The Oxford Book of Exploration - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0192142089 ISBN 13: 9780192142085

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1993

Synopsis

The legendary explorers, heroic figures such as Columbus, Marco Polo, Magellan, and Cook, all were lucky and determined enough to discover something which changed our view of the world, revealing previously unknown continents and cultures. Prepared to go beyond what others saw as reasonable limits, they shared a fortitude which carried them through the severest hardships, whether cold, heat, illness, hunger, or starvation. Their failures are often as illuminating as their successes, revealing what it was that drove them to go beyond the possible in search of the unknown.
In The Oxford Book of Explorers, Robin Hanbury-Tenison, hailed by the Sunday Times of London as "the greatest explorer of the last twenty years," offers the first comprehensive collection of these stalwart adventurers, spanning the ages to capture the emotions and motives of those who took part in the daunting effort to find new worlds. We go to Africa with Doctor Livingston and Mr. Stanley, with Mungo Park and Sir Richard Burton; to Asia with Marco Polo, Vasco da Gama, and Vitus Bering; to the Pacific with Magellan, Cook, and Bougainville; and to North and South America with Columbus, Cortes, Pizarro, Henry Hudson, Sir Francis Drake, Charles Darwin, Theodore Roosevelt, and many others. We read passages from Livington's last journals, where he recounts "the mere animal pleasure of travelling in a wild unexplored country." Prussian explorer Alexander von Humboldt, trekking through South America, describes an attempt to capture electric eels by stampeding wild horses into a pool. We sled with Robert Peary close to the North Pole, through air "as keen and bitter as frozen steel." We join Meriwether Clark as he discovers the Great Falls of the Missouri, comes upon a herd of over a thousand buffalo, and is suddenly in a footrace for his life, chased by a large brown bear. And we climb with Sir Edmund Hillary as he and Sherpa Norgay Tenzing reach the summit of the highest place on earth.
The ultimate travel book, The Oxford Book of Exploration captures the words of those who changed the world through their search for new lands, new peoples, and new adventures. Brimming with the drama of world exploration, it is the perfect book for the armchair traveler.

About this title

About the Author:

About the Editor:
Robin Hanbury-Tenison is Vice-President and Gold Medalist of the Royal Geographical Society. He has been on over twenty expeditions, including the first land crossing of South America at its widest point and (as leader) the Royal Geographical Society's scientific mission to the rain forests of Sarawak. A founder and President of Survival International, he is also the author of many books.

From Library Journal:

The compiler of this volume, himself an explorer, author, and world traveler, has put together a sampler of some of the best of the vast literature of exploration from around the world. It consists of carefully selected brief excerpts from the writings of Chinese foot and camel travelers of c.300 A.D. to 20th-century explorers on polar expeditions by balloon and airplane. Each excerpt is accompanied by a brief description of the expedition and a reference to the complete source of the excerpt. Unfortunately, Hanbury-Tenison's somewhat arbitrary distinction between "exploration" literature (included) and "travel" literature (excluded) serves to rule out many of the distinctive voices of women travelers. The result is nevertheless a series of fascinating vignettes that introduce the reader to the world of exploration literature, delight armchair travelers, and invite further reading. Suitable for both young adult and adult readers and a worthwhile addition to all libraries.
- Barbara Walden, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0192142089
• ISBN 13: 9780192142085
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 542