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The Ice Balloon: S. A. Andrée and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration
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.
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.
246 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
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1180 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 179 reviews
January 28, 2013
This book was much more about a bunch of other random arctic explorers than it was about Andree. I understand creating context, but by the time I got to hearing about Andree and the balloon trip, it seemed way too short and underdeveloped. Also the other stories jump around too much and are very disjointed. The only reason this gets 2 stars is because of my weird love for reading about people freezing and starving and stranded on ice.
October 25, 2024
The Ice Balloon tells the story of S.A. Andrée and his attempt to cross the North Pole in a balloon in 1897. The subtitle, the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration, is a bit too ambitious for this volume and the examples chosen by Wilkinson do not, in my opinion, do much to illuminate Andrée's story.
For more than 25 years, after watching the film The Flight of the Eagle, I have wanted to learn more about the ill-fated polar balloon flight of S.A. Andrée. On that topic, Wilkinson does an admirable job. Andrée is mostly overlooked as a quirky footnote in most good histories of polar exploration. Wilkinson demonstrates that Andrée was not a kook, but a man with a singular passion to seriously pioneer air travel with balloons. With the hindsight of history, we may scoff at how anyone could come up with such a ludicrous idea, but Wilkinson demonstrates how it was looked upon as a serious venture at the time. We get an intimate look into his life and one of his two companions, Nils Strindberg. Wilkinson does a great service to bring together sources, both obscure and long out of print, that puts the adventure of the ice balloon into proper historical context.
My one quibble with Wilkinson is in the choices he uses for the Heroic Age parts of the book. As an overview of the age, the expedition selections—Greely, Nansen, and a survivor of Hall/Polaris—are neither comprehensive enough to encompass a discussion of an "age" nor do they add much if any insight into Andrée's quest. Those sections, it seems to me are intended for readers almost completely unfamiliar with the history of polar exploration. Although the book is short, I believe it would have been more effective if it had been shorter.
For more than 25 years, after watching the film The Flight of the Eagle, I have wanted to learn more about the ill-fated polar balloon flight of S.A. Andrée. On that topic, Wilkinson does an admirable job. Andrée is mostly overlooked as a quirky footnote in most good histories of polar exploration. Wilkinson demonstrates that Andrée was not a kook, but a man with a singular passion to seriously pioneer air travel with balloons. With the hindsight of history, we may scoff at how anyone could come up with such a ludicrous idea, but Wilkinson demonstrates how it was looked upon as a serious venture at the time. We get an intimate look into his life and one of his two companions, Nils Strindberg. Wilkinson does a great service to bring together sources, both obscure and long out of print, that puts the adventure of the ice balloon into proper historical context.
My one quibble with Wilkinson is in the choices he uses for the Heroic Age parts of the book. As an overview of the age, the expedition selections—Greely, Nansen, and a survivor of Hall/Polaris—are neither comprehensive enough to encompass a discussion of an "age" nor do they add much if any insight into Andrée's quest. Those sections, it seems to me are intended for readers almost completely unfamiliar with the history of polar exploration. Although the book is short, I believe it would have been more effective if it had been shorter.
September 2, 2025
A Swedish man plans to be the first to the North Pole, travelling there aloft in a balloon. An optimistic plan — some would say foolish.
Reading other accounts of Arctic exploration, this attempt by balloon is often just a footnote or a paragraph. Wilkinson attempts to work it up into a whole book by incorporating material from other balloonists, other balloon trips by Andrée, other explorers who travelled in the North (such as Nansen), and — opening the book at random — a visit with Strindberg to the Café de la Mort in Paris decorated with skeletons and a "skull-and-spine chandelier" (however, in retrospect, perhaps that scene was dramatic foreshadowing).
The blurbs on the back cover are rave reviews . . . but on closer examination are revealed as comments about the writer not this book. These raves were enough though to raise my expectation and therefore I was a little disappointed. I might have enjoyed this book more if my hopes had not been so cruelly elevated.
The lure of the polar regions casts a spell, one that has reached as far as this armchair traveller, and I am almost always content to read yet another work about a relatively unexplored topic.
Reading other accounts of Arctic exploration, this attempt by balloon is often just a footnote or a paragraph. Wilkinson attempts to work it up into a whole book by incorporating material from other balloonists, other balloon trips by Andrée, other explorers who travelled in the North (such as Nansen), and — opening the book at random — a visit with Strindberg to the Café de la Mort in Paris decorated with skeletons and a "skull-and-spine chandelier" (however, in retrospect, perhaps that scene was dramatic foreshadowing).
The blurbs on the back cover are rave reviews . . . but on closer examination are revealed as comments about the writer not this book. These raves were enough though to raise my expectation and therefore I was a little disappointed. I might have enjoyed this book more if my hopes had not been so cruelly elevated.
The lure of the polar regions casts a spell, one that has reached as far as this armchair traveller, and I am almost always content to read yet another work about a relatively unexplored topic.
November 3, 2012
I love pretty much any historical book that covers the time period from the 1890s through the 1920s. I also love books about polar exploration. So, as you can imagine, this book was like the perfect storm for me. It was also short, well-written, obviously well-researched, and engaging.
An added bonus of this book is that the author includes a couple of harrowing tales of other polar expeditions gone wrong. I don't think I'd ever heard of a single one of these explorers before. So this book was chock full of a lot of great new information. I will warn you, though: these stories are both grueling and gruesome, not for the faint of heart. It is, after all, polar exploration of the late 19th century. There's a reason no one reached the North Pole until the 20th - it's incredibly difficult to do!
Honestly, I don't think that there's a lot to dislike about this one, unless the topic doesn't strike your fancy. But how can that be? A guy tried to fly a balloon to the North Pole! He's the only one in history to ever attempt it! How can you not find that interesting? It's sheer lunacy! You should check it out.
