The Ice Balloon
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- 7,49 €
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- 7,49 €
Publisher Description
In August 1930, a Norwegian sloop, sailing in the Arctic Ocean, stopped at a remote island, where its crew members foudn a book, together with a boathook stamped ‘Andree’s Pol. Exp 1896’. Not far from the boat was a body leaning against a rock, with its frozen legs extended. They carefully opened the jacket the corpse was wearing. When they saw a large monogram ‘A’, they knew who they were looking at: S. A. Andrée, the Swede who, in 1897, set off to discover the North Pole, one of the last unmapped places on earth.
The Ice Balloon is the story of the heroic ago of polar exploration, and the dream of conquering one of the most inhumane landscapes on earth. In this golden age of discovery, Andrée’s ambition was the most original and remarkable, with many comparing him to Columbus for novelty and daring. For, of the thousand or so people who had gone looking for the Pole, at least seven hundred and fifty of whom had died, only Andrée used a balloon.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A reporter for The New Yorker since 1980, Wilkinson (The Protest Singer) recounts Swede S. A. Andr e's failed 1897 bid for the North Pole via hydrogen balloon (dubbed rnen, or The Eagle) in this epic tale of adventure. Toward the end of the 19th century, global discovery was still a novelty, and though Andr e was one of many "thrill seekers romantics visionary dreamers," his mode of transport set him apart. Relying on Andr e's journal discovered by a Norwegian sloop in 1930 along with Andr e's remains on a remote Arctic island and extensive research, Wilkinson's anecdotal narrative is captivating, and he deftly conjures images of forbidding ice-white landscapes. A portrait not only of a man, but of an age, the book is packed with technological, geographic, cultural, and scientific tidbits. Andr e comes across as forward-thinking and cavalier, as well as disciplined and rational. However, Andr e's motives and reputation were, and still are, hotly debated was he, as Urban Wrakberg sought to disprove, an "isolated dreamer out of touch with the real polar science and technology of his period," or a pioneer and catalyst for more than a century of discovery? Regardless, Wilkinson's book is a thrilling account of a remarkable man and, in the words of Alexis Machuron a witness to Andr e and rnen's departure his daring exploration of "the sea, the ice-field and the Unknown!" Photos and maps.
