Customer Reviews

The Home of the Blizzard : A True Story of Antarctic Survival

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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.

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.

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.