An added bonus of this book is that the author includes a couple of harrowing tales of other polar expeditions gone wrong. I don't think I'd ever heard of a single one of these explorers before. So this book was chock full of a lot of great new information. I will warn you, though: these stories are both grueling and gruesome, not for the faint of heart. It is, after all, polar exploration of the late 19th century. There's a reason no one reached the North Pole until the 20th - it's incredibly difficult to do!
Honestly, I don't think that there's a lot to dislike about this one, unless the topic doesn't strike your fancy. But how can that be? A guy tried to fly a balloon to the North Pole! He's the only one in history to ever attempt it! How can you not find that interesting? It's sheer lunacy! You should check it out.
July 16, 2014
This book had a lot of potential, after all it is a story about a man who attempts to reach the North Pole by balloon, in an era when balloons were still cutting edge technology and the North Pole was an unattainable challenge. Unfortunately, perhaps because insufficient material exists to really flesh out Andree's story, Wilkinson pads this book with other bits and pieces. Some are relevant and interesting (e.g. some background to the pioneering balloonists) but other material seems to have been added to simply fill in some pages. Several sections were side stories of other arctic explorers that have already been better handled in books of their own (e.g. Nansen's story). As a result, the actual balloon trip only takes off about two thirds of the way through the book and most of the rest of the book is about the search for the three balloonists with only a few short chapter on the actual journey - pieced together from incomplete diaries and photographs. I think the book is worth reading if you are not familiar with arctic exploration of the time, but if you have read other more thorough books about arctic exploration you will probably find this a bit unsatisfying.
August 25, 2022
This could have been a better book if Alec Wilkinson had kept his focus on S.A. Andree and his fellow explorers. Instead, the book, which is short, plays hopscotch with other doomed tales of arctic exploration, as if to puff up the book. The structure was so off-putting that you can tell Wilkinson isn't an expert on the subject at all. My advice: skip this book and read Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton, a much better book on artic exploration, though at the other pole.
August 5, 2016
This book was a big pile of meh for me. It was interesting because I really didn't know much about Arctic exploration before now, and I'm curious, so I might pick up a better book some day. It's also interesting because these people are freaking nuts. You can't walk to the north pole, so naturally, lets get into a balloon that we can't steer and see if the winds will carry us to the north pole. Um, no.
I agree with other reviewers that it just doesn't seem like there was enough material here. We know a bit about the trip, 60ish hours afloat, the trials and tribulations, then the landing, the trek. But, where's the maps? We're talking about actual islands, glaciers, icebergs, and I feel like I learned absolutely nothing about anything! Other than not to try to take a balloon to the north pole, which I can tell you, I already knew.
I really really wanted a map by the end, the author even mentions a map! But it's not included. Ultimately, I wanted a little less about 3-4 other expeditions, and a little more about this one. Even if some of the chapters were extrapolation, with the caveat that we can't know this for sure, that's what the author did in "Catherine The Great" and although it was a bit frustrating there too because it got tiring to hear "we don't for for sure, but..." at the same time, it's nice to have some personality fleshed out, some idea of who these people are and what they want, as well as where and why they're going.
Andree was very brave, or foolhardy, and the mystery of their deaths will have me wondering for a while. One appears to have died before the other two, there is no indication of why the other two died. Exhaustion? Polar bears? Evil spirits?
The privations that these three men experiences, as well as the others who lived...it also makes me wonder just how many expiditions still lie there, under the ice. With global warming, maybe one day we'll know. More likely, just as with much of history, these lives instead have disappeared without a trace.
Book of the Day for January 6, 2014!
I agree with other reviewers that it just doesn't seem like there was enough material here. We know a bit about the trip, 60ish hours afloat, the trials and tribulations, then the landing, the trek. But, where's the maps? We're talking about actual islands, glaciers, icebergs, and I feel like I learned absolutely nothing about anything! Other than not to try to take a balloon to the north pole, which I can tell you, I already knew.
I really really wanted a map by the end, the author even mentions a map! But it's not included. Ultimately, I wanted a little less about 3-4 other expeditions, and a little more about this one. Even if some of the chapters were extrapolation, with the caveat that we can't know this for sure, that's what the author did in "Catherine The Great" and although it was a bit frustrating there too because it got tiring to hear "we don't for for sure, but..." at the same time, it's nice to have some personality fleshed out, some idea of who these people are and what they want, as well as where and why they're going.
Andree was very brave, or foolhardy, and the mystery of their deaths will have me wondering for a while. One appears to have died before the other two, there is no indication of why the other two died. Exhaustion? Polar bears? Evil spirits?
The privations that these three men experiences, as well as the others who lived...it also makes me wonder just how many expiditions still lie there, under the ice. With global warming, maybe one day we'll know. More likely, just as with much of history, these lives instead have disappeared without a trace.
Book of the Day for January 6, 2014!
August 16, 2013
Thoroughly enjoyed this well written account of Swedish explorer Andrée and his attempt to fly a hot air balloon over the North Pole. I'd never even heard of him before.
Perfect book to read sitting outside in warm August sunshine sipping a glass of something fizzy and trying to imagine living for months at a time on bears and seals, sometimes eaten raw.
There's something fascinating about the early days of Polar travel - you just know it's going to end badly but you can't help admiring the spirit and courage that made these men attempt such appallingly difficult journeys.
Perfect book to read sitting outside in warm August sunshine sipping a glass of something fizzy and trying to imagine living for months at a time on bears and seals, sometimes eaten raw.
There's something fascinating about the early days of Polar travel - you just know it's going to end badly but you can't help admiring the spirit and courage that made these men attempt such appallingly difficult journeys.
