Ninety Degrees North: The Quest for the North Pole - Hardcover

Fleming, Fergus

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1862074496 ISBN 13: 9781862074491

Publisher: Granta Books, 2001

Synopsis

The North Pole was a mystery in the mid-19th century, many explorers who ventured into its wastelands never returned. After another failed expedition in 1845, even more concerted efforts were made to reach the Northernmost point of the globe. Fleming relays these stories. Elisha Kane was a poor leader of his crew, Charles Hall died of a stroke after his men refused to obey his orders. Later, the obsessive Robert Peary even took his pregant wife with him in order to set the record for the most northerly birth in history. Fleming gives an insight into the disasters and triumphs of these explorations.

About this title

Review:

The 19th-century equivalent of the race to land man on the Moon was the search for the Arctic pole, a story recounted in Fergus Fleming's Ninety Degrees North: The Quest for the North Pole. The contest began with efforts to find Sir John Franklin, who had been lost searching for the Northwest passage, but soon became a hunt for the legendary "open polar sea" in which earnest Americans, methodical Brits, strong and silent Scandinavians and even a dashing Italian prince endured the ice for months (years in some cases) in the name of patriotism. In the end, as Fleming shows, there were no real winners, but merely disputes over whose navigational geometry was most authentic; the race became instead a competition for who could get there in the most original manner--be it with ironclad ships, balloons, skis, airships or motorbikes. Only in the last 40 years did it occur to the intrepid that two feet might be best. But unlike the with Antarctica, the real epic here was not the discovery of the North Pole, but outlasting the snows, floes and Eskimoes and returning with crew intact. This book isn't a patch on Francis Spufford's stylish and prizewinning I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination, but for bringing together the accounts of the best known of the Arctic adventurers, especially the Americans and the Swedes, Fleming is to be praised.--Miles Taylor

Review:

‘A great read for armchair adventurers’ -- Traveller Magazine

‘A vividly frostbitten account. The reading, in a warm room, is great fun’ -- The Independent

‘Fleming gives us a wonderful story, and tells it exceptionally well’ -- Guardian

‘Ninety Degrees North is travel history at its brilliant best' -- Irish Independent

‘This is the sort of book you want to read in front of a blazing fire. It is immensely enjoyable' -- Daily Telegraph

About this edition

• Publisher: Granta Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1862074496
• ISBN 13: 9781862074491
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400