The Eight Sailing/Mountain-Exploration Books. Introduction by Colin Putt

Tilman, H. W. [Harold William]

ISBN 10: 0906371228 / ISBN 13: 9780906371220

Published by Diadem Books, London, 1987

About this Item

VG+/VG+. 8vo. original blue boards (several presentation inscrips. to FFE) in dustwrapper (a little rubbed, slightly loose fitting); pp. [iv], 956, with numerous illustrations. Heavy item (1.75 kg), additional postage may be required for international delivery. A very good copy. A compendium of Tilman's later polar exploration works, comprising 'Mischief in Patagonia' (1957), 'Mischief Among the Penguins' (1961), 'Mischief in Greenland' (1964), 'Mostly Mischief' (1966), 'Mischief Goes South' (1968), 'In Mischief's Wake' (1971), 'Ice With Everything' (1974) and 'Triumph and Tribulation' (1977).

Seller Inventory # 007651

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Eight Sailing/Mountain-Exploration Books. Introduction by Colin Putt
• Publisher: Diadem Books, London
• Publication Date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0906371228
• ISBN 13: 9780906371220
• Binding: Hard Cover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: VG+
• Dust Jacket Condition: VG+
• Seller catalogs:
  • Polar - Antarctica
  • Mountaineering - Greenland
  • Polar - Arctic Regions
  • Voyages and the Sea
  • Mountaineering - Patagonia

About this title

Synopsis

There is something in common between the arts of sailing and of climbing. Each is intimately concerned with elemental things, which from time to time demand from men who practice those arts whatever self-reliance, prudence and endurance they have. Born in 1898, Major Harold William Bill Tilman was one of the last great explorers of the 20th century, a renowned mountaineer and sailor who climbed in the Alps, Africa and the Himalaya and who circumnavigated Africa, crossed Patagonia and explored Antarctica in a sailing boat. He made an early attempt on Everest, circumnavigated South America and made the first recorded entrance into the Nanda Devi Sanctuary. Tilman was also a stylish and prolific writer whose books are popular and widely-read classics. This, the typically unequivocally-titled Eight Sailing/Mountain Exploration Books, deals with his later expeditions across the seas. When Tilman bought the pilot cutter Mischief in 1954, it was not in retirement from mountaineering but with a mind to search the oceans for new and remote peaks. Over the next 22 years, Mischief, and her successors visited vast swathes of distant waters as Tilman developed a whole new technique of amphibious mountaineering. The eight books collected here are humorous, learned, and devastatingly candid. They recount voyages to the Southern Oceans to Patagonia and the Southern Shetlands; to Greenland and into the Arctic Circle and his crossing of the Patagonian Ice Cap. Not all of Tilman s voyages were successful or enjoyable. A man was lost at sea, cherished ships where abandoned and crew members, unable to match Tilman s persistence, deserted or mutinied. Luckily, most of his crews where made of sterner stuff and were rewarded with good fellowship and humour, an extensive education in climbing and mountaineering and uncomparable adventures in a little, old and unstrengthened ship on rough waters and heavy ice. Tilman was still exploring at the age of 80 when he disappeared at sea after an entire life of adventure.

About the Author

Harold William ‘Bill’ Tilman (1898–1977) was among the greatest adventurers of his time, a pioneering mountaineer and sailor who held exploration above all else. Tilman joined the army at seventeen and was twice awarded the Military Cross for bravery during WWI. After the war Tilman left for Africa, establishing himself as a coffee grower. He met Eric Shipton and began their famed mountaineering partnership, traversing Mount Kenya and climbing Kilimanjaro. Turning to the Himalaya, Tilman went on two Mount Everest expeditions, reaching 27,000 feet without oxygen in 1938. In 1936 he made the first ascent of Nanda Devi – the highest mountain climbed until 1950. He was the first European to climb in the remote Assam Himalaya, he delved into Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor and he explored extensively in Nepal, all the while developing a mountaineering style characterised by its simplicity and emphasis on exploration. It was perhaps logical then that Tilman would eventually buy the pilot cutter Mischief – not with the intention of retiring from travelling, but to access remote mountains. For twenty-two years Tilman sailedMischief and her successors to Patagonia, where he crossed the vast ice cap, and to Baffin Island to make the first ascent of Mount Raleigh. He made trips to Greenland, Spitsbergen and the South Shetlands, before disappearing in the South Atlantic Ocean in 1977.