August 13, 2016
Belated review: So I had switched to the print version after the audiobook made me somnolent (sleepy!). Unfortunately, the print version also failed to hold my attention. I'm not sure why. It could be because I am weirdly partial to Antarctic expedition stories more than Arctic stories (but one of the reasons for reading this was to remedy that). Perhaps I could attribute the problem to Wilkinson's way of structuring the book: it was jumpy, disjointed - the ice balloon story wasn't told in a linear uninterrupted narrative. Instead it was intercut by background, asides, other people's stories - all those could be interesting in themselves, but I could never gain an Endurance-like momentum with the Andrée story. Each time I got involved the chapter would end and I'd be taken somewhere else for a while.
November 21, 2015
DNF - I agree with other commenters who wrote that there isn't enough material in this story, and therefore the author chose to pad it with all kinds of related information. This makes what could have been a wonderful short piece a dragged-down one. Even though I was quite interested in the story and the general subject, my mind kept wandering away for all the details and irrelevancies. Stopping at 22%.
April 14, 2016
Chronicles of arctic exploration have always interested me and when I saw this title featured in a Barnes and Noble newsletter a couple of months ago I immediately knew I'd read it. I won't pretend I wasn't swayed by the gorgeous cover art.
Having never heard of S.A Andrée I didn't know what to expect. He and his fellow adventures where the first to attempt a polar approach by balloon: a feat met with more than a bit of skepticism in the late 19th century. That skepticism, it turns out, was well founded. I'm not giving anything away when I say that theirs was a tragic journey.
Throughout, Wilkinson - a longtime New Yorker contributed - did much to situate the journey historically within the context of polar exploration (both northern and southern). Other attempts by traditional means were presented alongside Andrée's novel approach and did much to inform the narrative in the technology and science employed as well as the levels of physical depravation that explorers endured. For instance, it was a widely help opinion that a temperate sea surrounded the pole. We now know this to be false.
While it was an enjoyable and edifying read, I found it ultimately to be unsatisfying. Andrée's expedition was the focus, but I felt we never got a full picture of his journey. Part of the problem was the super short chapters. That format prevented Wilkinson from really delving into the heart of the matter in the way that a book like Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm does so well. The later chapters give a pretty good play-by-play of Andrée's sally, but it felt a bit too removed for my taste. Maybe it's my schadenfreude at it's worse, but I wanted to feel myself trapped on the northern ice floes, hubris exacting it's toll. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book for someone who's interested in the, admittedly narrow, intersection of Victorian polar adventuring and ballooning if for no other reason than the photographs. The cover is just one of many haunting images presented here.
If you liked this, make sure to follow me on Goodreads for more reviews!
Having never heard of S.A Andrée I didn't know what to expect. He and his fellow adventures where the first to attempt a polar approach by balloon: a feat met with more than a bit of skepticism in the late 19th century. That skepticism, it turns out, was well founded. I'm not giving anything away when I say that theirs was a tragic journey.
Throughout, Wilkinson - a longtime New Yorker contributed - did much to situate the journey historically within the context of polar exploration (both northern and southern). Other attempts by traditional means were presented alongside Andrée's novel approach and did much to inform the narrative in the technology and science employed as well as the levels of physical depravation that explorers endured. For instance, it was a widely help opinion that a temperate sea surrounded the pole. We now know this to be false.
While it was an enjoyable and edifying read, I found it ultimately to be unsatisfying. Andrée's expedition was the focus, but I felt we never got a full picture of his journey. Part of the problem was the super short chapters. That format prevented Wilkinson from really delving into the heart of the matter in the way that a book like Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm does so well. The later chapters give a pretty good play-by-play of Andrée's sally, but it felt a bit too removed for my taste. Maybe it's my schadenfreude at it's worse, but I wanted to feel myself trapped on the northern ice floes, hubris exacting it's toll. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book for someone who's interested in the, admittedly narrow, intersection of Victorian polar adventuring and ballooning if for no other reason than the photographs. The cover is just one of many haunting images presented here.
If you liked this, make sure to follow me on Goodreads for more reviews!
March 24, 2018
It felt like Wilkinson kind of wanted to write a history of Arctic exploration in general as much as he wanted to write about Andree's balloon. He succeed at the latter rather more than he does at the former, and the unfortunate truth is that too much of that general Arctic information is simply a distraction from the story of Andree.
March 7, 2022
It does take a while to get to the actual expedition, but I found the preceding information relevant and interesting and short of reading the diaries themselves there truly isn't a whole book's worth of information on that part in and of itself.
June 23, 2023
The book was a bit disjointed, but interesting. The added parts about other exploration teams was confusing at times. And the way the author told the main story could’ve been clearer.
July 23, 2021
I just cannot stay away from these Arctic expedition stories... This book, I picked up some years ago, but I'd forgotten all about it, until I stumbled upon it again, lying there, abandoned, on my book shelf. Naturally, I decided to finally read it, and I'm glad I did. This, my friends, is a gem for all of us who are obsessed with Arctic expeditions and the tragic fates of those who dared to venture out into the unknown.
To be fair, if you're looking for a detailed account of Andrée's expedition, I'd recommend Bea Uusma's excellent book The Expedition: Solving the Mystery of a Polar Tragedy (which is available in English, though it's not listed on Goodreads). In comparison, this book glosses over his expedition, and the focus is more generally on the age (the Heroic one, as stated in the title) and the mindset of the explorers, as a way - I guess - to try to explain why. Which is a good thing, because when you're lying in your warm bed, reading about frost bites so severe your hands and feet fall off, of starvation so bad you start feeding on your dead comrades, of loneliness and despair so deep it's almost unfathomable, you start wondering. Where is the pull? Why do these men sacrifice so much for... that?? This book tries to give the answer to that, but it also, as already mentioned, brings up the result of this blue-eyed folly. I can tell you this: these accounts actually, seriously, gave me such a gripping fear of death that I couldn't sleep. And that's awesome, considering the most grueling, hardcore horror stories seldom has that effect on me.
