"A few toes aren't much to give to achieve the Pole," observed Robert Peary, but as this gripping 400-year history of traveling across the polar ice cap shows, much more was at risk for the men who traversed the farthest latitudes. In addition to Peary's controversial triumph at the North Pole, here is the 14-year-old Horatio Nelson battling polar bears, the sinking of the Jeannette on George De Long's push farthest north, Fridtjof Nansen's astonishing survival for two years in the Arctic, and the ill-fated dirigible expedition of the Italia. Their stories and many others are told in the direct and moving plainness of the explorers' own words.
"Spellbinding.... Readers will find this book hard to put down."—Publishers Weekly
