The Shameless Diary Of An Explorer - Softcover

Dunn, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 116309997X ISBN 13: 9781163099971

Publisher: Kessinger Publishing, 2010

Synopsis

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

About this title

Review

More adventure books should be like this. In a genre rife with overbearing machismo and braggadocio, this book, originally published in 1907, is a refreshing and at times hilarious take on exploration. Robert Dunn reveals the bickering and frayed nerves, petty insecurities and trivial jealousies that existed alongside the courage, discipline, and determination exhibited by each member of the 1903 expedition that attempted the first ascent of Alaska's Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America. Without downplaying the difficulty of the task, Dunn's honest assessments of the men involved reveals the complex motivations for undertaking arduous exploration and the human weaknesses that are revealed in the process.

The group was led by Frederick Cook (who was later shamed for faking a discovery of the North Pole); Dunn served as the group geologist and second-in-command. He was also an aspiring journalist, and true to his muckraking roots, he makes no apologies for his brutally frank and often unflattering depiction of the party and events. "To distort or hide, in deference to any custom, or so-called sense of pride or honor, simply is to lie." His companions undoubtedly would have appreciated less sincerity, but readers will find his unflinching accuracy most appealing. For instance, he writes of Cook: "I cannot believe he has imagination; of a leader's qualities he has shown not one." Or a possibly worse fault: "He doesn't smoke, and that makes me uncomfortable...." He also dispenses witty advice: "The reason this Diary seems so good-humored, is because it's always written after eating. Never write a field journal on an empty stomach."

Though the experience was often hellish, Dunn can't help but focus on its heavenly rewards upon conclusion, wondering: "Shall I ever return to so glorious a land, to such happiness?" With that line, as with the entire book, he brilliantly and stylishly captures the inherent paradoxes that lie at the core of exploration. --Shawn Carkonen

From the Inside Flap

In 1903, aspiring journalist Robert Dunn joined an expedition attempting the first ascent of Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America. Led by explorer Frederick Cook (who would later win infamy for faking the discovery of the North Pole), the climbers failed to conquer McKinley, but they did circumnavigate the great peak?an accomplishment not repeated until 1978. The trek also spawned a book unique in the literature of exploration: Dunn?s frank, sardonic, no-holds-barred look at day-to-day existence on an Alaskan expedition.

Before Dunn, most such accounts were sanitized and expurgated of anything unflattering. Dunn, however, a protégé of the muckraker Lincoln Steffens, endeavored to report what he saw, with panache. And what Dunn reported was a journey rife with conflict, missed opportunity, incompetence, privation, and danger. By showing men reduced to their rawest state, the young journalist produced a compelling, insightful, and oddly amusing book that disturbed and riveted his contemporaries. As Hudson Stuck?the Episcopal archdeacon of the Yukon who completed the first ascent of Mt. McKinley in 1913?observed, ?[Dunn?s] book has a curious undeniable power, despite its brutal frankness. . . . One is thankful, however, that it is unique in the literature of travel.?

Edition details

• Publisher: Kessinger Publishing
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 116309997X
• ISBN 13: 9781163099971
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 306