I guess it's the combination that does it. The naivety, the wanderlust, the great confidence. The need to be seen, to be known, to make a mark. To boldly go where no man has gone before. And then they come to the Arctic, where nature goes "oh no, you don't"... and one by one, the brave heroes fall, one by one. It's heartbreaking to think about their hopelessness in those moments, their vulnerability and loneliness, and it's equally heartbreaking to read about it, because most often, they continue to make observations to the bitter end, falling on their post. Horrifying. Utterly horrifying.
So, for a real-life horror story born out of heroism and blue-eyed optimism: read this!
To be fair, if you're looking for a detailed account of Andrée's expedition, I'd recommend Bea Uusma's excellent book The Expedition: Solving the Mystery of a Polar Tragedy (which is available in English, though it's not listed on Goodreads). In comparison, this book glosses over his expedition, and the focus is more generally on the age (the Heroic one, as stated in the title) and the mindset of the explorers, as a way - I guess - to try to explain why. Which is a good thing, because when you're lying in your warm bed, reading about frost bites so severe your hands and feet fall off, of starvation so bad you start feeding on your dead comrades, of loneliness and despair so deep it's almost unfathomable, you start wondering. Where is the pull? Why do these men sacrifice so much for... that?? This book tries to give the answer to that, but it also, as already mentioned, brings up the result of this blue-eyed folly. I can tell you this: these accounts actually, seriously, gave me such a gripping fear of death that I couldn't sleep. And that's awesome, considering the most grueling, hardcore horror stories seldom has that effect on me.
I guess it's the combination that does it. The naivety, the wanderlust, the great confidence. The need to be seen, to be known, to make a mark. To boldly go where no man has gone before. And then they come to the Arctic, where nature goes "oh no, you don't"... and one by one, the brave heroes fall, one by one. It's heartbreaking to think about their hopelessness in those moments, their vulnerability and loneliness, and it's equally heartbreaking to read about it, because most often, they continue to make observations to the bitter end, falling on their post. Horrifying. Utterly horrifying.
So, for a real-life horror story born out of heroism and blue-eyed optimism: read this!
December 16, 2020
Wilkinson's approach to this book struck me as being unique and similar to a college survey course. For example, early in the text Wilkinson referred to literary descriptions of the Arctic, such as those in "Moby Dick". Chapters devoted to other arctic expeditions, such as those led by Adolphus Washington Greely and Charles Francis Hall, were logically inserted and helped set the tone for S.A. Andree's balloon expedition. Compared to the other expeditions, Wilkinson provides less details about John Franklin's lost expedition, but in my observation, there are many popular books available about that expedition.
Being fascinated with the history of world fairs, I was intrigued to read about Andree's time at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Coincidentally, I first read about the Exposition in another book, Hampton Side's In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette, which is about the U.S.S. Jeanette's 1879-81 Arctic expedition.
Some readers may not like the broad scope of this book, but I enjoyed learning many aspects about the late nineteenth century, not only Arctic expeditions, but art, literature, technology, etc. All of it was very reinforcing of my previous knowledge, and the information about Andree, his crew, their expedition and his contemporaries was very insightful.
Being fascinated with the history of world fairs, I was intrigued to read about Andree's time at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Coincidentally, I first read about the Exposition in another book, Hampton Side's In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette, which is about the U.S.S. Jeanette's 1879-81 Arctic expedition.
Some readers may not like the broad scope of this book, but I enjoyed learning many aspects about the late nineteenth century, not only Arctic expeditions, but art, literature, technology, etc. All of it was very reinforcing of my previous knowledge, and the information about Andree, his crew, their expedition and his contemporaries was very insightful.
January 8, 2014
The polar regions of our planet are the harshest and most unforgiving places that man has visited. Even with modern equipment and clothing humans still face great challenges venturing into the area.
Imagine then how it was undertaking polar exploration in the Victorian age. The expedition equipment was very primitive, and in some cases dangerous, they did not have years of study and understanding of the human body in these conditions. Wilkinson has looked at the story of S A Andrée, a Swedish explorer who took of in a hydrogen filled balloon in 1897 with the aim of being the first man to go over the North Pole.
He has written this account based on the diaries of Andrée, and contemporary accounts of the time. He was a hero of his age when he departed, following in the footsteps of many explorers who tried and failed to make it there. The journey was not straightforward, as you would imagine, and of all the expeditions they were probably the wine who got the closest. After the balloon landed, they unpacked and set about trying to return across the ice.
This was a fascinating book in lots of ways, Andrée was a true gentlemen, and the description of the meals that they ate were almost unreal, for example champagne at one meal. The thing that I didn't like about the book was that there was too much material on other attempts and journeys in the Arctic. I understand to set the context, but it just felt like it was padded a little.
Imagine then how it was undertaking polar exploration in the Victorian age. The expedition equipment was very primitive, and in some cases dangerous, they did not have years of study and understanding of the human body in these conditions. Wilkinson has looked at the story of S A Andrée, a Swedish explorer who took of in a hydrogen filled balloon in 1897 with the aim of being the first man to go over the North Pole.
He has written this account based on the diaries of Andrée, and contemporary accounts of the time. He was a hero of his age when he departed, following in the footsteps of many explorers who tried and failed to make it there. The journey was not straightforward, as you would imagine, and of all the expeditions they were probably the wine who got the closest. After the balloon landed, they unpacked and set about trying to return across the ice.
This was a fascinating book in lots of ways, Andrée was a true gentlemen, and the description of the meals that they ate were almost unreal, for example champagne at one meal. The thing that I didn't like about the book was that there was too much material on other attempts and journeys in the Arctic. I understand to set the context, but it just felt like it was padded a little.
December 5, 2022
I’m a sucker for books about historic Arctic exploration, although God knows I would never do it myself. This one is about a Swede named S.A Andree who decided to ride over the North Pole in a balloon during the 1890s. That’s borderline insane, and in the very first pages of this book a Norwegian ship finds Andree’s corpse in 1930. So we know things didn’t go well.
