Ninety Degrees North: The Quest for the North Pole

by Fergus Fleming

Book Overview

In the nineteenth century, theories about the North Pole ran rampant. Was it an open sea? Was it a portal to new worlds within the globe? Or was it just a wilderness of ice? When Sir John Franklin... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802117252
• ISBN13: 9780802117250
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Grove/Atlantic
• Length: 470 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating Book

This book is not only a wonderful look at the fascinating men who were obsessed with reaching the North Pole, but with the fascination that unknown lands have on the human imagination. I was impressed with how foreign the concept of the North Pole was until it was reached. It was as mysterious to people back then as Mars is now, if not more so. Some theorists believed a whole other world was located in the center of Earth, accessible only by the Pole, and which housed a whole different race of people. The hardships that these men willingly endured just to be able to put their flag up and name a spot on the map and for the glory of it, simply amazed me. A terrific read without a slow spot in the whole thing. On top of it Fleming is a terrific wordsmith who has a really funny take on things at times. Get it.

Well Done Examination of Arctic Exploration

Fergus Fleming's Ninety Degrees North is a wonderful synthesis of the many treks to be the first to the north pole during the latter half of the nineteenth century and the first quarter of the twentienth century. Many recent books are available covering each of these individual expeditions in more detail but this is the best one for combining all of them in a focused well-presented manner which will allow the novice Arctic reader a chance to glimpse all of these men in all their derring-do and will also allow the more experienced Arctic aficionado the chance to follow the myriad of themes throughout the many, often very sad, trips to the top of the world. All of major characters are here. Particularly well presented is the controversies surrounding Cook and the quite awful Peary. A highly entertaing and enriching book.

Courage, Folly, and Deceit

Another winner by Fergus Fleming. This work traces the exploration of the arctic during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While no one expedition is examined in detail, Fleming does a great job of presenting a survey of the numerous efforts to explore the arctic or, more correctly, to reach the north pole.With seriousness, wit, and sometimes sarcasm, Fleming not only traces the geographical wanderings and experiences of the various expeditions, he also presents the motivations and schemes behind the expeditions. Fleming is not afraid to expose fools or to reveal dishonesty where it appears. He is also not afraid to acknowledge courage and ambition.A wonderful read that I highly recommend.

Another winner from Fergie Fleming.

Fleming has made this territory (arctic exploration) his own. He writes fluently, shrewdly and often wittily. While he celebrates the heroism of these men, he is not afraid to view their motivations with a jaundiced eye and delights in the politics and controversies as much as in the gripping stories of the harrowing treks that mostly stopped short of the North Pole.He is wonderful on the characters and personalites of the many larger than life characters that made the effort and is especially good in his portrayal of the titanic Peary. This is the third book of Fleming's I have devoured ravenously; he is an old fashioned master of narrative story-telling. I am ready to suit up and travel hopefully to whatever destination his next opus takes us. Bravo!(And note the photo of Dr.Cook--a ringer for Rasputin if I'm not mistaken.)

First to the Pole

British author Fergus Fleming follows up his extroadinarily entertaining "Barrow's Boys" (about the early 19th century golden age of British exploration) with "Ninety Degrees North," another fascinating portrayal of men driven to go where no one had previously gone before. The narrative of Fleming's book covers the quest to stand literally on top of the world that began in earnest in the wake of the disappearance of British explorer Sir John Franklin while searching for the fabled Northwest Passage in 1845.Fleming reconts each expedition individually and chronologically, retelling the compelling horrors that befell men such as the hapless George DeLong and Charles Francis Hall. He describes in vivid detail what it was like to exist in a climate where the temperatures sometimes reached 100 degrees below zero. Men watched helplessly as their ships became trapped and slowly crushed by the polar ice pack and faced sledging journeys of hundred of miles with little food or shelter. Fleming recounts the numerous mistakes that were made both theoretical (the persistant belief that the pole was covered by open water) and pratical (the fact that scurvey continued to haunt the explorers even after they figured out how to stop it).Slowly but surely, as each expedition added to knowledge about the perils of Arctic travel and technology slowly improved, men penetrated farther north until finally Robert Edwin Peary claimed the ultimate prize in 1909.Fleming is a gifted writer and storyteller and his book makes for terrific reading in front of a fireplace with a mug of hot chocolate on a cold winter night.