Amazon.com
In the early 20th-century era of daring polar exploration, the less-trumpeted fishing and hunting expeditions went largely unrecorded. Except, that is, for a recently discovered tale about a Russian hunter and his shipmate. Valerian Albanov's account of his 18-month-long survival in the Siberian Arctic remained unknown until a group of polar-literature enthusiasts rediscovered it in 1997. Translated into English for the first time, In the Land of White Death competes with the adventures of famed heroes Robert Falcon Scott, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, and Ernest Shackleton. And like Scott's and Cherry-Garrard's narratives, Albanov's tale is penned from a diary he kept during his remarkable ordeal.
Albanov's epic begins in 1914, after he leaves the Saint Anna, a sailing vessel bound for Vladivostok and new hunting territory, 7,000 miles across dangerous water. Only a few months into the voyage, the ship is trapped in pack ice, where it drifts helplessly with the Kara Sea ice flow for nearly one and a half years. With supplies dwindling and no hope of rescue, Albanov, the ship's navigator, and 13 of his colleagues leave the boat and the remaining crew to look for land. Outfitted with sleds and kayaks built from scavenged fragments of the Saint Anna, Albanov begins his 18-month trek to Franz Josef Land with a broken chronometer, scant supplies, and a team of inexperienced men.
Facing starvation, subzero temperatures, and the loss of most of his team, Albanov persists, searching for an outpost rumored to be at Cape Flora, 120 miles from his original starting point. He and his last surviving shipmate survive a litany of amazing mishaps: asleep on an ice flow, they are dumped into frozen water while bound in a sleeping bag; scurvy nearly kills Albanov only a few miles from his destination; and once help arrives, they're caught in the first skirmishes of World War I, a conflict of which they had no knowledge.
Albanov's experience is a brief, gripping account of a story that rivals the greatest survival tales in history. The diary style of his tale preserves its emotional authenticity as he trudges his way across the frozen Arctic, and his knack for clear detail only highlights the unbelievable fact that Albanov was lucid enough to write at all during his winter march across a deadly landscape. --Lolly Merrell
Book Description
In 1912, six months after Robert Falcon Scott and four of his men came to grief in Antarctica, a thirty-two-year-old Russian navigator named Valerian Albanov embarked on an expedition that would prove even more disastrous. In search of new Arctic hunting grounds, Albanov's ship, the Saint Anna, was frozen fast in the pack ice of the treacherous Kara Sea-a misfortune grievously compounded by an incompetent commander, the absence of crucial nautical charts, insufficient fuel, and inadequate provisions that left the crew weak and debilitated by scurvy.
For nearly a year and a half, the twenty-five men and one woman aboard the Saint Anna endured terrible hardships and danger as the icebound ship drifted helplessly north. Convinced that the Saint Anna would never free herself from the ice, Albanov and thirteen crewmen left the ship in January 1914, hauling makeshift sledges and kayaks behind them across the frozen sea, hoping to reach the distant coast of Franz Josef Land. With only a shockingly inaccurate map to guide him, Albanov led his men on a 235-mile journey of continuous peril, enduring blizzards, disintegrating ice floes, attacks by polar bears and walrus, starvation, sickness, snowblindness, and mutiny. That any of the team survived is a wonder. That Albanov kept a diary of his ninety-day ordeal-a story that Jon Krakauer calls an "astounding, utterly compelling book," and David Roberts calls "as lean and taut as a good thriller"-is nearly miraculous.
First published in Russia in 1917, Albanov's narrative is here translated into English for the first time. Haunting, suspenseful, and told with gripping detail,
In the Land of White Death can now rightfully take its place among the classic writings of Nansen, Scott, Cherry-Garrard, and Shackleton.
