The Shameless Diary of an Explorer: A Story of Failure on Mt. McKinley [Paperback]

Robert Dunn (Author), Edward Hoagland (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Modern Library Exploration | Publication Date: September 11, 2001

In 1903, aspiring journalist Robert Dunn joined an expedition attempting the first ascent of Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America. Led by explorer Frederick Cook (who would later win infamy for faking the discovery of the North Pole), the climbers failed to conquer McKinley, but they did circumnavigate the great peak—an accomplishment not repeated until 1978. The trek also spawned a book unique in the literature of exploration: Dunn’s frank, sardonic, no-holds-barred look at day-to-day existence on an Alaskan expedition.

Before Dunn, most such accounts were sanitized and expurgated of anything unflattering. Dunn, however, a protégé of the muckraker Lincoln Steffens, endeavored to report what he saw, with panache. And what Dunn reported was a journey rife with conflict, missed opportunity, incompetence, privation, and danger. By showing men reduced to their rawest state, the young journalist produced a compelling, insightful, and oddly amusing book that disturbed and riveted his contemporaries. As Hudson Stuck—the Episcopal archdeacon of the Yukon who completed the first ascent of Mt. McKinley in 1913—observed, “[Dunn’s] book has a curious undeniable power, despite its brutal frankness. . . . One is thankful, however, that it is unique in the literature of travel.”

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

More adventure books should be like this. In a genre rife with overbearing machismo and braggadocio, this book, originally published in 1907, is a refreshing and at times hilarious take on exploration. Robert Dunn reveals the bickering and frayed nerves, petty insecurities and trivial jealousies that existed alongside the courage, discipline, and determination exhibited by each member of the 1903 expedition that attempted the first ascent of Alaska's Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America. Without downplaying the difficulty of the task, Dunn's honest assessments of the men involved reveals the complex motivations for undertaking arduous exploration and the human weaknesses that are revealed in the process.

The group was led by Frederick Cook (who was later shamed for faking a discovery of the North Pole); Dunn served as the group geologist and second-in-command. He was also an aspiring journalist, and true to his muckraking roots, he makes no apologies for his brutally frank and often unflattering depiction of the party and events. "To distort or hide, in deference to any custom, or so-called sense of pride or honor, simply is to lie." His companions undoubtedly would have appreciated less sincerity, but readers will find his unflinching accuracy most appealing. For instance, he writes of Cook: "I cannot believe he has imagination; of a leader's qualities he has shown not one." Or a possibly worse fault: "He doesn't smoke, and that makes me uncomfortable...." He also dispenses witty advice: "The reason this Diary seems so good-humored, is because it's always written after eating. Never write a field journal on an empty stomach."

Though the experience was often hellish, Dunn can't help but focus on its heavenly rewards upon conclusion, wondering: "Shall I ever return to so glorious a land, to such happiness?" With that line, as with the entire book, he brilliantly and stylishly captures the inherent paradoxes that lie at the core of exploration. --Shawn Carkonen

Review

"A classic on exploration."
--Lincoln Steffens

"[Dunn was] a man bent on adventure and ready to face the dangers and hardships that adventure brings."
--The New York Times Book Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Modern Library; Modern Library pbk. ed edition (September 11, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679783253
• ISBN-13: 978-0679783251
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #578,386 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Predecessor to Into Thin Air, January 21, 2002

By 

Mr Blimp (Cedarhurst, New York United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Shameless Diary of an Explorer: A Story of Failure on Mt. McKinley (Paperback)

If you've read Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" you can only come away from reading "The Shameless Diary...." thinking how it must have been the model for the frankness and criticism he wrote of himself and his fellow climbers in his blockbuster Everest disaster story. Besides the no holds bared frankness of the author's daily reflections of the events of this expedition the reader is let into the authors inner mind as well as the levels of, what can only be considered, animal brutality required to actually complete such a journey, and, which could have only been common, yet previously unexposed, to all such expeditions of it's age.

Throughout the reading I was constantly contemplating how I could have stood up to the rawness of nature that these men withstood. My own meager climbs of the major peaks of the White Mountains of Vermont, and the high peaks of the Adirondacks and Catskill Mountains of New York all paled in comparison to what these men accomplished during any one day of this expedition. A recent winter day hike to Windham High Peak, NY now seems like a child's day in the sun in reflection.

This is the sort of book that forces one to be constantly making those sorts of comparisons.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant insights from a master, April 29, 2002

By 

Verne Robinson (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Shameless Diary of an Explorer: A Story of Failure on Mt. McKinley (Paperback)

Dunn takes the cake from the grave! While the Crook Society scrambles to promote the old faker Dr. Cook, and Bryce tries to sue Washburn for his book about the McKinley fraud we have Dunn's magnificent work back in print.

Skip the modern intro (how ridiculous!) as Dunn's razor sharp writing needs nothing added. Was Cook a fake? Of course! And far worse than that - he is seen here as a sociopath, a failure, a miserable little worm who couldn't lead a horse to water.

It is wonderful that publishers are putting books back in print such as this one, or the Denali (Deception, etc.) triple reprint. In addition to this group we now have Washburn's brilliant images that say more in a few photos than Bryce did in 100 pages.

A fascinating study of an expedition gone to [junk], by the man who taught everyone else how to "tell it like it is".