Reviews (3)

One to add to a "Crockett" Library
Penned during the ORIGINAL Crockett "craze" of the 1830's, this is the Tennessean's own story in his "own" words. (Much of this book was heavy edited and, some would say, ghost written by one of Crockett's supporters.) Still, it's worth adding to a "Crockett" Library. Parts of the book have an almost "Dickens" like feel, especially the stories about the poverty and hardship suffered by the young David. Sprinkled through-out this book are hunting stories, scrapes with bears and panthers, a little romance, skirmishes with hostiles, frontier wit and humor. An annoying part of the narrative are the corny pseudo backwoods expressions, like "burst my boilers" and "knocked his trotters out from under him". Evidently the author(s) tired of this excessive hoakum too because it abruptly stops. (Thank You!) Much has been written about the legendary "Davy" but this brings the real man into more perspective. Even if you have little interest in Crockett lore, the NARRATIVE is still worth reading for it's glimpse into early 19th Century America.

David Crockett, a review
It is a great book, a real whopper. And I'll be skinned alive and burned by an injun if it aint one of the moost enthralling books I've read. Colonel Crockett didn't have the greatest spelling, or punctuation, but it was a great book. In the 1830's, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a review of the book, criticizing its grammar, but what he forgot to say was how it was exciting, and easy to read. At the time, it was the bestselling book in the nation.

COURAGE
I HAVE JUST FINISHED READING THE NARRATIVE OF DAVID CROCKETT FOR AN AMERICAN HISTORY CLASS AND HAVE TO DO A SHORT THREE PAGE PAPER ON THE BOOK. I WAS HOPING TO GET SOME IDEAS ON THE INTERNET TO HELP OUT WITH THE PAPER, AND SAW THIS LINK. THE BOOK WAS GREAT, EASY READING, AND INTERESTING TO THE READER, MYSELF. HOPE YOU ALL ENJOYED IT AS WELL AS I DID! ... Read more

Reviews (5)

As remarquable as offending
What a life! Tom Harrisson is hardly a household name in the US but he was one of those rather well-connected and well-educated British misfits who turned their lack of enthusiasm for the British Isles into a grand adventure. He served the waning empire both as a military man and as a civil servant. The high point of his military doings is the guerrilla war against the Japanese that he organized and fought in Borneo with the local population. That part of his life alone deserves a movie.

After the war he went back to his long standing interests in botany, zoology and ethnography, keeping at some point turtles in his bathroom as part of a study of their migratory habits. All through his life there was much womanizing,boozing and boasting. The latter two mainly got him the reputation that the title of the book refers to. But there was also much serious scholarly work and real concern for the local population he worked closely with. The work produced several publications and a couple of documentary movies.

As Judith Heimann, who knew Harrisson personally and researched his life for about 10 years, tells the story, his contributions to ethnography have been underrated because of his unorthodox methods and his knack for making enemies. Of course, without that approach he would be a much less interesting character and a less engaging writer: after having read this book, one is actually curious about reading Harrisson's own books.

However, don't skip this biography. It is a great read: carefully researched, well-written and not over-interpreted as so may biographies tend to be these days.

An amazing life, an excellent book!
Tom Harrisson did more different things in his life than any human being should be allowed to, and did them all outstandingly. And Judith Heimann does a remarkable job of following across continents and professions as he goes from one amazing adventure to the next. He was a war hero, an anthropologist, a naturalist, a pollster and much else. He was also a very difficult person who alienated many people, left a trail of broken hearts, and sorely neglected his children. But he was one of the most colorful and memorable men of his generation, and Heimann's terrific research and fine writing takes you along for an astounding ride. Once you've met Tom, you won't forget him.

the Most Offending Soul Alive
If the purpose of a book is to inform, entertain and delight - Ms. Heimann's book rates A+. Tom Harrisson must have been one of the most gifted persons of the 20th Century. His contributions in many fields of science were incredible. In his early 20's he became a veteran of scientific expeditions to the Arctic and Borneo with oustanding treatises on ornithology to his credit. His scientific pursuits only began there. He provided basic work, inter alia, in sociology, anthropology, ethnology as well as market research and documentary filmmaking! He was too brilliant for formal training and avoided it all his life to the chagrin and jealousy of many with degrees.

An outstanding leader in WWII, he formed a small army of headhunters with deadly blowguns to drive the Japanese from the jungles of Borneo. This he did with a handful of losses while inflicting casualties in the thousands on the Japanese. Harrisson was no diplomat and often seemed to enjoy rubbing people the wrong way. Although his enemies were legion, he had a way with women. The book's title provides the kernel of his story. From Henry V, the full quotation is:

But if it be a sin to covet honor, I am the most offending soul alive.

This book demands reading.

Harrison lives!
It seems impossible to imagine capturing the full and complex life of this man in book form but Heimann has done so - carrying out Harrrison's own plan for his autobiography. He had intended to be to be "self-pitiless", and this accountspares us no 'warts'- but what fascinating warts! I am convinced that he would have been profoundly grateful to the author for this recording of his life. Only when fairly measured against the flaws of character and errors of judgment can we fully appreciate his amazingly varied contributions to human knowledge (on human behavior as well as that of birds,orangutans, turtles...) He said of himself that his greatest task was to keep up with himself but he gave it a gallant try, writing as much as 8000 words a day on a wide variety of subjects. One of his better known exploits was the creation of a team which discreetly observed the British public during WW II, getting a feel for the people's frame of mind, in ways that make today's polls look slapdash and superficial.

Heimann makes it clear why Harrisson was more comfortable during his many years in Borneo (among other difficult travels) than he was back 'home' in England, happier in the long houses with the various tribes he came to know and love, getting drunk with them and carousing with their women. His beloved tribesmen later gathered to help rid the Island of the Japanese near the end of the war (some using their blow pipes).

The knowledge he acquired was never fully accepted by the academic community, due to his lack of formal training, but as Heiman points out, he contributed more to our knowledge of both anthropology and archaeology of Sarawak, where he was a museum curator among other things, than was garnered by specialists in either field in other areas of Southeast Asia. Throw in ornithology - his first love as a student - always a strong interest....and protection of orangutans, and green sea turtles.

Harrisson had incredible energy, and an amazing lack of requirements for personal comfort, suffering every imaginable discomfort and disease, walking miles through jungle, climbing mountains at a brisk pace, and expecting the same from his behind-the-lines soldiers in the interior of Borneo during the war. He would eat anything, without complaint - had good survival skills! But in what is referred to as polite sociey he often behaved outrageously, being rude, picking fights and in fact being "the most offending soul alive." He had a dreadful talent for offending people who were later able to get back at him and cause a great deal of harm.

