Great Exploration Hoaxes (Modern Library) - Softcover

Roberts, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0679783245 ISBN 13: 9780679783244

Publisher: Random House Inc, 2001

Synopsis

An investigation of ten famous exploration hoaxes ranges from Sebastian Cabot's disputed North American voyage of 1508-09 to Donald Crowhurst's desperate, suicidal bid to win the single-handed sailboat circumnavigation race in 1968. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

Walter Bonatti was born in Bergamo, Italy, in 1930. A well-known photographer and author, he received the Legion d’Honneur in 1961 for his heroic rescue of two fellow climbers on an expedition on which four other perished. He lives in Italy.

From the Inside Flap

ach the North Pole? Was Admiral Byrd the first to fly over it? Did Frederick Cook actually make the first ascent of Mt. McKinley? Spanning 450 years of history, Great Exploration Hoaxes tells the spellbinding stories of ten men who pursued glory at any cost even the truth. Acclaimed author and explorer David Roberts delves deeply into the psychology behind the stunt and asks why these individuals, all of whom were exceptionally able, would perpetrate fraud on such a grand and public scale and defend it to their deaths, even in the face of damning evidence, and why these dubious achievements are still so hotly debated, often hundreds of years afterward.

Demonstrating that the qualities that brought an individual so close to his goal were often the same ones that drove him to fake success, Great Exploration Hoaxes is history at its best: entertaining, provocative, and revealing of human nature.

David Roberts is the author of thirteen books, the most recent of which are A Newer

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House Inc
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0679783245
• ISBN 13: 9780679783244
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256