Like a modern Viking 32-year-old Nansen set sail from Norway in 1893 to reach the North Pole. Experts warned him that his voyage was tantamount to suicide. Compact and nimble, his ship the Fram had been specially built to withstand the relentless, devastating pressure of the polar ice cap. At the right moment, he intended to strike out into the polar desert and finish the final leg by sledge.
Nansen's vivid memoir became an international phenomenon when, having been given up for dead, he emerged three years later. His epic struggle against snowdrifts, ice floes, polar bears, scurvy, gnawing hunger and the loneliness of the polar night would inspire young explorers such as Scott and Amundsen a generation later to make new conquests. This first unabridged edition since 1897 includes photographs not previously published.
By:
Fridtjof Nansen
Introduction by:
Fergus Fleming
Imprint: Gibson Square Books Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: 3rd Enhanced edition
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 20mm
Weight: 531g
ISBN: 9781783342457
ISBN 10: 1783342455
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 29 February 2024
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
The Route of the Fram and Nansen and Johansen's Sledge JourneyPreliminary-Sketch Map of Franz Joseph LandIntroduction by Fergus FlemingThe FramI. IntroductionII. Preparations and EquipmentIII. The StartIV. Farewell to NorwayV. Voyage Through the Kara SeaVI. The Winter NightVII. The Spring and Summer of 1894VIII. Second Autumn in the IceThe Sledge JourneyIX. We Prepare for the Sledge ExpeditionX. The New Year, 1895XI. We Make a StartXII. We Say Good-bye to the FramXIII. A Hard StruggleXIV. By Sledge and KayakXV. Land at LastXVI. The New Year, 1896XVII. The Journey SouthwardConclusion by Fridtjof NansenEndnotesList of Equipment Used for the Sledge Journey
Fridtjof Nansen was the very first Arctic explorer, scientist, Nobel Prize winner and celebrity who engineered the peaceful secession of Norway from Sweden. The daring adventure story in Farthest North was the spark of inspiration for the world-famous Arctic explorers who came after him - Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen among them.
Reviews for Farthest North: The Greatest Arctic Adventure Story
"'Nansen was the last of the Nordic gods... Tall, blond, and ridiculously handsome... The First Crossing Of Greenland is a... thrilling account of his earliest adventure... It was a hideous journey... Hair froze fast to headgear, beards solidified so that the lips could not be opened to speak... Polar exploration tends to attract more testosterone than talent... One man towers over the other ice-encrusted sledgers: Fridtjof Nansen, colossus of the glaciers... Of all the frozen beards... only Nansen communicated a sense of the true subjugation of the ego that endeavour can bring. Failure, he acknowledged, would mean ""only disappointed human hopes, nothing more"".' Sara Wheeler, Guardian 'Seminal... demythologised the polar environment and revolutionised modern polar travel with the introduction of skis.' Roland Huntford, The Times 'Nansen defied that conventional wisdom, which dictated explorers proceed from the known to the unknown to maintain a line of retreat, by sailing first to the largely uncharted eastern coast of Greenland.' Times Higher Education 'The visionary Norse explorer.' Jon Krakauer"