This review could go on and on - buy the book! I am simply amazed at the amount of research that Ms. Heimann has done; there is no stone unturned, yet all this is laid out for us with no unwelcome suppositions on her part - he left plenty of traces without having to invent them - rather one feels led along by someone with a wise and balanced understanding of her subject. Some books about extraordinary people leave disappointing, pale images - the reader longs for a quick glimpse of the real McCoy. Heimann has been able to bring us Tom Harrisson alive and kicking, even while including the immense amount of details that needed to be sorted through and pulled together to describe his life. Bravo!

An engrossing read
This is an engrossing read from the first page on. The reader will envy the true adventures of this , eccentric Englishman, who quit Cambridge College as "too boring" and went on to carve out a most unusual and useful life in the wilds of Southeast Asia. A tue hippie, he enjoyed strange bedfellows and outraged bourgeois society. It's not a MUST read, but you will be glad you did. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (7)

The land owns us...
Not the other way around. This was the greatest theme I took away from Adam Nicolson's "Sea Room," the story of the three tiny, uninhabited Shiant (say "Shant") Islands in the Hebrides of Scotland, which Nicholson inherited from his father (the famed author Nigel Nicolson, the son of Vita Sackville-West).

Nicolson's approach to describing the islands for his readers resembles John McPhee's: it's an engaging blend of natural history (how were the islands formed?), human history (who lived here and why?), archaeology, and ecology (how do the animals and plants of the Shiants form a whole world?). The difference is that Nicolson's passion for place is quite specific: he loves the Shiants like one loves one's parents, infinitely and irreplaceably. You can't imagine him running off and writing a second book about another place.

Nicolson's prose is lyric and detailed at the same time; despite the length (350 pages and more), the story never flags. At the end of the book, Nicholson defends his continued private ownership of the islands (many feel they should be a public trust); I wasn't convinced, but I respected his strong urge to transmit his love of the place to his son and future generations of his family.

By the way, Nicholson publicly offers the keys to his cottage to anyone desiring to stay there (his e-mail address is in the book); but consider first that rats seem now to be part of the natural ecology of the place. But perhaps that won't phase you (it doesn't phase Nicholson a bit!).

a whole lot about little islands
This is kind of a scattershot book, but interesting and fun to read for all that. Mr. Nicolson is the aristocrat-author owner of the Shiant (pronounced 'shant') Islands in the inner part of the Outer Hebrides, and he wrote the book as a 'love letter' to them. In it he takes up geology, archaeology, history, genealogy, biology, ecology and ornithology, and also considers boat building, shepherding, fishing, folklore and the tragedy of the commons, all in an effort to explain and share his love for the islands; which task, in the end, he manages pretty well.

The book is roughly structured around a year in the life of the Shiants, but Nicolson doesn't let this stop him from ranging wherever his desire leads; which means that while it isn't exactly a page-turner when looked at as a whole, each section is entirely coherent and quite compelling, and the overall structure means they flow into one another reasonably enough. The biggest portion of the book is given over to archaeology, shading into speculative (in the good sense, as practiced by Farley Mowat) history. Nicolson a exhibits strong desire to recreate for his readers the lives of his islands' earlier inhabitants, which also leads him to examine more recent history. Here and there he leans towards overly romanticizing the lives of the islanders, but on the whole he does a wonderful job of conveying the realities of their existence: most strikingly in his account of Campbell family, who lived on the Shiants in the mid-19th century. He also throws in a fair amount of what might be called tangential information--his description of shepherding on the islands and his scale of the edibility of birds eggs were particularly good--which together combines to create a fair picture of the islands; or, at least, the islands as he sees them.

Obviously, the islands themselves are the common theme holding the book together. But also present throughout the whole account, from a derogative cartoon about him that Nicolson includes in the first chapter to his closing ruminations about passing the islands on to his son, is the question of what it means to own the islands, and indeed to own land in general. Nicolson approaches the question on two levels: on the first, he quotes a drunken pub patron who once told him that his shepherd tenants are the Shiants' real owners, and on the second he includes a letter from Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which tried to obtain the islands as a public trust in the '70s. The last chapter of the book includes Nicolson's account of an ongoing discussion about what right he has to the islands and whether they ought to be public property. Nicolson is far from a stereotypical grasping absentee landlord, and in fact he rather agrees with his drunken accuser. He's not convinced, though, that public ownership would be any better for the islands: he feels that 'protecting' them would actually end up attracting more visitors, while at the same time tying management of the islands with layers of needless complication.

And to his credit, Nicolson ends the book with an actual invitation to visit the islands: if you email him, he writes, he'll give you the keys to the cottage. What public trust could provide that? How the scheme will work under his son, who gets the islands in 2005, and under any potential increased pressure from visitors, is open to question; but Nicolson does a good job explaining his position, and the question of ownership provides a tension and center to the book that would otherwise be lacking. A wander-full book
Nicolson's style is so natural that I swear I hear his voice as I read. Sea Room is filled with emotion as well as science, both equally detailed, and it is never, ever dull. The author has done considerable research in developing this book - in detail it reminds me of a John McPhee book but with one big difference: Nicolson's passion for the subject jumps from the page. Sea Room is an exceptional mix of science and emotion.

Adam Nicolson will take you on such an intimate tour of these islands that should you ever find yourself there you'll know where to find the fresh water springs, where 7th-century Christians worshipped and which cliffs are crumbling!

I love roaming over open land, down creek beds and up hillsides and this book gives me that sense of freedom and wonder. If John Muir could have written like this about the land he loved so much the entire west half of the US would be a National Park.

Sea Room is a wonderful, wander full book. Buy it.

A virtual vicarious visit.
I feared that I would never manage my dream of living in a remote part of the Outer Hebrides, and then there was "Sea Room." With warmth and tremendous art, Adam Nicolson conveys every sight, every sound, every feeling, and provides facts and insights into every conceivable aspect of this estimable ancient place. His exceptional sensiblilties and his evident passion for full knowledge have led him to tell us not only about the Shiants, but also about ship building (past and present), sailing and seafaring, Gaelic as well as Norse languages, with plenty of legends, folk lore, music and poetry, geology, ornithology - he never stops, never holds back. And the best part is, it feels like reading a long, delightful letter from you dearest friend.

At Scotland's edge amidst wind and waterscapes
"She wanted to leave. She was unable to see the point in being out on a shelterless rock in a meaningless sea, under a muffled grey sky, where there are no loos and no baths, where there is not even a little copse or spinney in which one can sit down and read, where the house itself is little better than a shed, where the wind blows and blows and where your husband is for some reason obsessed with every fact and detail of this godforsaken nowhere."

Such is the enthusiasm for the Shiant Isles exhibited by the wife of Adam Nicolson, author of SEA ROOM. Adam is owner of these roughly six hundred acres distributed over three wave and wind ravaged islands in the Minch, that stretch of ocean lying between the Scottish island of Skye and the Outer Hebrides. Adam had inherited them from his father, who purchased them in 1937.

The author does indeed examine every fact and detail that can be known or surmised about this edge on civilization's margin: the art of getting there by small boat, the migratory bird life, its human history as revealed by archeology and public records, its geology, its successive native industries over the centuries (farming, fishing, kelping, sheepherding), and its weather. Occasionally, there's unintended humor, as when he describes the labors involved in transferring some cattle off the island by coastal steamer:

"The men waited below (the steamer) in the dinghy as the poor beast was lifted by its horns high into the air, bellowing at the indignity and with fear. Just as the animal was high above the gunwale, the men in the dinghy guiding it in by the tail, the bullock emptied the entire contents of its four stomachs over the men below. That was the last time any cattle were seen on the Shiants." Or, when he describes the equally valiant efforts of the rams (tups) sent to the islands to impregnate the resident ewes:

"The tups are put on in November, about eight or nine of them for the three hundred-odd ewes, and are taken off in February, knackered (exhausted)." Yes, well, that's the plight of us males everywhere regardless of species. It's a tough and thankless but necessary job.

Most of SEA ROOM is a sober narrative about ordinary life on, and the ecosystem of, the Shiants - ordinary with a capital "O". After all, through the centuries no more than perhaps thirty people have called the islands home at any one time. It was never the site of a great city, or the center of an empire, or the scene of heroic accomplishment beyond just making a life in a remote and inhospitable place. Indeed, the Shiants have lacked permanent human residents for the past hundred years. Thus, while Nicolson's magnificent prose makes the story reasonably interesting, it wasn't enough to earn more than four stars in my opinion ... that is, until the concluding chapter. It's because of these last pages, a heartfelt and poignant manifesto of the author's great and consuming love for this far-flung spot, a legacy for his son Tom, that I finally awarded five stars for the whole.

"I was left alone in the silence, with the pale sun on my face, and, as the dogs nosed for nothing in the grasses, I started to fall asleep there to the long, asthmatic rhythm of the surf. The islands embraced and enveloped me. Twenty yards to my left the Viking was asleep in his grave ..." ... Read more

Book Description

Pierre Berton-Canada's most celebrated historian-has earned more than thirty literary awards for his distinguished body of work, and in Prisoners of the North he offers the reader a multitude of magnificent exploits and dazzling personalities. Witness John Hornby risks death as if for amusement as he pursues his obsessive quest for adventure in the Barren Grounds. Watch the poet Robert Service earn the fortune he so craves-and the fame he so reviles. Judge the veracity of Vilhjalmur Stefansson's claim to discover a tribe of "Blond Eskimos"-and see the international controversy that ensues. Meet Joe Boyle, the wealthy gold prospector whose military valor in the Great War earned him the admiration of Trotsky-and the love of the Romanian queen. Join Lady Jane Franklin on her transcontinental journey in search of her lost husband, the famed explorer Sir John, who never traveled so widely, or so bravely, as his indefatigable wife. These are Pierre Berton's prisoners, whose compelling and unusual stories he weaves together with unparalleled skill. Evocative, thrilling, and deeply original, Prisoners of the North is as daring and uncommon as its exceptional title characters. ... Read more

Book Description

The exciting biography of John Lloyd Stephens, "the father of American archaeology."

In his extraordinary journeys to the Yucatan and Central America more than 150 years ago, John Lloyd Stephens uncovered the ruins of an entire culture-- at that time, a civilization without a name or documented history. His books, including "Incidents of Travel in Yucatan", yielded the first glimpses of such wondrous ancient centers as Copan, Chichen Itza, Palenque, and Tulum.

Also a lawyer, diplomat, and builder of a railroad across Panama, Stephens was a true adventurer whose exploits had been all but forgotten until Victor von Hagen published this compelling biography in 1948. His narrative is enriched with Stephen's own accounts of his discoveries and the superb illustrations of Frederick Catherwood, the artist who traveled with Stephens. ... Read more

Book Description

The strange, exhilarating, and haunting story of the man who broke the world record for manned balloon altitude.

Locked in a desperate Cold War race against the Soviets to find out if humans could survive in space and live through a free fall from space vehicles, the Pentagon gave civilian adventurer Nick Piantanida's Project Strato-Jump little notice until May Day, 1966. Operating in the shadows of well-funded, high-visibility Air Force and Navy projects, the former truck driver and pet store owner set a new world record for manned balloon altitude. Rising more than 23 miles over the South Dakota prairie, Piantanida nearly perished trying to set the world record for the highest free fall parachute jump from that height. On his next attempt, he would not be so lucky.

In the spirit of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, Magnificent Failure portrays a loner driven to test himself. The story recalls a by-gone era when men tested the limits of mortality armed only with an indomitable spirit, ingenuity, and (some say) sheer lunacy. Part harrowing adventure story, part space history, part psychological portrait of an extraordinary risk-taker, this story fascinates and intrigues the armchair adventurer in all of us. 22 b/w photographs, 3 b/w illustrations. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

A Man and his Dream, and a Debacle
On the morning of February 2, 1966, a gigantic weather balloon rose from the South Dakota prairie and soared straight into the Stratosphere. In the small aluminum gondola beneath the massive helium filled envelope, parachutist Nick Piantanida prepared to set a world's record. At 120,000 feet, he would jump out of the gondola, free fall for tens of thousands of feet - reaching a speed perhaps greater than Mach 1.0 in the process - and then glide to safety beneath a modified Para-Commander.

It wasn't meant to be. When he reached jump altitude, a horrified Piantanida discovered the quick-release on his oxygen hose had hopelessly jammed. He had no choice but to cut the gondola loose, and fall back to earth with the aid of its cargo parachute. Three months later he would make another attempt. Unfortunately for this brave and dauntless American, that jump would end in disaster, and cost him his life.

Author Craig Ryan, whose fascinating chronicle of military balloon flights and parachute tests The Pre-Astronauts briefly described Piantanida's Project Strato-Jump, revisits the topic in great detail in Magnificent Failure. While Strato-Jump has sometimes been denigrated as a haphazard effort undertaken by an amateur, Ryan makes clear that characterization is far from the truth. Piantanida was an extremely experienced parachutist, and a cadre of professionals from the civilian, contractor, and military world supported his effort. In reality, Strato-Jump was one of the boldest civilian efforts of its era, and it might well have succeeded had not the disconnect fitting jammed.

Where Piantanida's final, fatal flight is concerned, Ryan presents a great deal of new information and develops a credible scenario concerning what went awry. For years, this topic has been the subject of speculation and rumor. It is now clear that Piantanida was doomed from the moment he took off.

Yet while it does chronicle a debacle, Magnificent Failure is not merely a somber record of a botched endeavor. Rather, it is an entertaining and readable portrait of a larger-than-life figure who dreamed of glory and worked terrifically hard and against all odds to obtain it. Thanks to Ryan's research effort, technical insight, and journalism skills, the book is remarkably insightful, full of detail and pulse-pounding drama. In an era when civilian teams are once again striving to reach not just the upper atmosphere but space itself -- the X-Prize contenders come to mind -- Magnificent Failure delivers a message of inspiration, while at the same time reminding us that glory sometimes eludes even the bravest of men.

Correction to A Brother's Review
I am Vern Piantanida, Nick Piantanida's brother. I already submitted a review for the book. I did this using my son-in-law's system so it picked up my review as being from him - James Keenan. Of course, this caused confusion as people think James is another brother to Nick. Nick had only one sibling - me. Sorry for the confusion.

I jumped with and photographed Nick Piantanida in Free Fall.
As the manager of the Lakewood Parachuting Center in the 1960's I met and jumped with Nick from his first jump on. Craig Ryan understood what we were doing back then and wrote a wonderful story about what really happened.

A Brother's Opinion
Craig Ryan accurately captures the type of person my brother was. Criag Ryan's research for this book was extensive and the result is truthful.

Magnificent Failure is a magnificent book
Twice in the narrative, Ryan quotes people close to Nick Piantanida as saying, "I don't think anyone ever really got to know Nick," but if anyone has gotten to know the essence of Nick Piantanida, it is Ryan himself. Nick is alive in the pages of Magnificent Failure. The scope of Piantanida's aspirations is stunning. The scope of his accomplishments is inspirational. The scope of his confidence is heroic and in the end tragic. "Magnificient Failure" is an excellent biography of a man well worth getting to know. ... Read more

Book Description

Many books have been written about the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, but Thomas E. Devine is the only eyewitness to write about the subject. With Our Own Eyes presents the never-before-published eyewitness testimony of more than two dozen former GIs who support and corroborate Devine's account establishing Earhart's presence and death on Saipan following her last flight on July 2, 1937.

During the invasion of Saipan in 1944, Thomas Devine was a sergeant in the not-yet-activated 244th Army Postal Unit. Soon after arrival, Devine encountered a group of enlisted Marines at Aslito Field guarding a hangar containing Earhart's Electra. Devine's examination of the Electra and the many statements, reports and letters by others on Saipan at that time weave together the facts missing from other books. Campbell makes a convincing argument and sheds more light on Devine's personal experience and subsequent corroborating testimony from ex-GIs on World War II Saipan. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Alex V. Mandel
I am interested in Amelia Earhart and her disappearance mystery for 21 years. I have read this book and my impression is very positive.
During decades there were a lot of books, articles etc. written about this subject (Earhart's disappearance), but alas too frequently they were overflooded by rumors, baseless guesses, stretches and speculations without any firm factual support.
The Mike Campbell's book is principally different. It is based on firm first-hand evidence from many independent sources, whose credibility gives no food for doubts - there are former US Soldiers, who really were on the place of events and saw what they saw.
The book is free of guesses and speculations - authors doesn't builds some "versions" or "theories" but just presents the data obtained by them during many years from many independent sources, with extensive details, and the book includes many written reports and official documents.
As result the book gives a very complete and convincing picture about What Happened with Amelia Earhart. The book is written with clear accuracy and respect to facts and to the "subject" of the book - the great heroine of 20th century and US history, whose name alas was already too frequently used for unfair speculations of any sorts. Mike Campbell's book makes an extremely good job for to correct this sad error.
I would highly recommend this book for anybody interested in this great mystery.
Alex V.Mandel ... Read more

Book Description

Lawrence of Arabia, as adviser to Prince Feisal, led camel-riding Bedouin in a guerrilla war against Turkey from Arabia to Damascus. The great British hero of World War I, he helped Winston Churchill draw the map of the modern Middle East, creating Jordan and making Feisal king of Iraq. Then, in 1922, he shed the rank of colonel and his name to serve as a private in the Royal Air Force until shortly before his death in 1935 at age 46. Lawrence has been characterized as a man with extraordinary powers and as an imposter who manufactured his own legend.

This careful study, based on virtually all published and unpublished English-language sources, sides neither with Lawrence’s eulogists nor with his denigrators. Presenting a fair, balanced picture of his life, it shows the lifelong continuity of his puzzling conduct: the often needless deviousness that troubled even close friends; the self-hatred and savage masochism that cursed his adult years. ... Read more

Book Description

John Goddard, a career explorer and adventurer, experienced many thrilling close calls with death during his adventurous life. As told in one of the most memorable stories in the original Chicken Soul for the Soul, when he was a boy, John Goddard made a list of 127 things he would like to do in his life, from living with pygmies in Africa and headhunters in Borneo to exploring the world's greatest rivers and highest peaks.

The Survivor captures some of these adventures as it follows his experiences from boyhood, through his teen years and into adulthood. Each individual adventure is sure to thrill readers-from the exquisite details of exotic locales, to the raw power of Pacific storms, to the hair-raising brushes with death-always emphasizing the danger and exhilaration intrinsic to the adventurous life. Unique to this book, though, is the author's reverence for life and all living things, his honesty in admitting his own recklessness, his awe and gratitude to the supreme force that miraculously allowed him to survive each of these close calls with death, and his ability to use his experiences and the lessons he learned to set and achieve clear, meaningful goals. This great read will entertain and inspire people to live their dreams.

Reviews (2)

Amazing Stories
This book is a must-have. Buy it for yourself and your kids. Relive some of the most thrilling REAL LIFE adventures ever. John Goddard's life is like a hollywood movie.

Awful..
Sounded like a great story..I even used Goddard's list once for an inspirational piece for school. Halfway through the book, I realize that this poorly written book is a compilation of highfalutin chest thumping 'near-death experiences' (and I was not overly impressed with the attacking deer - luckily his pet terrier saved Goddard). If you are interested in real adventure, read about Shackleton, Krakauer or Simpson. Don't waste your money on this book ... Read more

Download Description

In the mid-1800's Russell joined an expedition headed through the Rocky Mountains. Along the way he acquired the skills necessary for survival in the mountains, and kept a journal that forms the basis of this vigorously authentic book. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Journal of a Trapper
This is by far one of the best books that a fur trade re-enactor can read. It is also a must read for the modern beaver trapper as well. Osborne describes the everyday events of the fur brigades in their heyday. If you are a buckskinner, living historian, trapper or just an old west history buff then this is a MUST have!

An interesting book.
The trapper's journal by Osbourne Russell during the early to mid 18 hundreds came as a bit of a surprise. First the book is a factual account without any explication of the events more than is necessary. It is not told as an adventure story eg "Last of the Mohicans" but rather as a journal pure and simple of the travels through the Rockies, mainly Yellowstone, of this young trapper over 9 years in the pay and as a member of Jim Bridger's fur company, around 100 men. The trade was at its peak at this time. As is true of most journals it is full of abbreviations of words because of time constraints eg brot. for brought, staid for stayed etc. This gives the impression of crudity in the writing, or of a man not used to writing but rather writing in only a haphazard fashion. Every reader knows how easy it is to loose all the fine points of writing when it is not practised constantly. The journal is full of place names and directions of travel and a few maps indicating the progress of the trappers. There is some description of the scenery and the Indians of the area eg Blackfoot which are a constant threat, Shoshones (Snake), Bonnack and Crow. Occasionaly I was pleasantly surprised by paragraphs of eloquence and beauty mixed in with the simplistic writing which was the norm. Russell was capable of very good writing when he was inspired or wished to do so. This is also demonstrated by his letters to his sisters which are written with great style and few grammatical errors, completely unlike his journals.

There is much which comes to the fore in regard to the period eg the waste and destruction as the parties of trappers even in groups as small as 3 wonder the countryside and simply kill a Bison Cow for a meal and then discard it, or just take the tongue to eat. Incredible disregard for nature is shown at times. The trapper is in continual fear of Blackfoot war parties who harrass them, both white and Indian, constantly. In one instance an enormous group of Blackfeet, thought to number up to 1000 or more by Russell, attempt to eradicate the entire group of Bridger's trappers, about 100. They decide not to due to an unfavourable (omen) display of Northern lights. Even in his day as the story nears the end of the 9 years Russell tells of the scarcity of Buffalo which were not wiped out in total until 1870 or so (80 million -> 1000). Its almost as if it comes upon them suddenly, "5 years ago thousands crossed the valleys of the Yellowstone, now its hard to find any". Russell even becomes a little conservationist in spirit when he states that maybe its time for the white man to leave this country because the wildlife has been so denuded.

An interesting book but with far too few passages describing the trapper's feeling along the way.

Exciting and extraordinary....
A remarkable firsthand account of how it was back in the 1830's to early 1840's to be a fur trapper/trader in the Rocky Mountains. Russell lived it and told it like it was back then. One of few mountain men to keep a journal. I like how he gets quite descriptive in the day to day adventures and activities that he had to do for survival. An excellent book.

A National Treasure
Those are bold words for the title of a review, but they are aptly deserved here with Mr. Russell's gift to our American Heritage. A first-person account of experiences in a era long gone, a time in our history seeking to fathom a new land, a time of growing clash between fundamentally different cultures... and Mr. Russell puts you right there on the frontline. You join him at the beginning of his new livelihood in the unknown, and you stay with him, growing in experience and weathering within the raw western realm. The writing is often crude, but his thoughts are hardly so and the total package bursts forth as a true rarity in literature. I consider this journal to be an equal to the recordings of Lewis and Clark, and practically moreso given the fact that it is really the efforts of a lone individual. He was not paid to keep this record, and although he always hoped to see it published, it did not go to print until long after his death, and then only first released in a limit of 100 copies. Aubrey Haines does great tribute to this admirable man by undertaking the task of retracing Mr. Russell's journies and providing us with the maps needed to help us follow him. Working from the original handwritten manuscript housed in The William Robertson Coe Collection of Western Americana at Yale University, Mr. Haines' efforts represent the single most important element in getting this work to the people, and he has done us a great service here in preventing this journal from drifting into obscurity. If you are curious as to what a life was like in a land before McDonalds, MTV, shopping malls, and SuperBowl Sundays, then I suggest you pick up a copy of this jewel and park yourself along with Mr. Russell next to that campfire with its golden sparks wafting up toward that diamond-studded yonder. You will be all the better for it.

Great book
I was in high school growing up on the Snake river Plain in Idaho when I read this book. I had to take a summer school course on Idaho history and this was our text, we spent the summer reading this book and then traveling to many of the locations in it and experiencing first hand the sights and sounds of the story. It was a great experiance and it has stayed with me ever since. If you live in this area or are just interested in this kind of story I highly reccomend this book. ... Read more

Book Description

With No Man's River, Farley Mowat has penned his best Arctic tale in years. This book chronicles his life among Metis trappers and native people as they struggle to eke out a living in a brutal environment. In the spring of 1947, putting the death and devastation of WWII behind him, Mowat joined a scientific expedition. In the remote reaches of Manitoba, he witnessed an Eskimo population ravaged by starvation and disease brought about by the white man. In his efforts to provide the natives with some of the assistance that the government failed to provide, Mowat set out on an arduous journey that collided with one of nature's most arresting phenomena-the migration of the Arctic's caribou herds. Mowat was based at Windy Post with a Metis trapper and two Ihalmiut children. A young girl, known as Rita, is painted with special vividness-checking the trap lines with the men, riding atop a sled, smoking a tiny pipe. Farley returns to the North two decades later and discovers the tragic fate that befell her. Combining his exquisite portraits with awe-inspiring passages on the power of nature, No Man's River is another riveting memoir from one of North America's most beloved writers. ... Read more

Book Description

When, as a young man in the 1880s, Benjamin Lundy signed up for unimaginably hard duty aboard a square-rigged commercial sailing vessel -- one destined for a treacherous, white-knuckle passage round that notorious "graveyard of ships," Cape Horn -- he had no idea that his experience would also provide a window into an epochal transition that would fundamentally change a man's relation to the sea.

The Way of a Ship is a mesmerizing account of Benjamin's life on board the square-rigger Beara Head. It evokes both the romance and brutality of that bygone era and illuminates the history of square-rigger seamen and the last days of the "beautiful, widow-making, deep-sea" sailing ships. Derek Lundy's masterful account of his forebear's journey reminds readers what Melville and Conrad expressed so well: that the sea voyage is an overarching metaphor for life itself.

Read by Richard Easton.

Reviews (4)

the way of a ship
i didnt even get through the prologue when i found a poorly researched item,very jarring.then later on i find another .it kind of makes you wonder how well mr lundy does his research.

Fictional narrative with a focus on seamanship
The Way Of A Ship: A Square-rigger Voyage In The Last Days Of Sail recreates a sea voyage on one of the last merchant sailing ships near the close of the 19th century, and provides a satisfying blend of historical reconstruction, fictional narrative, and focus on seamanship. It's hard to easily categorize this account: The Way Of A Ship reads like fiction but couples such with rich historical detail, resulting in a multi-faceted guide.

Fantastic writing
Lundy wrote a book I've been looking long to find.He writes of the day to day life of sailors from the 19th century that is very knowledgable and page turning.I finally got to see what it would have been like.He created characters that I felt interested in and wanted to learn more about.If you've ever wondered what it was like on a sailing ship- Lundy will anwser all your questions, and entertain.Again, a fantastic book!

