The Ice Balloon: S. A. Andree and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration

In 1897, at the height of the heroic age of Arctic exploration, the visionary Swedish explorer S. A. Andr e made a revolutionary attempt to discover the North Pole by flying over it in a hydrogen balloon. Thirty-three years later, his expedition diaries and papers would be discovered on the ice.

Alec Wilkinson uses the explorer's papers and contemporary sources to tell the full story of this ambitious voyage, while also showing how the late 19th century's spirit of exploration and scientific discovery drove over 1,000 explorers to the unforgiving Arctic landscape. Suspenseful and haunting, Wilkinson captures Andr e's remarkable adventure and illuminates the detail, beauty, and devastating conditions of traveling and dwelling on the ice.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 01/08/2013
ISBN: 9780307741868
Pages: 256
Weight: 0.56lbs
Size: 7.97h x 5.27w x 0.70d

Review Citations: New York Times Book Review 01/27/2013 pg. 24
Entertainment Weekly 02/22/2013 pg. 82