Worlds to Explore: Classic Tales of Travel and Adventure from National Geographic - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1426200447 ISBN 13: 9781426200441

Publisher: National Geographic, 2007

Synopsis

"These stories are like potato chips; one is never enough, and they're all but impossible not to devour in rapid succession. Moreover, they lend themselves to repeat reading..." —Library Journal

"Suiting the armchair as well as they did as long as a century ago, these articles will be popular indeed." —Booklist

Worlds to Explore evokes that bygone era in which the pages of National Geographic were as close as most people could get to high adventure and faraway lands. The 54 tales reproduced here immerse today's readers in wonder and thrill of exploration before the age of mass tourism. Along with notable explorers such as Edmund Hillary, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, and Teddy Roosevelt, other less famous travelers take us to places few Americans had ventured before. We follow as "An Unbeliever Joins the Hadj," trek "Across Tibet from India to China," and take "A Round Trip to Davy Jones's Locker."

Introduced by brief essays that provide context and perspective, these engaging selections speak for themselves—and trace the National Geographic Society's growth as it explored the unknown and brought it home to readers eager for knowledge of "the world and all that is in it."

About this title

About the Author

Mark Jenkins, chief historian of the National Geographic Society's archives, has in all likelihood read every single article ever published in the magazine. Among other accomplishments, he is the co-author of High Adventure, an illustrated history of the Society.

From Booklist

Evoking adventure made possible by the railroad, steamship, and automobile, and before adventure was accelerated beyond recognition by the jet airliner, these 50 National Geographic articles hail from the 1890s to the 1950s. Simon Winchester's introduction rues the haste travel has acquired, while the commentary of editor Jenkins ( Off the Map: Bicycling across Siberia, 1992) introduces the author and the genesis of his or her odyssey. Theodore Roosevelt's postpresidency safari kicks off the geographical organization--Africa, South America, and so forth--and also typifies Jenkins' editorial preferences for the lost worlds of imperialism, still-unexplored regions of earth and sea, and peoples untouched by modernity. Some of Jenkins' selections may be oft-anthologized classics by Roy Chapman Andrews, Richard Byrd, and Edmund Hillary, but most are not frequently reprinted. Collectively, Jenkins' grouping captures imagination-firing details in non-Western settings, such as capture by Mongolian bandits. Suiting the armchair as well as they did as long as a century ago, these articles will be popular indeed. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: National Geographic
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1426200447
• ISBN 13: 9781426200441
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464
• Editor: Jenkins Mark