A compelling blend of maritime history and nautical fiction
Derek Lundy's "The Way of a Ship: A Square-Rigger Voyage in the Last Days of Sail" is in large part a history of blue-water merchant shipping in the late Nineteenth Century with a particular focus on those ships rounding Cape Horn, along with literary meditations by the author upon the works of Melville and Dana and Conrad.But interleaved with the history is Lundy's account of an imagined 1885 voyage around the Horn by his great-great-uncle Benjamin aboard the fictional 4-masted barque Beara Head.It is a harrowing, but by no means atypical voyage aboard a giant iron-hulled square-rigger of the era, its crew kept small by the owners' economies necessary to compete with steamships.This novel-within-a-history is a useful device for conveying the harsh realities of life aboard such a vessel, and Lundy is well up to the challenge of portraying ships and the sea in convincing, highly vivid detail.This will come as no surprise to readers of his earlier book, "Godforsaken Sea: Racing the World's Most Dangerous Waters", about the 1996 Vendee Globe race.

The spark that drove Lundy to write this book is a simple (and perhaps unanswerable) question: how were his great-great-uncle and men like him able to challenge Cape Horn?Even with the strong iron hulls and wire rigging of the 1880's, Cape Horn killed men and ships with a regularity that would dismay the modern world.And if wind and wave were not enemies enough, then inadequate food, terrible living conditions, and hard-driving captains and mates would supply sufficient misery to seemingly make any rational man balk from voluntarily undertaking such a voyage.Of course, not all the seaman aboard were willing volunteers, dockside "crimps" if necessary supplied the required number of drugged and drunken men to fill the meager crew rosters permitted by penny-pinching owners.No records other than family stories and a few old letters survive to chronicle Benjamin Lundy's actual experiences or even to name the ships he sailed on, so his great-great-nephew to better understand the man and others of his ilk decided to reconstruct what his first ocean-crossing voyage might have been like, aboard a square-rigger carrying coal from England to Valpariso, Chile.Coal might seem at first thought an innocuous enough cargo, but in fact it was not.Coal, especially damp coal, often ignited by spontaneous combustion during these lengthy voyages and sometimes even exploded.Very probably quite a few of those big sailing merchantmen that mysteriously vanished at sea were victims of such slow, secret heating, deep in their black holds.Although the young Ulsterman Lundy is a veteran of the coastal trade, the challenges of working such a deep-sea merchantmen were beyond both his experience and his imagination.Derek Lundy crafted his story after intensive research that stretched to include sailing some of the same waters himself, although the author confesses a disappointed relief in not encountering a real gale off Cape Horn.

Between the fiction chapters, Lundy delves into the history of rounding Cape Horn going back to the days of Raleigh and Anson, and of the struggle against a foe even more deadly than the Cape itself: scurvy.He also explores that strange age of transition in the late Nineteenth Century when long distance bulk cargo sailing ships were still battling against the steamers that had already come to dominate shorter routes and the passenger business.Iron (and, later, steel) hulls made possible sailing vessels of a size previously unachievable, so large that even the traditional three masts of ships had to multiply in order to carry sufficient canvas.Merely increasing the size of individual masts and sails proved impractical.As masts grew taller and yards wider, the proportionately larger sails became too hard for the crews to handle.Topsails and topgallantsails were split horizontally into separate upper and lower halves with their own yards, creating the wide but shallow sails so characteristic of photographs of the big merchantmen of this time.

This combination of maritime history and nautical fiction makes for compelling, insightful reading.Lundy well conveys the misery, the fear, the fatigue, the excitement, and even the occasional exhilaration of an experience that would otherwise lie beyond the boundaries of our own lives. ... Read more

Book Description

Set in the unexplored jungles of Central America in the mid-1800s, this true-life adventure story will enthrall the armchair archaeologist.

Recounted here for the first time is the adventurous life of Frederick Catherwood, the 19th-century English artist who discovered the lost Mayan cities in the jungles of Central America and the Yucatn plateau. In 1839 Catherwood and his American companion, John Lloyd Stephens, were the first Westerners to view the immense terraces, fabulous temples, and elaborate palaces that had been inexplicably abandoned ten centuries earlier. Superbly illustrated by Catherwood, Stephens' lively travel diaries recounting their extraordinary archaeological discoveries were published in 1841 and 1843.

Using these journals and his own extensive research, author Fabio Bourbon has pieced together Catherwood's fascinating biography, which until now has been shrouded in mystery. Illustrating this handsome large-format book are more than 200 engravings made from Catherwood's original drawings. Also reproduced is Catherwood's Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatna rare color portfolio considered to be his best work. Catherwood's other adventures are also describedhis first trips to Europe and Egypt, his later expeditions to Central America, and finally his experiences in California. This intriguing book about an intrepid adventurer/artist will appeal to anyone interested in exploration, architecture, and archaeology.

208 illustrations, 191 in full color ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Very Nice Indeed
Frederick Catherwood's career as an artist has been dominated by the magnicent drawings and paintings that he made of Mayan art and architecture while accompanying archaeologist John Lloyd Stephens . For decades this was the only view of that civilization that most people had. Even today they still are impressive. Bourbon gives us not only a biography of the artist but wisely chose to put the book into a large format. The result is that the reader can appreciate Catherwood's work (which the book is profusely filled with) even better. Coupled with John Lloyd Stephens "Incidents of Travel in Yucatan" (available in very inexpensive editions) one can expierence the thrill of discovery that both men felt as they uncovered the lost Mayan cities of the Yucatan jungles. A feast for the eyes
of the first visions of a vanished world.

The Lost Cities of the Mayas : The Life, Art, and Discoverie
In reading the The Lost Cities of the Mayas : The Life, Art, and Discoveries of Frederick Catherwood by Fabio Bourbon, one must first take in and enjoy the full folio size color reproductions of Catherwood's engravings and drawings. The vast aray of sumptous images and the clear and concise text that takes you on an adventure through the life of Frederick Catherwood, the first real Indiana Jones is a joy to read and imagine! Oh to have lived in the 19th c. and been on the first real archaeological journey through mexico and central america, documenting the opening up of an ancient civilization to the world. A must for the adventure reader and explorer. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Just about the time that famous lion hunters like Ernest Hemingway and Denys Finch Hatton were meeting their ends, a young Portuguese boy and his family landed on the coast of Mozambique to establish a farm in the Portuguese colony. It wasn't long before Adelino Serras Pires cut his hunting teeth, on a hunt for a pride of man-eating lions who had been victimizing a local population made vulnerable by an epidemic of sleeping sickness. Soon,

The smell of the bush after the rains ... the feel of a campfire's warmth after an exhausting day spent following elephant spoor on foot, the sound of lion in concert on a kill, and the taste of guinea fowl over the coals had turned me into a cultural hybrid with a permanent longing for change, for wild places and challenges.

Pires would turn his passion into a promotion of the safari hunting industry in Mozambique, leading European aristocracy, heads of state, astronauts, wine barons, and other members of the international elite into the untouched bush in pursuit of "the big five." He would also become one of the most controversial figures in safari hunting. An outspoken man with an indomitable will, he fought the Frelimo guerrillas who engulfed the country while also roundly criticizing Portuguese rule, ultimately becoming the enemy of both. After Mozambique's independence, Pires jumped from Angola to Rhodesia to Zaire setting up hunting shop, only to be forced out as independence movements and superpowers battled. Just when permanency seemed possible in Tanzania, he found himself a hostage in a horrifying game of betrayal, torture, and international collusion.

Pires tells his life story with the intensity with which he lived his life and with the fury and bitterness of a man who has lost all he loved. Whether or not you agree with his assertion that trophy hunting is the best way to preserve African wildlife ("if it pays, it stays"), it's impossible not to be deeply affected by his portrait of an Africa torn apart by the inside and out, or to feel nostalgia for an Africa now destroyed. --Lesley Reed ... Read more

Reviews (8)

A different view of the safari lifestyle
When I started reading The Winds of Havoc,I had the impression the book would be the memories of a gone by lifestyle, and quite frankly I was repulsed by how important the big game hunting business seemed like. Not until I reached the last quarter of the book did I realize the value of the author's memories in providiing a picture of a productive and peaceful "colonial" lifestyle and comparing it to the present state of Mozambique's existence. Clearly, African politics have changed for the worst over the last half of the 20th century. For all that was wrong about colonialism, the "indiginization" of most African countries has been a failure that will hurt Africa and the rest of the world for most of the 21st century. The fate of the African wildlife is an accurate indicator of the evolution of Mozambiquean politics. Mozambique will go as the wildlife goes.

Shocking Revelations
If there is a single book that informs and clarifies issues pertaining to Africa, from European colonization to the new millennium, this is the one. I am a seasoned collector of books on Africa. Nothing on my shelves, however, can compare with The Winds of Havoc. Adelino SERRAS PIRES and Fiona CAPSTICK have an intimate knowledge of Africa and I personally know many of the people mentioned in this book. I also had the honor of working with Adelino in Africa in the 1980s. This book confirms the courage and honesty he has retained throughout his turbulent life, qualities he never abandoned when many other people would have been tempted to give in to their tormentors. There are shocking revelations in this book as the reader is taken on a unique odyssey into many African countries, witnessing the fate of the wildlife as the winds of change became gales of violence which spared nothing and nobody. The book is an education. Adelino's extraordinary life and Fiona Capstick's ability with words make this book a compelling, disturbing experience. Buy it before the first printing sells out!

Lies exposed
I am black and I am angry. I live in Africa, The Winds of Havoc has been a revelation because finally, the lies that went with the turf of our liberation are beginning to be exposed. This book is a good start, I salute you Adelino Serras Pires

Gripping, love and pain, lots and lots of truth
The Winds of Havoc is much more than an adventure or hunting novel. I want to congratulate the authors Fiona and Adelino on a very special, genuine and valuable contribution to the modern history of Mozambique, and also of post-colonial Africa generally. From my experience as a scholar of contemporary Mozambican affairs, as an active participant in the Mozambique peace process 1989-1995, and as Special Advisor to the then Special Representative of the Secretary General of the UN, Mr Aldo Ajello, I can recommend this book as essential reading. But most of all, it reads easily and really well. It takes you on a journey of adventure and passion and tragedy, and I found it impossible to put it down before I had come to the last page.

The Winds of Havoc is a Grand Slam
Fiona and Adelina have hit a bases loaded home run! Adelino, I am so sorry that humanity can treat others so badly. Your days incarcerated, cold, hungry and with your hands and feet hurting so bad, brought tears to my eyes. What a horrible injustice.

If you do not know anything about East African history, particularly Mozambique, this book will show the "Havoc" that occured at this time in Africa between two factions.

This is a book makes you get a map out to see where these stories take place. You find that you want to read over at least once again.

Art Gonzalez ... Read more

Amazon.com

Walter Bonatti had been scaling mountains for only a few years when, in 1954, he qualified to join an expedition of fellow Italian alpinists making the first ascent of the forbidding Himalayan peak called K2. There, for reasons that are unclear, the 24-year-old ran afoul of senior members of the team, who accused him of turning back before delivering needed oxygen to them below the summit. Accusations and counteraccusations flew, followed by a libel trial from which Bonatti emerged victorious but ostracized. He went on to bag a few peaks, retired from "extreme" climbing in 1965, and became an accomplished explorer and photojournalist, writing memoirs of his earlier expeditions to mountains on nearly every continent that earned a small but devoted following.

In The Mountains of My Life, translator and editor Robert Marshall gathers those scattered accounts of ascents in the Alps, the Patagonian Andes, the Himalayas, and elsewhere. In his commentary, he describes and defends Bonatti's actions on K2, which, he insists, made it possible for the Italian team to reach the summit. The evidence he offers--including photographs--is convincing. For his part, Bonatti writes that all the mountains he has climbed, "with all the trials they brought me, are a precious, living part of myself." His book will be of interest to anyone who shares that passion for the world's high places. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Reviews (5)

A classic of mountaineering by one of the greats!
Along with Ricardo Cassin, Bonatti is perhaps the most outstanding Italian climber of all time! How ironic that he should become embroiled in one of the longest lasting (almost 50 years) controversies in mountaineering history, and how gratifying that he finally is clearly vindicated in this fascinating book.

The book is an autobiographical account of Bonatti's major climbs, including several sections on the much-discussed 1954 Italian expedition on K2. Bonatti clearly comes across as a committed climber, seeking purity and excitement in his climbs, who is often at a loss when faced with public criticism (on several accounts described in the book). As is often the case in the lives of people with outstanding talent, Bonati's life is beset by other people's envy and underhanded tactics, most frequently by his own compatriots. Yet, the book succeeds in demonstrating Bonatti's passion, drive and determination, while retaining the purity of mind and spirit that the mountains bestow on all!

Aside from being a highly personal account by one of the greatest mountaineers of all time, three things make this book outstanding:

(1) The beautiful translation by Robert Marshall (an Australian, who learned Italian for the sole purpose of reading mountaineering accounts!), who introduces each chapter with a short summary of the significance of the peak or route undertaken. Marshall also plays a key role of an "investigator" pointing out several pictures, which show that Compagnioni's and Desio's accounts of the K2 expedition are clearly false and manipulative;

(2) The book finally sets the record straight about the 1954 K2 expedition -- the fact that Lacedeli and Compaginoni used oxygen all the way to the top; the fact that they recklessly (if not intentionally) abandoned Bonatti in the bivouac, just feet from their warm tent above 8,000 meters; the fact that they manipulated accounts of the expedition to go as far as claiming that Bonatti wanted to charge ahead to the top on his own, endangering others. Two pictures, ironically published by Desio in an article immediately following the expedition clearly show Lacedeli and Compagnioni wearing oxygen masks at the top -- pictures, which are subsequently removed from Desio's book; and are only by accident discovered and brought forward by Rpbert Marshall only almost 50 years later! What a horrible thought that such an incredible climber, only in his 20s, could have been lost high up on K2, and we would have never come to know Bonatti as one of the all time greats! What a great feeling it is to know that truth sooner or later triumphs!

