Description
Book SynopsisBehind the great polar explorers of the early twentieth century - Amundsen, Shackleton, Scott in the South and Peary in the North - looms the spirit of Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930), the mentor of them all. He was the father of modern polar exploration, the last act of territorial discovery before the leap into space began.
Nansen was a prime illustration of Carlyle''s dictum that ''the history of the world is but the biography of great men''. He was not merely a pioneer in the wildly diverse fields of oceanography and skiing, but one of the founders of neurology. A restless, unquiet Faustian spirit, Nansen was a Renaissance Man born out of his time into the new Norway of Ibsen and Grieg. He was an artist and historian, a diplomat who had dealings with Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin, and played a part in the Versailles Peace Conference, where he helped the Americans in their efforts to contain the Bolsheviks. He also undertook famine relief in Russia. Finally, working for the League of
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[NANSEN] is a rare thing, a work of immense scholarship blazing with insight... * Beryl Bainbridge, LITERARY REVIEW *
[Huntford's] NANSEN has been longawaited. It is a triumph ... a hugely satisfying biography * Paul Theroux, GUARDIAN *
It is a book which takes us outward through the life of another and from there inward into our own. What more can you ask of a biography? * DAILY TELEGRAPH *
Roland Huntford has captured something of the restless romantic within. It is an accomplished biography at every level. * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *
