The Mammoth Book of Explorers (Mammoth Books) [Paperback]

John Keay (Editor), Wilfred Thesiger (Foreword)

Book Description

Series: Mammoth Books | Publication Date: March 12, 2002

During the golden age of exploration in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the intrepid travelers emerged from the jungles, deserts, and ice caps of the world’s remotest locations, they were greeted by an awestruck public as though they had returned from the dead or other worlds. The Mammoth Book of Explorers recaptures the thrill of the unknown with first-hand accounts of expeditions across all seven continents. In Africa, there is Burton’s search for the source of the Nile. In the Americas, Meriwether Lewis tells how he reunited Sacajawea with her tribe, and Alexander Mackenzie recounts the first overland crossing of the continent by the Canadian fur trader in 1793. At the globe’s top and bottom, Robert Peary and Ernest Shackleton race for the poles. In addition to such triumphs of human endurance, there are the tragedies of Livingstone’s last days in Africa, William John Wills’s lonely death in the Australian outback, and Robert Scott’s tragic final expedition in Antarctica. To round out this Mammoth collection, noted author John Keay has also chosen twentieth-century explorers who have carried on the dauntless tradition, including Hiram Bingham’s account of the discovery of Machu Picchu, Thesiger on Arabia’s Empty Quarter, Edmund Hillary on scaling the summit of Everest, and Harry St. John Bridger Philby on traversing the desert alone.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The sixty-second volume in the Mammoth Book series is divided geographically into sections on Siberia and Alaska, Central and South Asia, Arabia, West Africa, East and Central Africa, Australia, North America, South America, the Arctic, and the Antarctic. Appearing here are 42 firsthand accounts of journeys during the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. High points include an excerpt from Edmund Hillary's ascent of Mt. Everest in 1953, pieces by Stanley and Livingstone describing their exploration in the Congo, and selections from Alexander Mackenzie's encounter with Indians in Canada in 1793 and Meriwether Lewis' meeting with Shoshone Indians during his 1804-5 expedition, which took him through Montana. Readers can join Robert Edwin Peary at the North Pole and Ernest Shackleton, Robert Falcon Scott, and Roald Amundsen at the South Pole. Addicts of true adventure tales will be captivated by this collection. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers; 1st Carroll & Graf Ed edition (March 12, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786709510
• ISBN-13: 978-0786709519
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,271,363 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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