(3) the book is a true mountaineering story; it shows the aspirations, achievements and excitement of climbing in the immediate post- WW II era in Europe and Italy -- a period full of what is best about mountain climbing -- hope, innocence and passion!

This is a highly recommended book for everyone! My compliments to John Krakauer for including this wonderful book in the new Exploration series!

Driven To The Extreme
The Mountains Of My Life is such a dense and intense work that even the experienced alpine climber is likely to slip into a stupor while reading of Walter Bonatti's incredible climbs. The only solution is to plan on reading it twice. Otherwise, you can expect to miss some of the subtlety in Walter's economical writing style. I can now claim to have followed my own advice.

One can read here many details of the big climbs Bonatti did in the Alps and only get a hint of the level of suffering, fear and intensity of the experience, even though the text focuses much on just those aspects. Only by going out onto the big alpine walls and experiencing those emotions yourself can you expect to have even the slightest clue as to just how understated The Mountains Of My Life really is. But that's still only an approximation unless you climbed routes such as these back in the day, using the primitive gear that Walter and his partners had - and then only if your ethical stance was as strict as theirs. These dudes had mondo cajones, to say the least.

But you don't need to trust me - I've never climbed anything of significance. But would you dare not trust the opinions of Reinhold Messner and Doug Scott? Go read what they have to say about Walter's climbs. Then sit back and imagine what it was like to solo big routes back then. I've done just enough soloing to understand just how much more of a mental game it is.

I can't forget to mention how important Robert Marshall's role was in this book. Not only did he translate, but he played a key detective role in the K2 controversy. Once one has fully digested what transpired on the hill, then after, then one can begin to better understand just how driven Bonatti was, and why. This is an incredible story, but it is also incredibly sad to think how horribly one person can treat another. Even pursuits such as climbing are victim to those that are dishonest and apparently without a conscious. Clearly, evil men are capable of much greater evil when acting to conspire. I for one was happy to see all of the details of K2 be brought to the forefront, to have the liars exposed and for the truth to finally have its day.

The next to last chapter is the true gem of this book. Years after retiring from extreme mountaineering, Walter climbed a route on Mt. Blanc solo. The description of the landscape, the place and the space in this chapter are truly incredible. The reader is transported, smelling the air, sensing the dangers and feeling the coarse granite on the palm. This chapter is a true high point inmountaineering literature. I wonder if this writing was only possible after the wounds of the K2 debacle had adequate time to heal?

Outstanding writings of a true mountain man
Bonatti is one of the boldest and leading figures in mountaineering of the 20th century; he is also one of the most creative of his peers in communicating his feelings on the subject. This book is interesting in the context of the author's youth in post war Europe and the effects this had on his life. Unfortunately, the author was subject to a smear campaign regarding his contributions to the first ascent of K2 for reasons outside of his control and this book reveals the injustice and presents a convincing case as to how the whole episode originated. So, part mystery story, part eloquent ode to mountains and climbing. It's a winner on both fronts and Bonnatti emerges as a champion not only of technical mastery of climbing, but mountaineering ethics and of mans relationship to the outdoors. I rate this as a must read.

Classic Stories from One of the Greatest Mountaineers
Walter Bonnati was born in Bergamo, Italy in 1930. By the time he was invited to join the Italian expedition that completed the first ascent of K2 in 1954, Bonatti had already completed a number of climbing routes in the Western Alps that others had deemed unclimbable or impossible. Bonatti often climbed solo and with a panache and minimalist approach that amplified the magnitude of his accomplishments. Along the way, he was inducted into the French Legion of Honor. Despite (or perhaps because of) his astonishing talent and climbing feats, Bonatti was controversial and often found himself at odds with others in the climbing community. Having accomplished much and become jaded with the climbing community, Bonatti moved on to a new career as photojournalist and explorer.

"The Mountains of My Life" is a wonderful translation of stories about climbs that few other climbers would even dare contemplate. The book also examines the controversy about events of the Italian expedition to K2 that reads with the intrigue of a "who dunnit." The book is illustrated with Bonatti's breathtaking photos of mountains and routes he climbed.

Doug Scott, one of the greatest British mountaineers, described Bonatti as "perhaps the finest alpinist there has ever been." Jon Krakauer considers Bonatti a "personal hero." Those are mighty strong statements, but after reading this immensely readable collection of tales, it is hard to argue with the assessments of Bonatti. Robert Marshall did a wonderful job in translating Bonatti's beautifully written stories. Definitely an important addition in the library of mountaineering classics.

Inspirational true adventure with a dash of mystery
Walter Bonatti is an Italian mountaineer, famous in climbing circles if not with the general public. This collection of his essays describing his most famous climbs - and discussing a nasty controversy involving the first ascent of K2 - is a terrific read. Anyone who has enjoyed best sellers such as "Into Thin Air" should give serious consideration to this volume. The clean, even elegant translation represents a wonderful example of the translator's art (and why doesn't the publisher give translator Robert Marshall credit on the book's cover?). There is an in-depth analysis of a famous (in Italy) libel trial over accusations against Bonatti that reads almost like a whodunit instead of a climbing saga. All in all, this book is inspirational, exciting, and a stirring way to get some sense of the thrill of extreme adventure without leaving the comfort of your centrally-heated home. This is the second book I've read in the Modern Library Exploration Series edited by Jon Krakauer (the other is The Last Place on Earth, about Scott's and Amundsen's race to the South Pole) and this series is a five-star winner for me so far. ... Read more

Book Description

As the theme song from the 1960s television series phrased it, "Daniel Boone was a man/ Yes, a big man." Now, the truth behind the legend can be explored as the reader follows Boone as he leads the expansion of America's frontier. From his birthplace in Pennsylvania to his final resting place in Missouri, this combination travel guide/history book allows the reader to actually walk where Boone walked.

From Pennsylvania, his family moved south through Virginia and into North Carolina, where Boone married Rebecca Bryan and where he lived and hunted for almost two decades. During the late 1700s, Boone and others began exploring the western side of the Appalachians. He engaged in long hunting expeditions into Tennessee and Kentucky, was captured and escaped from Indians several times, marked the Wilderness Trail through the Cumberland Gap, erected a stockade at Boonesborough, Kentucky, and fought the American Revolution on the western front.

Even before Kentucky became a state, his frontierexploits earned him international fame, yet he lost all of his land holdings because of title disputes. Seeking a new frontier, Boone moved to Missouri, where he lived until his death in 18