Great Adventures

A selection of some of the best recent biographies of and memoirs by the adventuresome.

 

1.		The Last Place on Earth by Roland Huntford
		Modern Library Paperback - 576 pages (September 1999)	$11.96 Click here for more info	Avg. Customer Review:
Amazon.com On December 14, 1911, the classical age of polar exploration ended when Norway's Roald Amundsen conquered the South Pole. His competitor for the prize, Britain's Robert Scott, arrived one month later--but died on the return with four of his men only 11 miles from their next cache of supplies. But it... Read more
2.		Dark Wind : A Survivor's Tale of Love and Loss by Gordon Chaplin
		Atlantic Monthly Pr Hardcover - 240 pages 1 Ed edition (June 1999)	$23.00 $16.10 $6.90 Click here for more info	Avg. Customer Review:
Amazon.com Dark Wind is much more than one man's story of a disastrous sailing trip that cost the life of his lover, though its blow-by-blow narrative of the typhoon that wrecked their ship and swept them into the sea is reason enough to read his searing memoir. What distinguishes Gordon Chaplin's book from... Read more
3.		Into Thin Air : A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer(Introduction)
		Villard Books Hardcover - 293 pages (May 1997)	Click here for more info	Avg. Customer Review:
Amazon.com Into Thin Air is a riveting first-hand account of a catastrophic expedition up Mount Everest. In March 1996, Outside magazine sent veteran journalist and seasoned climber Jon Krakauer on an expedition led by celebrated Everest guide Rob Hall. Despite the expertise of Hall and the other leaders, by... Read more
4.		The Lost River by Richard Bangs
		Sierra Club Books Hardcover - 288 pages (August 1, 1999)	Click here for more info	Avg. Customer Review:
Amazon.com It's tempting to write off The Lost River as just another adventure story. It certainly has all the trappings of a formulaic action blockbuster--raging rapids, hungry crocodiles, mysterious natives, even the lost Ark of the Covenant. But as veteran river-runner Richard Bangs chronicles his lifelong... Read more
5.		Climbing High: A Woman's Account of Surviving the Everest Tragedy by Lene Gammelgaard
		Seal Pr Feminist Pub Hardcover - 264 pages (July 1999)	Click here for more info	Avg. Customer Review:
Amazon.com In May 1996, Lene Gammelgaard became the first Scandinavian woman to reach the peak of Mount Everest. The next day she made history again by surviving the mountain's deadliest disaster. The catastrophic blizzard that killed eight climbers, including Gammelgaard's friend and expedition leader Scott... Read more
6.	See picture	Endurance : Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing(Preface)
		Carroll & Graf Paperback - 282 pages 2nd edition (April 1999)	Click here for more info	Avg. Customer Review:
Amazon.com In the summer of 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton set off aboard the Endurance bound for the South Atlantic. The goal of his expedition was to cross the Antarctic overland, but more than a year later, and still half a continent away from the intended base, the Endurance was trapped in ice and eventually... Read more
7.	See picture	Close to the Wind by Pete Goss
		Publishers' Group West Hardcover - 273 pages (June 1999)	Click here for more info	Avg. Customer Review:
Amazon.com On 25 December, 1996, Pete Goss turned his 50-foot yacht Aqua Quorum back into a hurricane-force headwind to rescue French sailor Raphael Dinelli. He risked his life and any chance of winning one of the world's great yachting challenges--the Vendee Globe nonstop, single-handed, round-the-world race.... Read more
8.	See picture	South : A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage by Ernest Henry Shackleton, Sir Ernest Shackleton
		Carroll & Graf Paperback - 380 pages (September 1998)	Click here for more info	Avg. Customer Review:
Amazon.com Soon after the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole in 1911, his Anglo-Irish rival, Sir Ernest Shackleton, sought to top the feat by making his way from one end of Antarctica to the other on sledge. He set off with a crew of 28, including scientists and a movie cameraman, but the... Read more
9.	See picture	The Hungry Ocean : A Swordboat Captain's Journey by Linda Greenlaw
		Little Brown & Company Hardcover - 265 pages (May 1999)	$22.95 $16.07 $6.88 Click here for more info	Avg. Customer Review:
Amazon.com The term fisherwoman does not exactly roll trippingly off the tongue, and Linda Greenlaw, the world's only female swordfish boat captain, isn't flattered when people insist on calling her one. "I am a woman. I am a fisherman... I am not a fisherwoman, fisherlady, or fishergirl. If anything else, I... Read more
10.	See picture	Outside Passage : A Memoir of an Alaskan Childhood by Julia Scully
		Random House (Paper) Paperback - 240 pages (June 1999)	Click here for more info	Avg. Customer Review:
Amazon.com Outside Passage is notable as much for what it doesn't say as for what it does. As this memoir opens, 11-year-old Julia Scully and her 13-year-old sister, Lillian, arrive alone in Nome, Alaska, circa 1940--a town notable for its barren extremes. Then, with the force of a jump cut, Scully rushes us... Read more
11.	See picture	The Last Man on the Moon : Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America's Race in Space by Eugene Cernan, Don Davis
		St Martins Pr (Trade) Hardcover - 356 pages (April 1999)	Click here for more info	Avg. Customer Review:
Amazon.com That "Geno" Cernan was commander of Apollo 17, the final manned moon mission, was a fitting conclusion to a flying career that included two previous stints in space (Gemini 9 and Apollo 10). His frank, earthy memoir of his years at NASA adds another entertaining, informative volume to the burgeoning... Read more
12.	See picture	Slightly Out of Focus (Modern Library) by Robert Capa, et al
		Modern Library Hardcover - 240 pages (September 1999)	Click here for more info	Avg. Customer Review:
Amazon.com Robert Capa, the great photojournalist who is perhaps best known for his searing images of WWII, infused his autobiography with the same brio and warmth that he expressed in his now classic photographs. "Victory was pleasant and exhausting," the Hungarian-born American notes after the Allies'... Read more
13.	See picture	Amelia Earhart : The Mystery Solved by Elgen M. Long, Marie K. Long
		Simon & Schuster Hardcover - 320 pages (November 1999)	Click here for more info	Avg. Customer Review:
From Kirkus Reviews A detailed chronicle of the last days of Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, and what went before, based upon an exhaustive 25-year study. Celebrated pilot Elgen Long and his coauthor wife, a public relations consultant with the Western Aerospace Museum, claim that the solution of the... Read more

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