Vanished!: Explorers Forever Lost

by Evan L. Balkan

True and harrowing accounts of adventurers who never came home Some adventures end in glory, others in obituaries. Instead of receiving laurels and a parade, the adventurers in Vanished! met infamy on a road with no return. Immerse yourself in these gripping accounts of explorers who ventured forth―then simply disappeared. Their fates? We’ll never know. Vanished! draws you into seven page-turning accounts, including one that contains new details of Amelia Earhart’s unsolved disappearance over the vast Pacific. Head to Mexico with Ambrose Bierce, forever lost but not forgotten. Ride the wild Colorado with honeymooners Glen and Bessie Hyde, presumably drowned but whose bodies have never been found. Author Evan Balkan brings these stories to life, and death, in spine-tingling descriptions. Whether murder, sabotage, or just plain bad luck, these are true tales of adventure gone bad, of explorers vanished, forever lost.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Travel, Adventure

148 pages, Hardcover

First published October 28, 2007

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book consists of seven essays detailing the final misadventures of some notables who have disappeared. Included are Ambrose Bierce, Percy Fawcett, Everett Ruess, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Amelia Earhart, Michael Rockefeller, Johnny Waterman and Glen and Bessie Hyde--only five of whom were familiar to me upon selecting this book from the library of Vermont friends. Each account includes biographical background, the misadventure so far as documented, theories about what may have actually transpired and accounts of rescue/recovery attempts subsequent to the disappearances.

Other than being suitable as a bedtime read, each account being quickly digestable, and entertaining as a collection of adventure stories involving exceptional persons, this book is notable for its style. At his best, Balkan is a very good writer, capable of producing text which completely captures the reader so that the act of reading is forgotten and the reader is thoroughly engrossed.

[Doug Cornelius · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. But I didn't.

It held out a lot of promise, offering up seven chapters, each focused on a different adventurer that vanished. The book started with Ambrose Pierce, the Civil War writer that disappeared fighting in the Mexican War. Each chapter focused on a person lost in the wild.

Unfortunately, the author never made us care about any of the people or the reasons they were lost. There was some narrative about the person and what they were doing. Then he collects some of the stories about the disappearance trying to pull the pieces together to explain the disappearance. It just never got convincing or interesting.

[Mickey Bits · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another serendipitous find which I randomly picked up in a bin of loose books bound for an industrial shredder. Luckily I rescued it before it vanished. It's been a while since reading it but I remember it as a series of chapter each recounting the last journey of a given explorer or hapless nature lover. Long before Chris McCandless there was Glen and Bessie Hyde, Ambrose Bierce, Amelia Earhart among others who never returned from the particular foray into some corner of this planet.

[Corine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Informative, but I felt it was pretty obvious that all of the people who “vanished” just died. I wished there were more source information for where he got the stories also. Seems to me he took a bit of narrative liberty in storytelling. Don’t get me wrong, I read the whole thing, it just left me wanting to know more.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author covers eight 20th Century people who disappeared generally doing what they loved -- scowing down the Grand Canyon, going after Pancho Villa, circumnavigating the globe. Perhaps unavoidably considering the topic, there are a lot of unanswered questions and I found myself wanting more. More information, more stories, just...more.

The writing style is very conversational, with digressions here and there that add to the story. I would recommend it, but I would have liked to see it expanded as well as see photographs that the author describes in the text but are not published in the book.

As an aside, the body of one of the lost explorers, Everett Ruess, was identified a few weeks ago and his death explained, so I suppose he is no longer Lost.

[David Earle · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Vanished!” by Evan Balkan. It tells the stories of several well-known adventurers/explorers who never came home….who disappeared without a trace. The eight explorers who the writer brings focus on are; Ambrose Bierce, Percy Fawcett, Glen and Bessie Hyde, Everett Ruess, Amelia Earhart, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Michael Rockefeller, and Johnny Waterman. Each subject is of extraordinary interest as Balkan not only tells the story of the mystery that shrouds their demise, but also the many questionable theories as to what might have happened to them. I really enjoyed this book!

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vanished: Explorers Forever Lost by Evan Balkan (Menasha Ridge Press 2008) (910.92). This is a series of short biographical sketches about eight historical explorers who disappeared without a trace during their travels. From the lesser known (Ambrose Bierce, Percy Fawcett) to the legendary (Amelia Earhart, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Michael Rockefeller) and more, these are all fascinating tales. I purchased a PB copy in very good condition on 3/10/17 from McKay's Books for $3.00. My rating: 7/10, finished 3/16/17. PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP