As Told at The Explorers Club: More Than Fifty Gripping Tales of Adventure (Explorers Club Classic) [Paperback]

George Plimpton (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Explorers Club Classic | Publication Date: September 1, 2005

Incorporated in 1905, The Explorers Club in its earliest years met in simple rented rooms. In 1965, the Club bought a Tudor-style mansion on East 70th Street in the historic Upper East Side, where it has remained ever since.

Celebrating its centennial anniversary in 2004, today The Explorers Club is an international society dedicated to the advancement of field research, scientific exploration, and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore.

This volume is dedicated to the spirit of exploration. Assembled by Club member and literary giant George Plimpton, As Told by the Explorer's Club will take you from Amundsen to Lindbergh, from the Arctic to Antarctica, and all points in between.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Published on the eve of the Explorers Club centennial, this collection of stories and articles derives from the club's past publications. It's a wide array, covering every continent and charting adventure travel's course over the past 60-odd years. Plimpton divides the book geographically, with the bulk of the pieces falling into Africa, Arctic, Asia and the continental U.S. (places like Alaska, the Atlantic Ocean and Australia are represented with only one or two essays each). Although the selections vary in quality, they all convey a sense of immediacy; their first-person narratives offer the pleasure of campfire stories. Among the gems: Col. C. Suydam Cutting's recollection of cheetah hunting in South India, Anne Keenleyside's exploration of cannibalism in the Arctic and E. W. Deming's retelling of Sitting Bull's mystifying death in North Dakota. This fine book is the first volume in the Explorers Club Classic Series.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

From this eclectic gathering of tales told at the legendary, century-old Explorers Club, it seems adventure is a pejorative word because several writers here equate it with poor planning. Nevertheless, they plunge into narratives of mischance, to the vicarious thrill of readers, who will, for example, enjoy ducking bandits' bullets along with legendary paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews. Not all are death-defying yarns, however, for one finds club members visiting mutineer Fletcher Christian's descendents on Pitcairn Island and the discoverer of the coelacanth, the fish hitherto known only from fossils. Geographically wide-ranging, late editor Plimpton's selections from club archives include, of course, Mt. Everest. Plimpton also accords prominence to broadcaster Lowell Thomas (the club's Manhattan mansion is named for him) in the form of several pieces by or about him. That only a few contributors are professional writers makes this volume's literary quality a hit-and-miss affair, but it is cover-to-cover descriptive adventure, which, for many readers, is the bottom line. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Lyons Press; 1st edition (September 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592286585
• ISBN-13: 978-1592286584
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #500,641 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars amazing stories from the ends of the earth, November 11, 2003

By 

Seth J. Frantzman (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: As Told at the Explorers Club: More Than Fifty Gripping Tales of Adventure (Hardcover)

This book contains amazing stories from the ends of the earth as told by those that actually participated. These first hand accounts are simply wonderful, giving the reader an eye into the harsh climates of Africa and the Arctic among other places. Luminaries include Mr. Amundson of South Pole fame. This is a well written and well organized book that covers more then 60 years of exploration.

2.0 out of 5 stars Much less than I had hoped for---I returned it., September 20, 2011

By 

Jack Of Alltrades "Just another soul" (Loth Ethtadoth Unidoth) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: As Told at The Explorers Club: More Than Fifty Gripping Tales of Adventure (Explorers Club Classic) (Paperback)

Not a bad book I guess, as long as you're not expecting too much.
What do I mean by too much? Not to have to read lies by a blowhard psychotic: "Captain" L. Ron Hubbard, the notorious liar, crook and flim flam man who created his own bogus religion: Scientology. It's mercifully short but that Plimpton was taken in by him calls his judgement into question.

The rest of the stories vary from snoozers to decent, if unexciting writing about travel. There's a lot of interesting facts here about exotic places, but exciting and moving it is not.

Example: Mongol women are complimented by being called a beast. Okay, fine. Elucidating but not enthralling.

Example: The largest desert is in Arabia and has meteorites. Fine, but had I wanted facts I would have picked up an encyclopedia.

I could go on, but why bother? Look, if you want real, true adventure written by one of the best writers of adventure memoir the earth has seen, try Jim Corbett's: Man-Eaters of Kumaon (Oxford India Paperbacks) or The Temple Tiger and More Man-Eaters of Kumaon (Oxford India Paperbacks). Corbett's tales will move you to tears, make you laugh and prickle the hairs on the back of your neck with tension and his humanity and humility will move you profoundly.

But if all you're looking for are some speeches that are intended mainly to make the tellers look clever and good, then this book will be your meat.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice short stories, November 13, 2009

By 

Mr. Williams "Book Maniac" (Here and There) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: As Told at The Explorers Club: More Than Fifty Gripping Tales of Adventure (Explorers Club Classic) (Paperback)

Enjoy reading this book. So far about half way through. Many short true stories of adventure and exploration. A good book to throw in your backpack to take with you on your next overseas adventure/travel.