On 14 December 1911, Roald Amundsen (1872 1928) and his Norwegian team became the first humans to reach the South Pole, a month before their ill-fated British rivals under the leadership of Robert Falcon Scott. Reissued here is the 1912 English translation of Amundsen's two-volume account of how this extraordinary and perilous feat was achieved. Illustrated throughout with illuminating maps and photographs, the text contains important details relating to matters of climate, equipment, diet, sledging and survival in forbiddingly cold conditions over uncertain terrain. Underpinning Amundsen's success, the use of dogs, skis and fur clothing made possible the dash to the pole and back without the loss of human life. While careful to present the expedition in the best light, Amundsen's work remains essential reading in the history of Antarctic exploration. Volume 1 covers the early stages of the expedition prior to the start for the pole in October 1911."

On 14 December 1911, Roald Amundsen (1872 1928) and his Norwegian team became the first humans to reach the South Pole, a month before their ill-fated British rivals under the leadership of Robert Falcon Scott. Reissued here is the 1912 English translation of Amundsen's two-volume account of how this extraordinary and perilous feat was achieved. Illustrated throughout with illuminating maps and photographs, the text contains important details relating to matters of climate, equipment, diet, sledging and survival in forbiddingly cold conditions over uncertain terrain. Underpinning Amundsen's success, the use of dogs, skis and fur clothing made possible the dash to the pole and back without the loss of human life. While careful to present the expedition in the best light, Amundsen's work remains essential reading in the history of Antarctic exploration. Volume 2 covers the momentous journey to the pole and back, closing with chapters and appendices on nautical and scientific topics."

Before Sir Ernest Shackleton's exploration of the Antarctic waters in 1914, Captain Roald Amundsen led a courageous team through ice-chocked waters to become the first expedition to reach the South Pole in 1911. Read the fascinating account of his journey in "The South Pole."

"Roald Amundsen planted the Norwegian flag on the South Pole on December 14, 1911: a full month before Robert Falcon Scott arrived on the same spot. Amundsen's 'The South Pole' is less well-known than his rival's, in part because he is less of a literary stylist, but also, perhaps, because he survived the journey. His book is a riveting first-hand account of a truly professional expedition; Amundsen's heroism is understated, but it is heroism nonetheless."
--"The Times of London," 23 June 2001

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the South Pole was the most coveted prize in the fiercely nationalistic modern age of exploration. In the spring of 1911 two separate expeditions left their respective camps in Antarctica in a desperate bid to achieve the glory of being first to reach the South Pole: a British party, led by Captain R. F. Scott, and a Norwegian one under Captain Roald Amundsen. The South Pole, -- Amundsen's first-hand account of the expedition, -- is a fascinating and highly readable history of the tenacity and perseverance of the age.

"The last of the Vikings," Roald Engebreth Gravning Amundsen was a powerfully built man of over six feet in height, born into a family of merchant sea captains in 1872. In 1903 he navigated the Northwest Passage in a 70-foot fishing boat. Soon afterwards he learned that Ernest Shackleton was setting out on an attempt to reach the South Pole. Shackleton abandoned his quest a mere 97 miles short of the Pole, but Amundsen began preparing his own expedition. Although this was the age of the amateur explorer, Amundsen was a professional: he left little to chance, apprenticed with Inuits, and obsessed over every detail.

On October 18, 1911 Amundsen's party set out from the Bay of Whales, on Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf, for their final drive toward the pole. His British counterpart, Robert Falcon Scott, dependent on Siberian ponies rather than on dogs, began his trip three weeks later. While Scott clung fast to the British rule of "No skis, no dogs," Amundsen understood that both were vital to survival. Aided by exceptionally cooperative weather conditions, Amundsen's men passed the point where Shackleton was forced to turn back on December 7, and at approximately 3pm on December 14, 1911, Roald Amundsen raised the flag of Norway at the South Pole, one month before Scott's party would arrive.

A polar masterpiece of history and adventure, The South Pole is the stunning first-hand account of one of the greatest success stories in the annals of exploration. Most skillfully Amundsen constructs the expedition's character through its personalitiesthe cast of veteran explorers, scientists, and crewproviding insight not only into Amundsen's philosophy of exploration, but into the classical age of polar explorers.

From the author of Pelle the Conqueror: Martin Andersen Nexo (1869-1954): Ditte Everywoman is a long rich work in three volumes, full of the kind of poetic detail found only in books like Gorki's and O'Casey's autobiographies; it has been generally unobtainable in this country for a long time now. It is a first-rate novel interpreting a working woman's life. In the first volume of the trilogy, Ditte is truly Girl Alive-alive to all the bittersweet experiences of life in a poor family struggling for survival. The locale is Denmark, peasant country, at the beginning of the 20th century. But it becomes sharply here and now by virtue of Nexo's masterful understanding of social forces. The second and third volumes (Daughter of Man, and Towards The Stars) carry Ditte into maturity from her servant days at the Hill Farm to work in the capital city, Copenhagen. Martin Andersen Nexo's writing is magnificent throughout: the giant simplicity of an enduring folk tale. And without any overt psychologizing, he probes deep into his characters. Ditte, growing up to young womanhood, is revealed in her complexities, her doubts and her rainbow joys. She participates in all experiences, hers is no shallow stream of consciousness, but a plunging into the moving current of life. She becomes truly-Ditte, Everywoman.