The Home of the Blizzard: A True Story of Antarctic Survival [Paperback]

Sir Douglas Mawson (Author), Ranulph Fiennes (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 3, 2000

The Home of the Blizzard is a tale of discovery and adventure in the Antarctic--of pioneering deeds, great courage, heart-stopping rescues, and heroic perseverance. This is Douglas Mawson's first-hand account of his years spent in sub-zero temperatures and gale-force winds. At the heart of the story is Mawson’s epic sledge journey in 1912-13 during which his companions Ninnis and Mertz both perished. Told in a laconic but gripping narrative, this is a story that all armchair explorers will cherish. Originally published to great acclaim in 1915, this book has been out of print for many years. The Home of the Blizzard is illustrated with over ninety original photographs depicting the wildlife, the harsh living conditions and the spirit of the explorers. With a specially commissioned foreword by Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the "world's greatest living explorer," this is a book for anyone interested in adventure and the strength of the human spirit.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Rejecting a position on Scott's ill-fated South Pole team, Australian explorer Douglas Mawson sets off with his own plans in December 1911 to explore the unknown Antarctic coast south of Australia. The Home of the Blizzard is Mawson's thrilling account of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, which set its base camp in a region of terrific yearlong windstorms and blizzards. Originally published as a two-volume work in 1915, then abridged and reprinted in 1930, this edition replicates the bestselling 1930 volume, which has long been out of print.

Unlike most Antarctic expeditions of his day, Mawson's trek had no pole-hunting ambitions, focusing instead on scientific inquiry and mapping, which the international media largely ignored. And indeed, when Mawson left the Antarctic continent, his expedition had amassed more maps of Antarctica than any other to date. But Mawson's journey was no more void of adventure than those exploits of his contemporaries. Mawson's vivid description of the storms, hardships, endurance, tragedy, and survival make this adventure story well worth resurrecting. When his two companions perish, Mawson ventures on an unthinkable solo sledge journey back to his coastal base, a feat nothing short of pure courage.

With a forward by renowned polar explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes and four folios of black-and-white photographs from the expedition, Blizzard is a polar classic that adventure enthusiasts are sure to embrace. --Byron Ricks --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

A classic of outdoor adventure that, although a little dry by today - s post-Krakauer standards, remains powerful. Mawson, an Australian mountaineer/explorer who died in 1958, traveled to Antarctica as a member of a British government surveying expedition in 1913. He found the continent to be less daunting in some ways than he might have anticipated - the weather on the southern shore of the Ross Sea, for one thing, was often surprisingly mild - although certainly dangerous. As he writes, much of his team - s early work lay in the uninteresting details of packing and unpacking thousands of pounds of coal, canned food sufficient to last for two years ( - preserved meats were taken only in comparatively small quantities, for in the matter of meat we intended to rely chiefly on seal and penguin flesh - ), mapping equipment, and countless other bits of ordnance. He would come to miss those uneventful days when he and members of his party traveled inland from the Ross Sea shelf to map the rugged interior, where glacial ice and blizzards proved to be a constant challenge. So, too, did rocky cliffs and hidden crevasses, one of which swallowed up a comrade and his dog team. And so, too, did frostbite, which claimed bits and pieces of each of his team. Mawson writes with understatement and the explorer - s customary sangfroid ( - I received rather a nasty squeeze through falling into a hole whilst going downhill, the sledge falling on me before I could get clear''), a stiff-upper-lip stance that gives way from time to time to unmistakable affection, both for his fellow travelers and for Antarctica itself, which Mawson found to be hauntingly beautiful. Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the famed British explorer, writes in the foreword to this reissue of this 1915 title that he rereads Mawson - s book - during the planning stage of each new expedition. - The lesson less practiced polar explorers might take away is: stay home and read this book. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 574 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (June 3, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312230729
• ISBN-13: 978-0312230722
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #722,695 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The classic tale of a great Antarctic epic., November 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Home of the Blizzard : A True Story of Antarctic Survival (Hardcover)

The epic of endurance laconically described by Mawson ranks with those of Scott and Shackleton as one of the greatest feats of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, yet is far less well known. Read this book and marvel at the man. Great pictures, missing from some earlier editions of the book, are included. Avoid the self-serving foreword by Ranulph Fiennes who cannot even get the name of Mawson's companion on the first expedition to the South Magnetic Pole right.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A comprehensive look at Mawson's little-known expedition, May 30, 2000

By 

Susan Paxton - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Home of the Blizzard: A True Story of Antarctic Survival (Paperback)

After his contributions to Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1907-1909 Nimrod expedition, Australian scientist Dr. Douglas Mawson decided to put together his own expedition, one that placed more emphasis on science than any up to that time and many afterwards. Although his own experiences were by far the most gripping of the expedition, Mawson is careful to tell the entire story, with excerpts from other member's diaries and reports. His style is a little dry, compared to Shackleton's books, but the tale of the expedition is a compelling and interesting one. The book is very well illustrated with photographs, maps, and diagrams, and the cover is really handsome. Read this, but also read Lennard Bickel's "Mawson's Will" for more emphasis on Mawson's own terrifying adventure.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A little hard to follow at times, May 8, 2010

By 

Marc Ranger "Baseball fan" (québec, canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Home of the Blizzard: A True Story of Antarctic Survival (Paperback)

The tale of Douglas Mawson walking some 300 miles alone without food in the Antarctic is a faboulus tale. It is, in my mind, the single most heroic deed ever made in the history of exploration.

If you only want to read about that tale, may I suggest "Mawson's Will" by Leonard Bickell.

Home of the Blizzard features all the other parties work (Hurley's, Wild's and so on) and it could tend to drag on for the non-initiated, die-hard Antarctic experts.