Illustrated with original hand-tinted colour and black-and-white photographs, and complete with maps, this is the record of Sir Douglas Mawson's four trips to the Antarctic in the early twentieth century. The book brings together for the first time all of Mawson's descriptive writings while in the Antarctic, including his refusal to join the ill-fated Scott expedition in order to lead an Australasian team. The diaries reveal Mawson's innermost thoughts at times of great stress and conflict. They witness both the death of two companions and his own survival against all odds. They do not gloss over the unpleasant effects that stress and privation have on behaviour as well as on the human body, and they offer a unique account of the realities of surviving in the Antarctic. This book will interest all concerned with the history of exploration and with the human and natural history of the precious Antarctic wilderness. Dr Fred Jacka is Director of the Mawson Institute for Antarctic Research at the University of Adelaide. Eleanor Jacka now works as a research officer in medical ethics, but she and her husband worked on Mawson's diaries for over ten years.
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About the Author
Fred Jacka was director of the Mawson Institute for Antarctic Research and an expeditionary physicist. Eleanor Jacka is a specialist in Russian literature.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The kind of book you won't read only once,
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This review is from: Mawson's Antarctic Diaries (Paperback)
A GREAT BOOK. What makes it so special is the honesty and generosity of Sir Douglas Mawson's dairy, the dairy of a true real-life hero. Normally in any Polar book or narrative, everybody enjoys everybody's company, all works hard, they all help each other. No so in Mawson's story.
First, he tell us with surprising frankness about Edward Wilson "I don't like him". This is VERY unexpected because Uncle Bill Wilson was viewed by everybody who's been in contact with him as a charming man, a man with a good ear, a mediator, a man who has got along with everybody, and then, you have Mawson say this! Secondly, his picture of the time spent in the Cape Denison hut (AAE) is very interesting. He talks at lenght about some lazy or mentally unstable men he had to live with at close quarters like Leslie Whetter and Sydney Jeffries. That's the kind of info and honesty you won't find anywhere else. Finally, you may have heard about his solo return journey in Antarctica after Ninnis and Mertz tragic deaths (that alone is worth the book) but you will learn about how he cope and recovered from all the privations and cruel conditions he so heroically endured after he was rescued. That's the kind of book you won't read only once.
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