Download Description
In 1912, six months after Robert Falcon Scott and four of his men came to grief in Antarctica, a thirty-two-year-old Russian navigator named Valerian Albanov embarked on an expedition that would prove even more disastrous. In search of new Arctic hunting grounds, Albanov's ship, the Saint Anna, was frozen fast in the pack ice of the treacherous Kara Sea-a misfortune grievously compounded by an incompetent commander, the absence of crucial nautical charts, insufficient fuel, and inadequate provisions that left the crew weak and debilitated by scurvy. For nearly a year and a half, the twenty-five men and one woman aboard the Saint Anna endured terrible hardships and danger as the icebound ship drifted helplessly north. Convinced that the Saint Anna would never free herself from the ice, Albanov and thirteen crewmen left the ship in January 1914, hauling makeshift sledges and kayaks behind them across the frozen sea, hoping to reach the distant coast of Franz Josef Land. With only a shockingly inaccurate map to guide him, Albanov led his men on a 235-mile journey of continuous peril, enduring blizzards, disintegrating ice floes, attacks by polar bears and walrus, starvation, sickness, snowblindness, and mutiny. That any of the team survived is a wonder.
Customer Reviews:
Don't Cry for Me, Saint Anna.......2005-06-05
In 1912, the Russian ship Saint Anna, undersupplied and with an incompetent captain, set out to sail the Northeast Passage across the top of Asia. Frozen into the icepack in the notoriously treacherous Kara Sea, the ship drifted north for a year and a half.
At this point Valerian Albanov, chief navigation officer and former second-in-command (he had been relieved of duty by his commander; we don't know why), received the captain's permission to leave the ship with thirteen companions. In improvised sledges, skis, and kayaks, they set out for Franz Joseph Land to the south.
Only Albanov and one companion survived to be rescued from the same cape on the same island from which Fridtjof Nansen and his companion had been rescued twenty years before. (See Nansen's "Farthest North" to see how an Arctic drift SHOULD be handled.) This is the journal that Albanov kept, beginning from the day he left the Saint Anna hopelessly frozen in the ice. Saint Anna was never found.
Exciting true life adventure.......2004-10-04
I've always been fascinated about Arctic & Antartic exploration, and try to read any books about it that I can find. This first-person work by a Russian officer on an ill-fated Arctic journey from 1912 to 1914 is certainly a very exciting one, even though the author tends to be laconic at times about his exploits. He tells the story of his ship becoming icelocked, and then of his trek, with several other companions, across the trackless wastes of the Arctic to look for a safe haven on distant land. It's quite compelling, and makes for very gripping reading. The paperback edition of this work contains additional material gleaned from the diary of one of the author's companions on this treacherous journey, and it sheds some additional light on what happened, and especially on the mysterious two men who abandoned the party during the trip, and left them in a very precarious position. It's a book well worth reading for anyone interested in the Arctic, or indeed for anyone who can admire the lengths to which the human spirit and body will push itself in order to survive under the most exteme of conditions.
A true account of survival in the Siberian Arctic.......2004-03-12
The Russian exploration vessel, the Saint Anna, set sail in 1912 to search for hunting grounds in the North Polar region. Within a few months, the crew of 33 had become icebound and spent the next year and a half trapped in the ice, drifting farther and farther North. In 1914, the navigator, Valerian Albanov, decided to risk a trek across the ice with the hope of reaching Franz Josef Land. 13 crewmen set off across the ice, with the remaining 20 choosing to stay on board the ship. Of the 13 crewmen, only two survived.
"In the Land of White Death" is the true account of the trek, as written by Valerian Albanov. Starting with the few days before leaving, he writes a remarkable story of survival in severely cold conditions, with supplies diminishing and morale quickly ebbing. It is very detailed with its discriptions not only of the terrain, but of the crew and their physical and mental states throughout the journey.
Translator David Roberts also includes in his epilogue some of the text from the other survivor of the journey, crewman Alexander Konrad. His take on certain events sheds a whole new lights on certain aspects of their voyage across the ice.
This is a remarkable book, both for its story of survival and its glimpse into human nature. One of the best non-fiction books that I've read.
great companion to lansing's 'endurance'.......2004-01-22
this is a fast and enjoyable read in the historic polar adventure genre, perhaps most impressive is how the 19th century journal writing remains crisp, clear, and compelling today. a few other comments:
-it is a very interesting companion and comparison to lansing's "endurance", though 'endurance' is probably a bit better written, more interesting, and a superior place for most readers to start than here.
