In search of the South Pole

by Kari Herbert, Huw Lewis-Jones, Ranulph Fiennes (Foreword)

A century after Amundsen's triumph and Scott's tragedy, our fascination with Antarctica endures. This glorious visual history combines discussions of the great polar voyages, and their scientific and imaginative import, with a range of rare materials--previously unpublished photographs, artworks, ephemera, and manuscripts from public and private collections--to give us a biography not just of two amazing men but of the South Pole itself. An international who's who of explorers, historians, scientists, and polar experts, including Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Lynne Cox, Don Walsh, have contributed to this stunning work.

Genres: Nonfiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[George Ilsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A multi-faceted view of the approach to one of the last frontiers on planet Earth. Each point of view opens up another avenue for research.

This volume also provides insight from contemporary researchers, explorers and adventurers, some of whom try to re-do what others have done, or attempted to do in the past.

Antarctica is an endlessly fascinating source of inspiration.

[Edward Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was a really good book, felt it did jump around a bit in the story telling rather than just stick to timeline, had a great final chapter that had all the information you could need in a chronological order.

Seemed to be a quite frank with how some people were, rather than trying to make them more of a hero than they should have been, but although I haven’t been the South Pole I have been onto Antarctica so I can understand the weather these people had to fight through to appreciate they all achieved amazing things which the book still gets across
Took a bit of effort to get started with the book but was worthwhile as after the first third of the book I could hardly put the thing down

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nicely produced overview of Antarctic exploration from James Cook up to the present day, though with the most emphasis given (understandably) to the efforts of Shackleton, Amundsen and Scott. It's well-illustrated with contemporary photographs: my main quibble was that although historical charts are included, there is no modern map of Antarctica showing the various routes taken. Otherwise this is an attractive introduction to the subject.