Mawson's Will: The Greatest Polar Survival Story Ever Written (Paperback)

~ Lennard Bickel (Author), Sir Edmund Hillary (Foreword) "The tents were a thousand miles apart..." (more)
Key Phrases: main base party, broken snow bridge, cooker box, Aladdin's Cave, South Pole, Cape Adare (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

One of the Ten Best Books of Twentieth-Century Exploration -- The Explorer's Club

Product Description

Australian Sir Douglas Mawson chose not to go with Robert Scott to the South Pole in 1911, but instead set out on a less prestigious expedition to chart Antarctica's coastline. Mawson was not inexperienced - in 1908 he had led an important expedition to the South Magnetic Pole - but nothing could have prepared him for what happened on this trek. Mawson's task was to chart 1,500 miles of coastline and claim it for the British crown. Setting out in a party of three, he faced mountains, crevasse-filled glaciers, and 60-mile-per-hour winds. Six weeks and 320 miles out, one man fell into a crevasse, along with the tent, most equipment, and all but a week's supply of food. After losing his other companion and the dogs, Mawson fought his way back home alone through horrific wind, snow, and cold to leave his own mark in history.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Steerforth (February 4, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586420003
• ISBN-13: 978-1586420000
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #199,622 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #29 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Outdoor Recreation > Polar Regions
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Readable but Undistinguished Account, November 20, 2001

By	Rodney Meek (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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This slim volume details the plight of the Antarctic expedition of the Australian explorer Douglas Mawson in 1911. Seemingly few people are aware of this particular foray into the polar south, as the Scott tragedy looms largest in the public consciousness and there is a new vogue for the remarkable exploits of Ernest Shackleton in this same time frame. However, this is a story worth telling.

For those who are not obsessively interested in accounts of polar exploration, this books serves as a good introduction to the genre. It's almost novelistic in its easy yet vivid narrative flow, and unlike more encylopedic works, it avoids getting bogged down in excessive side treks about rival explorers or earlier achievements in the mapping and scouting of the continent.

Even so, it has a glaring weakness in its lack of footnotes or a bibliography. Bickel recounts entire conversations verbatim and even details the thoughts of several individuals, all without documenting the sources for such material. Since some of the quoted individuals died on the journey, one can only assume that the author is drawing from their expedition journals, and yet there is only a vague allusion to this in the afterword. More annoyingly, Bickel describes the immediate events preceding the death of one of the men from the point of view of the soon-to-be-deceased explorer, even though his two surviving comrades weren't even eyewitnesses to the moment of the tragedy. This gives rise to the suspicion that poetic license may have been somewhat abused in the composition of this book.

There are a number of photos of expedition members, their ship, and their camp. Sadly, no map is provided, making it difficult for the reader to follow Mawson's progress.

Bickel certainly does good work in shedding some light on this little known expedition, especially on the causes of the death of the second explorer. But the lack of notation of sources is a serious drawback.

28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the few honest accounts of polar exploration, April 5, 2000

By	Harvey M. Solomon (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews

I read this book when it was first published and was captivated by the heroic nature of Mawson's journey druing which both of his companions died.It is a remarkable tribute to a man of very unusual abilities. Unlike the Scott expeditions, which were of no significant scientific importance, Mawson was a trained geologist with an interest in locating the South Magnetic Pole and extablishing its geographic variation. He was also the first to establish communication by radio to Australia from Antarcticia via a relay station on Mcquery Island. Read this book to appreciate how a man driven to the extreme manages to survive under conditions which are almost impossible to believe. Ponder on his accomplishments compared to those of Scott and marvel at how the British managed to make a hero out of Scott, a villain of Amundsen and a foot note in polar history of Mawson. Amundsen is reported to have described Scott as one of the better sled dogs the British brought to Antarcticia. This was in part a response to the way his success was received by them. For those interested in the details of Mawson's Austrialian- New Zealand expedition, a reprint of his own book is now available. It makes interesting reading as well

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most memorable True-Life Book, May 17, 2003

By	Jimmy Neon (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

I first 'heard' Mawson's Will as it was read, unabridged, on PBS in 1979. I soon found the book and have read it repeatedly over the years. Mawson's Will, along with Niven's Known Space series of Sci.Fi. adventures might be all a soul would need if sealed up with only a few books to choose from.
The description of the soles of Mawson's feel as they separted from his body and had to be tied on with leather strips is something you'll never forget, remembering he was hundreds of miles from safety. He ate what he could find without knowing he was slowly poisoning himself with excess vitimin A with every bite. The author writes in a way that makes the story seem immediate and real.