The problem with this book is that info on Andree’s journey after the balloon was forced down is comparatively limited. So a lot of the narrative concerns other Arctic explorers and their harrowing experiences. Typicically, these guys start out with high expectations, plenty of hubris, and a year or two later they are freezing on the ice and eating their own shoes, or each other.
As for Andree and his two companions, no one is sure how they died, or even the order in which they died. It wasn’t starvation, so Wilkinson speculates it might have been lead poisoning, dehydration, disease — or maybe they just wore out from dragging three and four hundred pound sledges through the harsh arctic landscape.
On the plus side, there are some evocative photos that have been recovered, ghostly and grey, of the balloon collapsed on the ice like a dead animal
The problem with this book is that info on Andree’s journey after the balloon was forced down is comparatively limited. So a lot of the narrative concerns other Arctic explorers and their harrowing experiences. Typicically, these guys start out with high expectations, plenty of hubris, and a year or two later they are freezing on the ice and eating their own shoes, or each other.
As for Andree and his two companions, no one is sure how they died, or even the order in which they died. It wasn’t starvation, so Wilkinson speculates it might have been lead poisoning, dehydration, disease — or maybe they just wore out from dragging three and four hundred pound sledges through the harsh arctic landscape.
On the plus side, there are some evocative photos that have been recovered, ghostly and grey, of the balloon collapsed on the ice like a dead animal
May 1, 2022
This is one of those stories that leaves you asking, “How stupid were these people?”
Turns out, they were both intelligent and incredibly stupid at the same time. Andree was an accomplished balloonist and did an extensive amount of planning both for his success and failure. When he and his compatriots died, there seems to have been plenty of food and survival equipment needed to last. Then they died.
And of course, he thought he could take a BALLOON to the NORTH POLE. Wilkinson even explains early in the book that a CLOUD could alter the volume of the balloon. A cloud. And they thought the North Pole would be fine. Also, the erroneous (which admittedly a lot of smart people thought) idea that the North Pole was on land completely invalidated all Andree’s calculations. This was like the first week’s auditions of a singing competition. Andree needed just one person to let him know this was a terrible idea and he will ruin himself. Oh wait, Greeley did after he almost died in the Arctic. Oh well.
The book is a fast read and is padded by Wilkinson explaining some of the other major Arctic expeditions. They are surely tangents, but well done.
Turns out, they were both intelligent and incredibly stupid at the same time. Andree was an accomplished balloonist and did an extensive amount of planning both for his success and failure. When he and his compatriots died, there seems to have been plenty of food and survival equipment needed to last. Then they died.
And of course, he thought he could take a BALLOON to the NORTH POLE. Wilkinson even explains early in the book that a CLOUD could alter the volume of the balloon. A cloud. And they thought the North Pole would be fine. Also, the erroneous (which admittedly a lot of smart people thought) idea that the North Pole was on land completely invalidated all Andree’s calculations. This was like the first week’s auditions of a singing competition. Andree needed just one person to let him know this was a terrible idea and he will ruin himself. Oh wait, Greeley did after he almost died in the Arctic. Oh well.
The book is a fast read and is padded by Wilkinson explaining some of the other major Arctic expeditions. They are surely tangents, but well done.
November 2, 2014
3.5 stars really. I did enjoy this book, which chronicles the tales of simply amazing men who ventured into the Arctic (by the author's count, more than 1,000, of which 800+ never were seen again) during the late 1800s and early 1900s. I particularly liked his explanations of why different explorers ended up in different parts of the world - ie the psyche of people drawn to the tropics vs the frigid ends of the earth.
I also thoroughly enjoy reading the diaries of these men, which this book relied heavily on - such a sense of purpose, of scientific exploration, and how any hardship was worth it as long as it was in the name of the advancement of reason and science. The author of the book I just read before this one could learn a lot - hundreds of men marching to their deaths over the cold ice...
I also thoroughly enjoy reading the diaries of these men, which this book relied heavily on - such a sense of purpose, of scientific exploration, and how any hardship was worth it as long as it was in the name of the advancement of reason and science. The author of the book I just read before this one could learn a lot - hundreds of men marching to their deaths over the cold ice...
March 18, 2016
Very decent arctic exploration history book. One must always go into books about polar journeys knowing that it is absolutely NOT going to be a feel good story.
People will die...
Dogs will die...
It's going to be as frigid as a marriage between a closeted gay evangelical pastor and his fat Midwestern wife that only reads M/M shifter erotica. Which makes me sad to think about. If everyone was just honest with each other, let go of their twisted religious morality, and LIVED, they'd have such a gloriously life and even better time in bed.
People will die...
Dogs will die...
It's going to be as frigid as a marriage between a closeted gay evangelical pastor and his fat Midwestern wife that only reads M/M shifter erotica. Which makes me sad to think about. If everyone was just honest with each other, let go of their twisted religious morality, and LIVED, they'd have such a gloriously life and even better time in bed.
April 1, 2022
Fascinating story, but not well told in this book. Half the book is confusingly about other Arctic explorers. Which is great for the context and they are interesting stories as well, but the author doesn't do a good job weaving it into a narrative. Then the Andree sections are kind of stilted too. Again, the story itself is fascinating and this is a solid enough English treatment of it, but it's just not great. There's a new book in Swedish that is being translated now to English (October 2014 release?) that may be more interesting.
June 16, 2013
Poor Andrees expedition, including backstory, maybe took 75 pages. The rest was contemporary explorations. And would have liked some science about why the balloon did not fly. Spent time on how they might have died, and their erroneous (winds, land/open sea) even silly (entrance to the interior, parallel planet) scientific ideas, why not a discussion of the balloon construction and temperatures, etc.
November 20, 2021
If your familiar with the "canon" of Artic exploration, much of this book will feel like it's more about other explorers rather than S.A. Andrée and his doomed balloon trip across the north pole.
However, if the subject is new to you, you will appreciate the wide breath this book encompasses in order to establish how perilous the journey Andée attempted to make was.
