: 9780753820506

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At 14, Lynne Cox swam 26 miles from Catalina Island to the California mainland; at 15 and 16, she broke the men's and women's world records for swimming the English Channel - a 33-mile crossing; at 18, she swam the 20-mile Cook Strait between North and South Islands of New Zealand; she was the first to swim the Strait of Magellan, the most treacherous 3-mile stretch of water in the world; she was first to swim the Bering Strait from Alaska to Siberia, thereby opening the U.S.-Soviet border for the first time in 48 years; and the first to swim the Cape of Good Hope (a shark emerged from the kelp, its jaws wide open, and was shot as it headed straight for her). And finally she is the first person to have swum a mile in 0 degree water in Antarctica.Lynne Cox writes about swimming the way Saint-Exupery wrote about flying, and one sees how swimming, like flying, can stretch the wings of the spirit. A thrilling, modest, vivid and lyrical, account of an inspiring life.

Skating to Antarctica

Skating to Antarctica PDF

Author: Jenny Diski

Publisher: Virago Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 9781844081516

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Sardonically funny and moving, Skating to Antarctica is a book about a journey into darkness and light, the colour white, fantasy and memory, families and sanity.

The Impossible First

The Impossible First PDF

Author: Colin O'Brady

Publisher: Scribner

Published: 2021-01-19

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1982133120

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Colin O’Brady’s awe-inspiring, New York Times bestselling memoir recounting his recovery from a tragic accident and his record-setting 932-mile solo crossing of Antarctica is a “jaw-dropping tale of passion and perseverance” (Angela Duckworth, New York Times bestselling author of Grit). Prior to December 2018, no individual had ever crossed the landmass of Antarctica alone, without support and completely human powered. Yet, Colin O’Brady was determined to do just that, even if, ten years earlier, there was doubt that he’d ever walk again normally. From the depths of a tragic accident, he fought his way back. In a quest to unlock his potential and discover what was possible, he went on to set three mountaineering world records before turning to this historic Antarctic challenge. O’Brady’s pursuit of a goal that had eluded many others was made even more intense by a head-to-head battle that emerged with British polar explorer Captain Louis Rudd—also striving to be “the first.” Enduring Antarctica’s sub-zero temperatures and pulling a sled that initially weighed 375 pounds—in complete isolation and through a succession of whiteouts, storms, and a series of near disasters—O’Brady persevered. Alone with his thoughts for nearly two months in the vastness of the frozen continent—gripped by fear and doubt—he reflected on his past, seeking courage and inspiration in the relationships and experiences that had shaped his life. “Incredibly engaging and well-written” (The Wall Street Journal)—and set against the backdrop of some of the most extreme environments on earth, from Mt. Everest to Antarctica—this is “an unforgettable memoir of perseverance, survival, daring to dream big, and showing the world how to make the impossible possible” (Booklist, starred review).

Admiral Richard Byrd

Admiral Richard Byrd PDF

Author: Paul Rink

Publisher: Young Voyageur

Published: 2017-09

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0760354359

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Richard Byrd, survived six months alone at a tiny base in the Antarctic winter. His story is an epic of courage and an indomitable will to live.

Shackleton: Leadership Lessons from Antarctica

Shackleton: Leadership Lessons from Antarctica PDF

Author: Arthur Ainsberg

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2010-04-28

Total Pages: 121

ISBN-13: 1450215394

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The more I read about Shackleton, the more I realized how truly heroic leadership is almost impossible to find in todays businesses. Despite all the research and programs devoted to motivating employees, most workers admit they feel disenfranchised in their daily work life. In reading the Shackleton story, it became clear to me that Shackletons leadership lessons could benefit these very same people. This book is my attempt to bring an extraordinary explorers leadership lessons to those business leaders who, on a daily basis, must guide their workforce towards a common goal. Because Shackletons story is more than just one man fighting for survival in the Arctic region it is about coordinating teamwork under the most strenuous conditions. Even in the fast-paced and often unpredictable business world, leaders can use Shackletons strategies to make every team effort a successful one. In this book are inspirational lessons from one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century lessons that can enrich both the way we work and the lives of those we lead.