Full name: The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen

Author: Stephen R. Bown Year: 2012 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Biographies, History, Travel Purchase/reserch links: Amazon Goodreads eBooks.com LibraryThing ISBNs: 9780306820670 0306820676

unravels the life of the man who stands head and shoulders above all those who raced to map the last corners of the world. In 1900, the four great geographical mysteries - the Northwest Passage, the Northeast Passage, the South Pole, and the North Pole - remained blank spots on the globe. Within twenty years Roald Amundsen would claim all four prizes. Renowned for his determination and technical skills, both feared and beloved by his men, Amundsen is a legend of the heroic age of exploration, which shortly thereafter would be tamed by technology, commerce, and publicity. Féted in his lifetime as an international celebrity, pursued by women and creditors, he died in the Arctic on a rescue mission for an inept rival explorer. Stephen R. Bown has unearthed archival material to give Amundsen's life the grim immediacy of Apsley Cherry-Garrard's , the exciting detail of , and the suspense of a Jon Krakauer tale. is both a thrilling literary biography and a cracking good story. Similar books: Madness, Betrayal and the Lash by Stephen R. Bown Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure by Matthew Algeo The Devil Drives by Fawn M. Brodie Captain James Cook by Richard Hough Younghusband by Patrick French Ryszard Kapuscinski by Artur Domoslawski The Wilder Shores of Love by Lesley Blanch First Light by Geoffrey Wellum Jonathan Edwards by Iain H. Murray Hoover by Kenneth Whyte The Shorter Pepys by Samuel Pepys Heart of a Soldier by James B. Stewart Improbable Patriot by Harlow Giles Unger A Rage for Glory by James Tertius de Kay Wilson by A. Scott Berg The Education of Ronald Reagan by Thomas W. Evans Daniel Webster by Robert V. Remini Henry Clay by Robert V. Remini American Phoenix by Sarah S. Kilborne Black Sheep One by Bruce Gamble