After the triumphant end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the British took it upon themselves to complete something they had been trying to do since the sixteenth century: find the fabled Northwest Passage. For the next thirty-five years the British Admiralty sent out expedition after expedition to probe the ice-bound waters of the Canadian Arctic in search of a route, and then, after 1845, to find Sir John Franklin, the Royal Navy hero who led the last of these Admiralty expeditions. Enthralling and often harrowing, "The Man Who Ate His Boots "captures the glory and the folly of this ultimately tragic enterprise.

What an Immense wealth of talent has appeared in the first quarter-century of The Pushcart Prize editions, and much of that talent has been displayed in the essays.

From the start in 1976, well before the current plethora of essay anthologies, the editors of The Pushcart Prize recognized and celebrated the essay; over the years the series has witnessed the development of many forms of the genre, including a strong renaissance in the personal essay. This monumental collection selects opinions and reflections on much of the social, literary, and political history of recent decades.