Product Description

Over the history of polar exploration towers one titanic father figure - Fridtjof Nansen. That a little known researcher in neurology from Bergen Museum was able to put together one of the first great journeys of exploration of our time is a tribute to the extraordinary force and magnetism of his personality. That he should show such extraordinary innovation in the use of sledges and skis, such attention to detail in areas such as diet and the make of sleeping bag is equally extraordinary. Although Nansen's success is overshadowed by the epic voyage of the Fram, his journey across Greenland in 1888 (eight attempts before him had failed) remains one of the most astonishing on record. Even the Eskimos were to regard his achievement in awe: '...now you will travel to the unknown world out there, you will possibly forget us among all the people, but we will never forget you.' On his return Nansen became a living legend - a third of the population of Oslo came out to greet him and he was awarded a sinecure for the rest of his life. His Greenland journey and the ensuring lecture tour inspired a surge in exploration across Europe. This, the first modern edition of The First Crossing of Greenland, removes the technical appendices, the historical sections on previous attempts to penetrate the ice field, and the detailed account of the Eskimos. The record of the incredible journey, however, remains intact.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #339848 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Review
"From Norway Six men came out. Four Norwegians. Two were Lapps Together with the Norwegians They landed on our East Coast...They wandered over the Inland Ice Suffering great need Scarcely did they have enough food or change of clothes...At last they came over the ice. - Eskimo folklore

From the Publisher
Before Nansen’s journey, the vast, impenetrable arctic regions were exasperating nineteenth-century explorers. For four centuries no one had been able to come up with a means of conquering them; Greenland, their first stepping-stone, had repelled an armada of scientists who had tried to conquer its glaciers: some lost their lives, none of them left a trace of their mammoth expeditions.

Nansen, an over-confident adolescent thought he knew better in 1882. Convinced that one could succeed on skis, a sport which had only recently become popular in Norway and was practically unknown elsewhere, he set about organising an expedition so modest that it consisted of only six members who would pull their own sledges. Denied a grant that was usually forthcoming for an expedition of this type, he arranged for his own transport via two steam passages before being dropped off somewhere in the icy waters in front of the Arctic coast of Greenland.

Astonishingly enough, he did become the first human to witness the ghostly Arctic world in its treacherous, solitary splendour, and live to tell about it. His success made him a living legend at the age of twenty eight and his methods changed Arctic exploration forever, opening the way to the conquests by his later acolytes Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen. Nansen’s amazing expedition diaries of 1890 are now being republished for the first time together with the captivating expedition photographs he himself made during the voyage.

About the Author
Born in 1861, Fridtjof Nansen was one of the greatest figures of his age and a Norwegian national hero, particularly after the epic voyage of the Fram to the Arctic. He inspired directly other explorers such as Scott, Amundsen and Shackleton, although his achievements ranged far beyond the fields of exploration. He was one of the founders of neurology, a crucial figure in the Norwegian achievement of independence and Norway's first ambassador to London. Through his force of personality he played a crucial role in repatriating hundreds of thousands of prisoners at the end of the First World War, and, in undertaking famine relief in Russia, dealt directly with Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin. His role in the new League of Nations was vital in establishing the organization's international credibility. He died in 1930.

Customer Reviews

You must read this, astonishing!
If you thought arctic discovery was a carefully planned exercise, dominated by captains, beards and government prestige projects, think again! For centuries but in earnest since the beginning of the nineteenth century, no advance was made until twenty-two-year old Nansen thought in 1822 of the clever idea of using skis to cross the arctic ice fields. Skiing had only recently become popular in Norway, so he had a headstart on all the others trying to conquer the first bit of the arctic, Greenland. He was a complete unknown at the time and, though we now think of him as brilliant, people thought him a nutcase. But what really sets this beautiful book apart, is the crisp lyrical language in which he describes what the arctic area looked like. We are so used through television and photographs to what it looks like, but it was all completely new to him. Nowadays, Nansen would no doubt be up there with Jon Krakauer or Paul Theroux. Like them he spawned a raft of other writers and travellers: Shackleton, Scott, Amundsen, etc. Amazing when you think of it. I cannot recommend this book enough.

First Crossing
This is a fascinating book. Not one second passes when the reader is not excited by the amazing adventure Nansen undertook. It also reads very well for a book written by an explorer as opposed to a proffesional writer, possibly even better, and the descriptions in it are vivid and enchanting. The incorporation of photos of the expedition is also very interesting.
However, it is let down slightly by the fact that there are so many spelling mistakes in the translation. But overall, an excellent read, and I would recommend anyone with a spirited sense of adventure to read it.