However, if the subject is new to you, you will appreciate the wide breath this book encompasses in order to establish how perilous the journey Andée attempted to make was.
July 29, 2022
What a ride! It read like a research paper for most of it: but the last few chapters really brought it home. "I think he left because he could no longer imagine not leaving" (230).
The Andree Expedition being punctuated by other, failed expeditions was exceptional.
The Andree Expedition being punctuated by other, failed expeditions was exceptional.
October 12, 2013
Good true story Amazing adventure
August 3, 2018
The story of Saloman Andree and his two companions is somewhat forgotten today, over one hundred years after it occurred (in 1897). This is due to it's total failure, and the fact that while for nearly thirty three years it was a great mystery, it was basically solved in 1930 by sheer accident.
Andree, when he briefly became a world figure, was interested in two areas if increased public curiosity of the time. He was an engineer and interested in aviation - but he was not interested in the development of heavier-than-air flight, but in ballooning. Andree was also interested in the drive to reach the North Pole. In the 1890s, starting with Nansen from Norway and his drift of the ship "Fram" in Greenland, the so-called, heroic age of Polar exploration formally began, when the names of Amundsen, Peary (and Henson), Shackleton, Scott, Mawson, blanketed the headlines. Their goals were to reach the two poles, the last two unknown explorations magnets on the globe after the question of the source of the Nile was settled by Burton, Speke and Grant, Baker, and Stanley. Andree decided to mount an expedition to the North Pole by air - using a balloon to reach the goal.
For it's time it certainly did excite international approval and support. Among the financial contributors was the famed inventor of dynamite, Alfred Nobel. With two chosen companions, Knut Fraekel and Nils Strindberg (yes - a cousin of the great dramatist August Strindberg), they left Spitzbergen on July 11, 1897. Unlike so many explorations of the day it was well photographed, and the balloon, the "Orgen" (Swedish for "Eagle") was shot headed by air currents to the Pole. A few days later a ship found a dead carrier pigeon with a message about the distance travelled and how all seemed well. A dropped buoy with another message was also found. And then came a long silence. Andree and his companions were aware of the dangers of this trek, but had dismissed them, believing that the balloon would not be endangered. Still they had the foresight to include sleds on the balloon to carry the supplies over land if necessary.
From 1897 when they were last heard from, until 1930 the fate of the three men and the balloon was one of the great stories of vanished people in the history of the world - with Charlie Ross, Ambrose Bierce, and Dorothy Arnold. Nobody really considered it would ever be solved. Then a remarkable second act occurred. In 1930 a Russian ship docked near White Island in the Russian section of the Arctic, and did some exploring. It suddenly was noted by the crew that there were some unnatural looking mounds, and they were examined. They turned out to be two tents and one contained two skeletons in it. A record was found and it proved to be by Andree. It mentioned the death of the third man, and his burial, so that his remains, as well as those of Andree and his other companion were gathered. Together with the items in the tents they were returned to Stockholm where the three were given a fine ceremonial funeral in their honor.
What happened to the expedition? We can't know everything, but Andree made one miscalculation about the balloon as a vehicle. It collected ice on it's outer skin, and began sinking to the earth. Finally it crashed, but so gently that nobody was hurt. One of the interesting ironies of the expedition was that Andree had a complete camera and film supply with him, and photos were taken of the downed balloon. It was never in the cards for the film to be developed by the explorers, but much of it would survive until 1930 when it was developed. One of the photos of the downed balloon is used on the book's cover. After the crash the balloon was taken apart, and with the supplies taken on the sleds and pulled by Andree, Fraenkel, and Strindberg. They actually managed to make a good trek (despite normal geographical handicaps) of about four or five hundred miles to White's Island, hoping to reach the mainland and civilization. But something happened to the intrepid explorers on the island. Most likely it was either eating polar bear meat (they killed one) that had tricannosis in it that gradually weakened and killed them, or the two surviving men had a faulty heater that filled the tent with carbon monoxide killing them. We aren't quite sure of what really happened.
The story was finally gathered and told for the first time in the 2012 by Alex Wilkinson. It's a fascination glimpse into that moment of 1897 when aviation and polar exploration crossed for the first time, making way for the flight of the Norge in 1926, Byrd and Floyd Bennett's flight of 1926 in a Ford Tri-Motor, Nobile's fight of the Italia in 1928, and the flight of the Graf Zeppelin over the North Pole in 1930. And it gives one hope that in the end of time all the mysteries of the past are brought to some account or reckoning in the end.
Andree, when he briefly became a world figure, was interested in two areas if increased public curiosity of the time. He was an engineer and interested in aviation - but he was not interested in the development of heavier-than-air flight, but in ballooning. Andree was also interested in the drive to reach the North Pole. In the 1890s, starting with Nansen from Norway and his drift of the ship "Fram" in Greenland, the so-called, heroic age of Polar exploration formally began, when the names of Amundsen, Peary (and Henson), Shackleton, Scott, Mawson, blanketed the headlines. Their goals were to reach the two poles, the last two unknown explorations magnets on the globe after the question of the source of the Nile was settled by Burton, Speke and Grant, Baker, and Stanley. Andree decided to mount an expedition to the North Pole by air - using a balloon to reach the goal.
For it's time it certainly did excite international approval and support. Among the financial contributors was the famed inventor of dynamite, Alfred Nobel. With two chosen companions, Knut Fraekel and Nils Strindberg (yes - a cousin of the great dramatist August Strindberg), they left Spitzbergen on July 11, 1897. Unlike so many explorations of the day it was well photographed, and the balloon, the "Orgen" (Swedish for "Eagle") was shot headed by air currents to the Pole. A few days later a ship found a dead carrier pigeon with a message about the distance travelled and how all seemed well. A dropped buoy with another message was also found. And then came a long silence. Andree and his companions were aware of the dangers of this trek, but had dismissed them, believing that the balloon would not be endangered. Still they had the foresight to include sleds on the balloon to carry the supplies over land if necessary.
From 1897 when they were last heard from, until 1930 the fate of the three men and the balloon was one of the great stories of vanished people in the history of the world - with Charlie Ross, Ambrose Bierce, and Dorothy Arnold. Nobody really considered it would ever be solved. Then a remarkable second act occurred. In 1930 a Russian ship docked near White Island in the Russian section of the Arctic, and did some exploring. It suddenly was noted by the crew that there were some unnatural looking mounds, and they were examined. They turned out to be two tents and one contained two skeletons in it. A record was found and it proved to be by Andree. It mentioned the death of the third man, and his burial, so that his remains, as well as those of Andree and his other companion were gathered. Together with the items in the tents they were returned to Stockholm where the three were given a fine ceremonial funeral in their honor.
What happened to the expedition? We can't know everything, but Andree made one miscalculation about the balloon as a vehicle. It collected ice on it's outer skin, and began sinking to the earth. Finally it crashed, but so gently that nobody was hurt. One of the interesting ironies of the expedition was that Andree had a complete camera and film supply with him, and photos were taken of the downed balloon. It was never in the cards for the film to be developed by the explorers, but much of it would survive until 1930 when it was developed. One of the photos of the downed balloon is used on the book's cover. After the crash the balloon was taken apart, and with the supplies taken on the sleds and pulled by Andree, Fraenkel, and Strindberg. They actually managed to make a good trek (despite normal geographical handicaps) of about four or five hundred miles to White's Island, hoping to reach the mainland and civilization. But something happened to the intrepid explorers on the island. Most likely it was either eating polar bear meat (they killed one) that had tricannosis in it that gradually weakened and killed them, or the two surviving men had a faulty heater that filled the tent with carbon monoxide killing them. We aren't quite sure of what really happened.
The story was finally gathered and told for the first time in the 2012 by Alex Wilkinson. It's a fascination glimpse into that moment of 1897 when aviation and polar exploration crossed for the first time, making way for the flight of the Norge in 1926, Byrd and Floyd Bennett's flight of 1926 in a Ford Tri-Motor, Nobile's fight of the Italia in 1928, and the flight of the Graf Zeppelin over the North Pole in 1930. And it gives one hope that in the end of time all the mysteries of the past are brought to some account or reckoning in the end.
March 9, 2026
The Ice Balloon: S. A. Andrée and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration by Alec Wilkinson is a gripping work of narrative history that recounts one of the most daring and mysterious expeditions of the late nineteenth century.
The book centers on Salomon August Andrée, a Swedish engineer and aeronaut who, in 1897, attempted to reach the North Pole by flying there in a hydrogen balloon. At a time when nations competed fiercely for geographic discoveries and international prestige, Andrée’s ambitious plan captured the imagination of the world and made him an instant celebrity.
Wilkinson places Andrée’s journey within the broader context of the heroic age of polar exploration, when explorers pushed the limits of human endurance to chart the Arctic’s vast unknown regions. The narrative also touches on earlier expeditions, including those led by Adolphus Greely and Fridtjof Nansen, whose attempts to reach the pole reflected the spirit of innovation and determination that defined the era.
What makes Andrée’s mission especially compelling is the radical nature of his approach. Rather than relying on traditional sledges or ships trapped in pack ice, he chose to take to the skies venturing into one of the most hostile environments on Earth with technology that was still largely experimental.
The story becomes even more haunting through the recovered diaries and photographs of Andrée and his companions, Nils Strindberg and Knut Fraenkel. Discovered decades after their disappearance, these records offer a powerful glimpse into the explorers’ final days and reveal both the courage and uncertainty that defined their journey.
Wilkinson’s writing combines historical insight with vivid storytelling, bringing to life the motivations, ambitions, and human relationships behind this extraordinary expedition. The result is a narrative that is as much about the psychology of exploration as it is about the harsh realities of the Arctic environment.
Overall, The Ice Balloon is a compelling exploration of ambition, innovation, and the enduring human desire to venture into the unknown. It offers readers a fascinating look at a pivotal moment in the history of polar exploration and the individuals who risked everything in pursuit of discovery.
The book centers on Salomon August Andrée, a Swedish engineer and aeronaut who, in 1897, attempted to reach the North Pole by flying there in a hydrogen balloon. At a time when nations competed fiercely for geographic discoveries and international prestige, Andrée’s ambitious plan captured the imagination of the world and made him an instant celebrity.
Wilkinson places Andrée’s journey within the broader context of the heroic age of polar exploration, when explorers pushed the limits of human endurance to chart the Arctic’s vast unknown regions. The narrative also touches on earlier expeditions, including those led by Adolphus Greely and Fridtjof Nansen, whose attempts to reach the pole reflected the spirit of innovation and determination that defined the era.
What makes Andrée’s mission especially compelling is the radical nature of his approach. Rather than relying on traditional sledges or ships trapped in pack ice, he chose to take to the skies venturing into one of the most hostile environments on Earth with technology that was still largely experimental.
The story becomes even more haunting through the recovered diaries and photographs of Andrée and his companions, Nils Strindberg and Knut Fraenkel. Discovered decades after their disappearance, these records offer a powerful glimpse into the explorers’ final days and reveal both the courage and uncertainty that defined their journey.
Wilkinson’s writing combines historical insight with vivid storytelling, bringing to life the motivations, ambitions, and human relationships behind this extraordinary expedition. The result is a narrative that is as much about the psychology of exploration as it is about the harsh realities of the Arctic environment.
Overall, The Ice Balloon is a compelling exploration of ambition, innovation, and the enduring human desire to venture into the unknown. It offers readers a fascinating look at a pivotal moment in the history of polar exploration and the individuals who risked everything in pursuit of discovery.
