The Shameless Diary of an Explorer: A Story of Failure on Mt. McKinley

by Robert Dunn, Jon Krakauer (Editor)

In 1903, aspiring journalist Robert Dunn joined an expedition attempting the first ascent of Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America. Led by explorer Frederick Cook (who would later win infamy for faking the discovery of the North Pole), the climbers failed to conquer McKinley, but they did circumnavigate the great peak—an accomplishment not repeated until 1978. The trek also spawned a book unique in the literature of Dunn’s frank, sardonic, no-holds-barred look at day-to-day existence on an Alaskan expedition.

Before Dunn, most such accounts were sanitized and expurgated of anything unflattering. Dunn, however, a protégé of the muckraker Lincoln Steffens, endeavored to report what he saw, with panache. And what Dunn reported was a journey rife with conflict, missed opportunity, incompetence, privation, and danger. By showing men reduced to their rawest state, the young journalist produced a compelling, insightful, and oddly amusing book that disturbed and riveted his contemporaries. As Hudson Stuck—the Episcopal archdeacon of the Yukon who completed the first ascent of Mt. McKinley in 1913—observed, “[Dunn’s] book has a curious undeniable power, despite its brutal frankness. . . . One is thankful, however, that it is unique in the literature of travel.”

Genres: Mountaineering, Adventure, Climbing, Action, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1907

About the author

Robert Steed Dunn was born in 1877, in Newport, Rhode Island. He graduated from Harvard University in 1898. After his graduation he traveled the Yukon Trail to the Klondike and upon his return became a journalist. Dunn was a correspondent for the "Commercial Advertiser" under Lincoln Steffen, and was assigned to accompany Cook in his attempt to climb Mount McKinley, Alaska. On this trip he gathered information for his book "Shameless Diary of an Explorer". Other assignments let him to Martinique and on a world cruise with the U. S. Fleet. As a war correspondent Dunn covered the Russo-Japanese War, the naval cruise to Seize Veracruz, and General Pershing's expedition into Mexico against Pancho Villa. During World War I, he was a correspondent for the "New York Post," and wrote "Five Fronts". In 1918, he was commissioned as an officer in the U. S. Navy, and served as an intelligence officer in London and in Constantinople. During his later years, Dunn concentrated on horticulture and writing. He wrote two published novels "Youngest World" and "Horizon Fever," as well as a book of verse "And Least Love". His autobiography "World Alive" was published after his death in 1956. Dunn died in Katonah, NY in 1955.

Reviews

[Amerynth · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The Shameless Diary of an Explorer" is Robert Dunn's account of his travels with the inept Frederick Cook as his team attempted to climb Denali, North America's highest peak, for the first time.

The book is fascinating as a no holds barred account of a bumbling expedition and an illustration of Cook's failure to be a leader. (Cook later claimed, in now discredited accounts, to be the first to climb Denali and reach the North Pole.) The book is really readable and really interesting.

The low rating, for me, is due to two factors that made this a really difficult read for me. The first being Dunn's antisemitism toward another member of the expedition. The second being the sheer brutality toward the pack horses. Without these elements, this book would have been a good read.

[Mattw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually, in some ways a tough one to cop to reading, in that the author is, besides an explorer, a casual, consistent anti-semite throughout. Dunn is also shameless in a charmingly biting fashion while describing how the expedition (of which he was part, but not leader) bumbled about Denali. Worth reading for its description of the monotony of exploring, with dashes of insight into the hucksterism of the "explorer". A lighter, less noble counterpart to _The Worst Journey In The World_.

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

An account of a failed 1903 expedition to summit Mount McKinley--and a pretty darn entertaining one, at that. Dunn was big on telling the truth no matter how unflattering it might be, and so his diary really shows all the exasperation that he and his companions felt with one another, all their ineptitude and poor planning, and includes no rationalizations about how their failure still meant something because they strived their hardest or whatever. He was also an unappologetic anti-semite, who blamed pretty much any negative quality he saw in 21-year-old Simon on his race. So, you know, this was really interesting, especially when compared with most other accounts written by adventurers and explorers during that time. There's lots of gossip and bickering and back-biting and grumbling and glee at others' misfortunes, and it's pretty clear that these men rarely felt much respect for anyone in their party. Not exactly a book to inspire, but the tale is compellingly told, and these men all come across as real people, and not the usual cardboard cutout noble adventurers of most accounts!

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many accounts of exploration/adventure don't present the mundane, the frustration and the pettiness. Dunn's diary lays out the bickering between the explorers as they slog through their days. An often cold, wet, "beans & biscuits" existence just to get near their goal of Mt McKinley. This book must have been a departure from the ego driven accounts (and fabrications) of many explorers of the early 20th century.

[Marcella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty honest about how much they all sucked. I'm still shocked that no one died.

I guess I enjoy reading all the logistic details of trudging through Alaska, although the constant anti-Semitism really put me off.

[Sarah]

From the far-off lands of a North Carolina bookshop...