Shackleton's Dream: Fuchs, Hillary and the Crossing of Antartica
Author(s): Stephen Haddelsey (Author)
Publisher: The History Press Ltd
Publication Date: 1 Feb. 2012
Edition: Illustrated
Language: English
Print length: 272 pages
ISBN-10: 9780752459264
ISBN-13: 9780752459264
Book Description
In 1914 Sir Ernest Shackleton embarked on what he called The last great polar journey the crossing of Antarctica. His expedition ended in disaster, with the Endurance crushed and the frozen corpses of three explorers left on the Antarctic plateau. Forty years later Vivian Fuchs and Edmund Hillary, the hero of Everest, set out to succeed where Shackleton had failed. Despite the passage of four decades, the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1955 58 encountered many of the obstacles that had so hindered Shackleton a chronic shortage of funds, inadequate equipment and an early onset of pack-ice. Even more disastrously, it also suffered from a clash of personalities so severe that it came close to destroying the expedition from within. Here is a full dramatic retelling of the epic Race to the Pole , between Vivian Fuchs and Edmund Hillary from1955-58. Haddelsey explores the often antagonistic relationship of two giants of twentieth-century exploration. The clash of personalities was so severe that it came close to destroying the expedition from within. This is based on previously unpublished material, including interviews with the survivors, and contemporary diaries and letters. Included are dramatic original photographs, both in colour and black and white.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Haddelsey’s Shackleton’s Dream is a timely and compelling study of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition. It should go a very long way to redress the balance. Unless new material comes to light in future years, this fine book will surely remain a definitive work. Without question, the Bunny Fuchs s astonishing expedition deserves such a book as this. –Stephen Scott-Fawcett, Journal of James Caird Society (the premier Shackleton society) in March 2012
The heroic story of a Cambridge explore’s death-defying trek across Antarctica has been retold nearly sixty years on. In the 1950s, Sir Vivian Fuchs, accompanied by the conqueror of Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary, led a remarkable mission to cross the frozen wastes of Antrctica. Today fuchs is all but forgotten – a travesty given his enormous achievements in Antarctica which, in the eyes of some, far exceed those of Scott, Shackleton and others. The story of the expedition is extraordinary, not least for the clash of personalities between Fuchs and his second in command, Hillary…..the explorer, who went on to become the director of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, and who died in 1999, spoke about his brushes with death, including the Snocat escape. He said ‘I was lucky – I managed to get out on to the roof. But to be honest, I was more concerned about how to get the vehicle across to the other side’. –Cambridge News
A thoroughly researched, well-referenced look at ‘the lasy great journey on earth’. Despite having no direct correlation to the Scott centenary, Haddelsey’s account of the battle of wills between Vivian Fuchs and Everest-hero Edmund Hillary is so lovingly crafted as to deserve its place on the heaving Antarctic bookshelf. Rather than relying on previously published literature on the 1955-58 expedition, the author conducted interviews with survivors Ken Blaiklock, Richard Brooke, John Claydon, Rainer Goldsmith and Roy Homard. He also references the personal diaries of Fuchs, Hal Lister and George Lowe. This is a gem, which should not have remained unpublished until today. Just don’t read it if you hold a candle to Hillary – there is no love lost in this storytelling. –Wanderlust
Book Description
The first book to reveal the dramatic true story of the crossing of Antarctica
About the Author
Stephen Haddelsey is the author of two books for The History Press, Ice Captain: The Life of Joseph Russell Stenhouse, and Born Adventurer: The Life of Frank Bickerton, Antarctic Pioneer. He has also contributed to six titles in the Penguin Historical Atlas series. He lives in Nottinghamshire.
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