October 6, 2017
I have the strongest sympathy possible for Alec Wilkinson, really I do. I do not think for one minute that he meant to write a bad book. What he did--and I don't mean this in a cruel way--was write a really good magazine article. This is exactly the sort of thing that would have been the cover story in American Heritage, let's say, if they were still in business.
But Mr. Wilkinson, who I do not know, and seems to be a fine writer, decided to expand that really good magazine article into a book. This... and there's really not a nice way to say it... was not a good idea.
But it wasn't not-a-good-idea as, let's say, trying to fly a balloon to the North Pole. Because that is what his hero, the Swedish explorer S. A. Andree tried to do, fly a balloon to the North Pole. And you'd think--you really would think--that you could turn that into a book. You have a stoic and, frankly, kind of weird dude as your hero, who comes up with an idea that's absurd on its face, and by sheer force of will he puts the balloon and the expedition and all of the supplies together, and bless his black little heart, he manages to farble it up and the balloon goes crash and everyone dies of exhaustion. It's an absurd, noble tragedy that is the stuff of postmodern heroism.
It ought to be a good story--it is a good story--but Wilkinson, and bless his black little heart as well, comes to the conclusion that it isn't long enough for a real book, and throws in two other polar exploration stories for good measure. These stories have the merest connection to Andree's story, but they inhabit huge long stretches of the book for no good reason other than filler.
THE ICE BALLOON isn't a bad book, or anything like it. I have some quibbles--notably that the point of the book when the balloon goes crash is a little under-explained, and you don't get a sense of exactly how close they got to the Pole. The writing, as I said, is very good--imagine if Jon Krakauer didn't have attention deficit disorder--but there simply isn't enough content to make this as interesting as maybe it needs to be.
But Mr. Wilkinson, who I do not know, and seems to be a fine writer, decided to expand that really good magazine article into a book. This... and there's really not a nice way to say it... was not a good idea.
But it wasn't not-a-good-idea as, let's say, trying to fly a balloon to the North Pole. Because that is what his hero, the Swedish explorer S. A. Andree tried to do, fly a balloon to the North Pole. And you'd think--you really would think--that you could turn that into a book. You have a stoic and, frankly, kind of weird dude as your hero, who comes up with an idea that's absurd on its face, and by sheer force of will he puts the balloon and the expedition and all of the supplies together, and bless his black little heart, he manages to farble it up and the balloon goes crash and everyone dies of exhaustion. It's an absurd, noble tragedy that is the stuff of postmodern heroism.
It ought to be a good story--it is a good story--but Wilkinson, and bless his black little heart as well, comes to the conclusion that it isn't long enough for a real book, and throws in two other polar exploration stories for good measure. These stories have the merest connection to Andree's story, but they inhabit huge long stretches of the book for no good reason other than filler.
THE ICE BALLOON isn't a bad book, or anything like it. I have some quibbles--notably that the point of the book when the balloon goes crash is a little under-explained, and you don't get a sense of exactly how close they got to the Pole. The writing, as I said, is very good--imagine if Jon Krakauer didn't have attention deficit disorder--but there simply isn't enough content to make this as interesting as maybe it needs to be.
August 4, 2020
I generally seek out exploration books, and have previously devoured polar expedition books with much enjoyment. Often the larger-than-life expedition members grab your attention even if their egos may not endear them to you for long.
Sadly, Wilkinson skips and hops from a variety of arctic trips, before finally landing on Andree's unique balloon attempt at the pole somewhere around the final third of the book. After a somewhat disjointed path, I still didn't get an in depth dive into the inner workings of the 3 ballonists: Andree, Fraenkel, and Strindberg.
More time is spent discussing the Greely expedition, which was interesting from a historical and psychological bent. "All that ignorance, stupidity, and an egotistical mind without judgment can do in the injury of our cause is being done." That was one quote about leadership from the journal of Sergeant Brainard from that doomed group. One has to wonder if this hints at Wilkinson's thoughts about Andree as well, although the journals from that expedition are much more scientific and less colorful.
Again from this other expedition account, we get, "Greely added, 'It drives me almost insane to face the future. It is not the end that frightens anyone, but the road to be traveled to reach that goal. To die is easy. What was difficult was to strive, to endure, to live. It was easier to think of death than to dare to live.' "
After reading multiple accounts of ships locked in ice, crushed by ice, and crews abandoning their vessels to live on the ice, I was hoping for something a little different from the Swedish balloonist. Alas, he was not only not good at enduring and survival, he was boring enough to apparently give in to death without the violent struggle of most polar explorers. While I suppose you could call the manner of his death a mystery, I am not curious enough to look for more. I think I'll head back to the south pole for my next arctic expedition read.
Sadly, Wilkinson skips and hops from a variety of arctic trips, before finally landing on Andree's unique balloon attempt at the pole somewhere around the final third of the book. After a somewhat disjointed path, I still didn't get an in depth dive into the inner workings of the 3 ballonists: Andree, Fraenkel, and Strindberg.
More time is spent discussing the Greely expedition, which was interesting from a historical and psychological bent. "All that ignorance, stupidity, and an egotistical mind without judgment can do in the injury of our cause is being done." That was one quote about leadership from the journal of Sergeant Brainard from that doomed group. One has to wonder if this hints at Wilkinson's thoughts about Andree as well, although the journals from that expedition are much more scientific and less colorful.
Again from this other expedition account, we get, "Greely added, 'It drives me almost insane to face the future. It is not the end that frightens anyone, but the road to be traveled to reach that goal. To die is easy. What was difficult was to strive, to endure, to live. It was easier to think of death than to dare to live.' "
After reading multiple accounts of ships locked in ice, crushed by ice, and crews abandoning their vessels to live on the ice, I was hoping for something a little different from the Swedish balloonist. Alas, he was not only not good at enduring and survival, he was boring enough to apparently give in to death without the violent struggle of most polar explorers. While I suppose you could call the manner of his death a mystery, I am not curious enough to look for more. I think I'll head back to the south pole for my next arctic expedition read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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