-the maps in the beginning are a bit poor in detail and sadly do not include many of the names that the text refers to.
-as others have noted, i would tend to recommend skipping the introduction and reading it at the end, as it doesn't add much and sort of colors one's impressions of the book.
enjoy!!
Rare Account of Russian Arctic Exploration.......2003-12-21
This is an exceptionally interesting tale which was originally published in 1917 and that relates the tragedy of a doomed Russian Arctic expedition. After being icebound on the Saint Anna for two years far to the north of Siberia, Albanov, the navigator, opted to abandon the trapped ship to make a perilous push for the Franz Josef archipelago, attempting to travel a couple of hundred miles over the ice pack by way of crudely fashioned sledges and kayaks. Ten of the 23 crewmen chose to accompany him. Those who stayed behind, including the captain and the nurse (a rare Western female figure in Arctic journeys--Inuit women sometimes show up in these expeditions but other than this nurse, I haven't read about any European or American women joining up for any travels, except in a footnote in this volume which noted the wife of another Russian explorer tagged along with him and died horribly in the 1750s in Yakutsk)...were never seen again. (Although Russian scholars speculate that it's possible that the ship eventually drifted free again into the Atlantic and might have sailed for Norway, because Nansen's Fram had proven this could be done. Unfortunately, since the remaining crew would have had no way of knowing that WWI had broken out in the meantime, and the North and Barents Seas were swarming with German U-boats, they would've been sunk on sight.)
Most of Albanov's diary was lost in the 90-day struggle towards salvation, so he starts his book right at the point at which he and his group left the ship, saying little about the preceding two years. Later, after rescue, he consulted the remaining diary pages and padded them out to form the bulk of this slim narrative.
One of the things that I found most interesting was that Albanov's whole plan hinged on the accuracy of Nansen's map of the Franz Josef Archipelago, which had been included in a book about that earlier expedition. In that volume in the ship's library, Nansen had told how he and a comrade had wintered at Cape Flora on Northbrook Island in a camp that had been established by still an earlier explorer, the Englishman Jackson. So Albanov, without a means to establish longitude and only able to calculate latitude periodically, was relying on a tentative map of a poorly explored region in order to find a camp that had likely not been visited for several years in the hope that supplies could be found there. At one point, he basically had to guess whether to turn east or west, knowing that if he chose wrong, he would end up hiking away from the archipelago and out into the void.
The other really interesting thing about Albanov's story is the frank way he talks about his companions, calling them lazy and indolent imbeciles without curiousity, foresight, or motivation, and going so far as to note at one point that "they seemed to be engaged in a competition to determine who was the most useless". At every step, he has to verbally flog them forward, because they're constantly kvetching and moaning about hunger and fatigue, and the moment he stops haranguing them, they basically grind to a halt and lay about, staring at the sky. They were able to shoot seals and polar bears from time to time, although it seems that at one point, they narrowly avoided an ignominious death from essentially digestive disorders. (Polar bears are rife with trichinosis, and people can also die from Vitamin A overdose by eating their livers, and it is speculated that one or the other of these problems led to the death of the stranded Andree balloon expedition, the bodies of whose members were not found until 30 years later.) This all-meat diet (after they had run out of biscuit), however, led to severe malnutrition and was probably the cause of death for two members and may also explain why most of the others became listless and wanted to do nothing but stop and sleep.
Also, it's quite interesting to consider the degree to which national characters or cultures are reflected in these expeditions. The English, of course, cornered the market on noble and heroic outright failures, in which everyone suffered tragically and died stoically for the Empire, keeping order and decorum to the end, most notably in Scott's attempt to reach the South Pole. The Americans devolved into murder (the Jeanette expedition, at least as speculated in Weird and Tragic Shores), mutiny and cannibalism (the Greely expedition), and lying and fraud (Frederick Cook). The Scandanavians (with the exception of Andree's quixotic attempt) were pragmatic and low-key (Nansen's farthest-north record was achieved specifically by letting the Fram get frozen into the pack ice so that it would slowly be carried by the currents across the Arctic Sea until he could make a run at the pole by foot). The Russians stereotypically appeared to be fatalistic and indifferent. Of course, the fact that the expedition was extraordinarily badly planned and that half of the crew consisted of whatever idlers and riffraff where found at the very last moment at the wharves at Murmansk could explain why virtually no one seemed to display admirable moral qualities.
