Larson, E: To the Edges of the Earth (e-book) (used book) | bookbook.eu

Description

In the mold of bestselling adventure narratives In the Kingdom of Ice, In the Heart of the Sea, and The Lost City of Z, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and author of The Return of George Washington offers a unique and unforgettable look at the peak of the age of exploration and one exceptional year in which three expeditions set off for the ends of the earth and ultimately set records for altitude and the farthest north and south.

In 1909, three daring expeditions pushed to the furthest reaches of the globe, bringing within human reach, for the first time, a complete accounting of all the earth’s surface. In January, Douglas Mawson, as part of Ernest Shackleton’s Nimrod Expedition to Antarctica, became the first man to reach the South Magnetic Pole. In April, Robert Peary, with the first black polar explorer, Matthew Henson, claimed to be the first to reach the North Pole. And in the Himalayas, a team led by polar explorer and dashing Italian Prince Luigi Amedeo, the Duke of Abruzzi, made the highest climb to date on the legendary mountain K2—the so-called "Third Pole"—surpassing 20,000 feet.

In To the Edges of the Earth, Edward J. Larson interweaves the stories of these three expeditions into a dazzling narrative history that illuminates the final frontiers of exploration. We join Mawson and fellow Nimrod explorers Edgeworth David and Alistair Mackay as they scramble to reach the magnetic pole and return in time to catch the Nimrod, knowing they would perish in Antarctica if they missed it. We follow the travails of the indefatigable Peary, whose years of effort to reach the North Pole seemed to have at last ended in glory—only to discover that another man had beaten him. And on K2, we join amateur mountaineer the Duke of Abruzzi as he and his team make the thrilling and terrifying ascent of what is perhaps the most dangerous mountain on earth.