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Author:

Cox, Lynne.

Title:

South with the sun : Roald Amundsen, his polar explorations, and the quest for discovery / by Lynne Cox.

Publisher:

Alfred A. Knopf,

Copyright Date:

c2011

Description:

p. cm.

Subject:

Amundsen, Roald,--1872-1928.
Amundsen, Roald,--1872-1928--Travel--Antarctica.
Explorers--Norway--Biography.
South Pole--Norwegian.--Norwegian.
Antarctica--Norwegian.--Norwegian.

Notes:

"A Borzoi Book." Includes index.

Summary:

A powerfully built man more than six feet tall, Amundsen's career of adventure began at the age of fifteen (he was born in Norway in 1872 to a family of merchant sea captains and rich ship owners). Twenty-five years later he was the first man to reach both the North and South Poles. The author, an adventurer and swimmer, author of Swimming to Antarctica, gives us in this new work a full-scale account of Amundsen's life and expeditions. We see Amundsen, in 1903-06, the first to travel the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, in his small ship Gjoa, a seventy-foot refitted former herring boat powered by sails and a thirteen-horsepower engine, making his way through the entire length of the treacherous ice bound route, between the northern Canadian mainland and Canada's Arctic islands, from Greenland across Baffin Bay, between the Canadian islands, across the top of Alaska into the Bering Strait. The dangerous journey took three years to complete, as Amundsen, his crew, and six sled dogs waited while the frozen sea around them thawed sufficiently to allow for navigation. We see him journey toward the North Pole in Fridtjof Nansen's famous Fram, until word reached his expedition party of Robert Peary's successful arrival at the North Pole. Amundsen then set out on a secret expedition to the Antarctic, and we follow him through his heroic capture of the South Pole. The author makes clear why Amundsen succeeded in his quests where other adventurer-explorers failed, and how his methodical preparation and willingness to take calculated risks revealed both the spirit of the man and the way to complete one triumphant journey after another. She also describes reading about Amundsen as a young girl and how his exploits inspired her to follow her dreams. We see how she unwittingly set out in Amundsen's path, swimming in open waters off Antarctica, then Greenland (always without a wetsuit), first as a challenge to her own abilities and then later as a way to understand Amundsen's life and the lessons learned from his vision, imagination, and daring.

ISBN:

0307593401
9780307593405

LCCN:

2011008637

Locations:

TYPH572 -- Cedar Rapids Public Library (Cedar Rapids)

CBPF522 -- Coralville Public Library (Coralville)

OJPC027 -- Corning Public Library (Corning)

YUPD232 -- DeWitt Community Library (De Witt)

PLAX964 -- Luther College - Preus Library (Decorah)

BAPH771 -- Des Moines Public Library (Des Moines)

NDPD953 -- Forest City Public Library (Forest City)

MXPG943 -- Fort Dodge Public Library (Fort Dodge)

ZYPE837 -- Harlan Community Library (Harlan)

NRPA983 -- Kensett Public Library (Kensett)

YEPF572 -- Marion Public Library (Marion)

GCPC771 -- Mitchellville Public Library (Mitchellville)

NMPC343 -- Nora Springs Public Library (Nora Springs)

D8PD522 -- North Liberty Community Library (North Liberty)

HPPD845 -- Orange City Public Library (Orange City)

MLPA343 -- Rudd Public Library (Rudd)

LAPH975 -- Sioux City Public Library (Sioux City)

FQPC224 -- Strawberry Point Public Library (Strawberry Point) — 919.8 COX

GEPG771 -- West Des Moines Public Library (West Des Moines)