This is a very fascinating account about an Arctic journey that few in the English-speaking world had known about until 2000 when the first edition of this book was released. (German and French translations had been published in the 1920s.) Even in Russia it seems that Albanov's ordeal had attracted little interest. The man who was behind organizing this English translation discovered virtually by accident that Russian scholars also had the original diary of the only other survivor but could scarcely be bothered to consult it because the diarist was a mere sailor. The details from this document shed a whole new light on key sections of Albanov's story and are told in an epilogue that had not been prepared in time for the hardback edition.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who dabbles in the exploration genre. It's truly fascinating stuff and told in a way that is fresh and intriguing. It's a story that should be better known.
Average customer rating:
- A Fascinating Tale of Old Death Valley
|
The White Heart of Mojave: An Adventure with the Outdoors of the Desert (American Land Classics)
Edna Brush Perkins
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
California
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
History
| Women's Studies
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Travel
| Writing
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Conservation
| Environment
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Conservation
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Essays & Travelogues
| Reference & Tips
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
Ecotourism
| Specialty Travel
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
Pacific
| West
| Regions
| United States
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
General
| California
| States
| United States
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
North America
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Outdoors & Nature
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Reference
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Travel
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The New Desert Reader
-
The Opal Desert: Explorations of the American Southwest
ASIN: 0801865050 |
Book Description
An ardent early suffragette, Edna Brush Perkins set out in 1920 with her friend, Charlotte Hannahs Jordan, to journey into the Mojave, both women seeking to escape civilization and their struggle to secure voting rights for women. The Mojave at that time was considered to be a desolate, inaccessible region--part of the fading American frontier. Originally published in 1922, The White Heart of Mojave is Perkins' account of this journey.
Perkins' evocative writing describes the landscape and the people she encounters. As editor Peter Wild writes, this is ultimately the story of two wealthy women who enter Death Valley "as a sort of middle-aged lark" and "emerge from the trip profoundly changed."
Customer Reviews:
A Fascinating Tale of Old Death Valley.......2004-05-07
The White Heart of Mojave is an old classic of desert literature, recently brought back into print as part of the American Land Classics series. Centered around an adventurous trip through Death Valley by two women in the 1920s, it gives a fascinating glimpse into the region and some of its eccentric inhabitants before it became a National Park and popular tourist destination. The book was written at a time when real American wilderness was beginning to disappear, and the deserts were first coming to be appreciated for their remoteness and solitude and austere beauty, rather than as simply wastelands to be exploited for mineral resources. Edna Brush Perkins, along with a few other desert pioneers like Mary Austen and John Van Dyke, was among the first to contribute to a greater understanding and appreciation of the great American deserts. Aside from its historical significance, though, the book is well written and is sure to be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in this harsh but fascinating region.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Arctic, published by Arctic Institute of North America of the University of Calgary on June 1, 2001. The length of the article is 1375 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: IN THE LAND OF WHITE DEATH. By VALERIAN ALBANOV.(Review)
Author: Chauncey C. Loomis
Publication:
Arctic (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 2001
Publisher: Arctic Institute of North America of the University of Calgary
Volume: 54
Issue: 2
Page: 190
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Average customer rating:
|
The Civil War in West Texas and New Mexico: The Lost Letterbook of Brigadier General Henry Hopkins Sibley (Southwestern Studies)
Henry Hopkins Sibley ,
Jerry Thompson , and
John P. Wilson
Manufacturer: Texas Western Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| 19th Century
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
New Mexico
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Texas
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Southwest
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Civil War
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Confederacy
| Civil War
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0874042836 |
Book Description
In 1862, far from the bloodied fields of Virginia and Tennessee, the Civil War raged in the desert Southwest. General Henry Hopkins Sibley marched what became the Army of New Mexico across the Texas Trans-Pecos to Fort Bliss. Driving north into the Mesilla Valley, Sibley hoped to overrun the Union's Fort Craig, push up the Rio Grande, seize the supply depot at Albuquerque, raise the Stars and Bars over Santa Fe, and march on Fort Union, another vital supply depot and the gateway to Colorado. The ultimate objective of the campaign purportedly was the eventual conquest of California, since a continental Confederate States of America stretching from Richmond to San Francisco might well speed diplomatic recognition by Great Britain and France, a vital necessity for the independence of the infant southern republic. The Civil War in West Texas and New Mexico provides new details of Sibley's grandiose and ill-fated dreams for a Confederate empire in the Southwest. Of the 147 letters in the letterbook, only eight have been published in the Official Records. In particular, the letters show how Sibley organized his small army, enlisted officers at the brigade and regimental levels, and sought to supply it with arms and equipment. In addition, as many as 150 individuals, many of them well known, are named in the letterbook. This new study makes for important reading for anyone interested in the Civil War.
Average customer rating:
- The Good The Bad and The Ugly was based on this Campaign
|
Confederate General of the West: Henry Hopkins Sibley
Jerry D. Thompson
Manufacturer: Texas A&M University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
United States Civil War
| Military
| Leaders & Notable People
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Civil War
| United States
| Historical
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| 19th Century
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Civil War
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Confederacy
| Civil War
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Colonial Period
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Military Science
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Bloody Valverde: A Civil War Battle on the Rio Grande, February 21, 1862
ASIN: 0890967059 |
Customer Reviews:
The Good The Bad and The Ugly was based on this Campaign.......2000-10-30
General Sibley was in charge of the Confederate Army that invaded New Mexico in 1862. He drank a bit! This bit of Civil War history never makes it into the books. This book is very informative and is very good reading. In "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" this is the Civil War campaign that the film is based around.
Book Description
In this informed and comprehensive assessment of current issues in international politics, Kenneth W. Thompson addresses the role that traditions and values play in shaping change and in helping us to understand its implications.
Amazon.com
Although matters have been improving somewhat in recent years, industrial agriculture has historically damaged the land. Stephanie Mills, one of the leading proponents of the bioregional movement, a place-based environmental consciousness that has grown from a nice idea of the '60s into a powerful ethic, tackles a hard question head-on: How do we reconcile economic growth with conserving, or better, preserving wild places? In this book marked by good writing and good thinking, Mills proposes a program for restoring the land's poor cousins--overlogged forests and played-out fields, wildcat dumps and silted-up rivers--to something of their former health.
Book Description
"An instruction manual, a field guide to a sustainable lifestyle, and a glimmer of hope in a damaged world." —Katie Hennessey,Utne Reader
Books:
- Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone
- Jefferson's Secrets: Death And Desire In Monticello
- John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights
- Learning to Love: Exploring Solitude and Freedom (Merton, Thomas//Journal of Thomas Merton)
- Legend: The Life and Death of Marilyn Monroe
- Letters of a Woman Homesteader
- Living In Hell: A True Odyssey of a Woman's Struggle in Islamic Iran Against Personal and Political Forces
- Lost In Place: Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia
- Love Is Stronger Than Death: The Mystical Union of Two Souls
- MADAME SADAYAKKO. The Geisha Who Bewitched the West.
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- From Silence to Voice: What Nurses Know And Must Communicate to the Public, Second Edition
- Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups, Vol. 2
- Back When We Were Grownups: A Novel
- Beyond the Horizon
- Art of Bird Photography: The Complete Guide to Professional Field Techniques
- Clincial Laboratory Science Review
- Critique of Dialectical Reason, Volume One
- Serials Guide to Ethnoart: A Guide to Serial Publications on Visual Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the
- Adventuring in Central America: Guatemala Belize Honduras El Salvador Nicaragua Costa Rica Panama
- Marine Algae of the Monterey Peninsula California
ICE MASTER, THE: THE DOOMED 1913 VOYAGE OF THE KARLUK
Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic
Ice Blink: The Tragic Fate of Sir John Franklin's Lost Polar Expedition
The Last Place on Earth (Modern Library Exploration)
Farthest North (Modern Library Exploration)
