The Last of His Kind: The Life and Adventures of Bradford Washburn, America's Boldest Mountaineer - Softcover

Roberts, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061560952 ISBN 13: 9780061560958

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2010

Synopsis

American Brad Washburn's impact on his protÉgÉs and imitators was as profound as that of any other adventurer in the twentieth century. Unquestionably regarded as the greatest mountaineer in Alaskan history and as one of the finest mountain photographers of all time, Washburn transformed American attitudes toward wilderness and revolutionized the art of mountaineering and exploration in the great ranges. In The Last of His Kind, National Geographic Adventure contributing editor David Roberts goes beyond conventional biography to reveal the essence of this man through the prism of his extraordinary exploits from New England to Chamonix, and from the Himalayas to the Yukon. An exciting narrative of mountain climbing in the twentieth century, The Last of His Kind brings into focus Washburn's deeds in the context of the history of mountaineering, and provides a fascinating look at an amazing culture and the influential icon who shaped it.

About this title

About the Author:

David Roberts is an avid climber and the author of more than twenty books, including The Mountain of My Fear, which was named on National Geographic Adventure's list of the 100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Time. His articles have appeared in National Geographic Adventure, Men's Journal, and Smithsonian, among other publications. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

From The Washington Post:

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Dennis Drabelle Part of the reason that David Roberts's biography of mountain climber Bradford Washburn is titled "The Last of His Kind" is that so often Washburn was the first of his kind: He achieved nine first ascents of peaks in North America alone, taking striking photographs along the way; some of these shots reduce great masses of rock or ice to abstract designs. He was also a cartographer and a curator: "At the age of only twenty-eight," Roberts writes, "he took over the moribund New England Museum of Natural History and transformed it during the next several decades into Boston's Museum of Science, one of the outstanding teaching institutions of its kind in the world." Roberts can count himself as one of Washburn's pupils. When Washburn got wind of an expedition that Roberts and some Harvard buddies planned to Mount McKinley in the summer of 1963, he invited the group to his Cambridge house and conducted a show-and-tell with his own photographs. After pointing out a route that had never been climbed, he told them: "You fellows are up to it. Besides, you damned well better grab it before someone else does." As Roberts notes dryly of their success, "When Brad Washburn orders you to do something, you do it." Washburn died in January 2007, at the age of 96.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0061560952
• ISBN 13: 9780061560958
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368