The Ice Balloon: S. A. Andree and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration
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Alec Wilkinson. (2012). The Ice Balloon: S. A. Andree and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

Alec Wilkinson. 2012. The Ice Balloon: S. A. Andree and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

Alec Wilkinson, The Ice Balloon: S. A. Andree and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2012.

Alec Wilkinson. The Ice Balloon: S. A. Andree and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2012.

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keywords

1. • value: Biography
2. • value: Historical
3. • value: anthropology
4. • value: explorers
5. • value: Nature
6. • value: arctic
7. • value: World History
8. • value: Adventure
9. • value: mountain climbing
10. • value: fitness
11. • value: Antarctica
12. • value: Travel
13. • value: arctic exploration
14. • value: survival
15. • value: caves
16. • value: History
17. • value: exploration
18. • value: polar
19. • value: Bucket list
20. • value: travel books
21. • value: adventure book
22. • value: travel book
23. • value: adventure books
24. • value: history books
25. • value: historical books
26. • value: gifts for history buffs
27. • value: alec Wilkinson
28. • value: travel gifts
29. • value: history gifts
30. • value: traveling books
31. • value: history buff gifts
32. • value: history lovers gifts
33. • value: history teacher gifts
34. • value: Travel Adventure Books
35. • value: adventure gifts
36. • value: teacher christmas gift

creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Wilkinson, Alec
   • bioText: Alec Wilkinson began writing for The New Yorker in 1980. Before that he was a policeman in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, and before that he was a rock-and-roll musician. He has published nine other books—two memoirs, two collections of essays, three biographical portraits, and two pieces of reporting—most of which first appeared in The New Yorker. His honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lyndhurst Prize, and a Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. He lives with his wife and son in New York City.
   • name: Alec Wilkinson

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Vintage

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2012-01-24T00:00:00-05:00

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title

The Ice Balloon

fullDescription

In this grand and astonishing tale, Alec Wilkinson brings us the story of S. A. Andrée, the visionary Swedish aeronaut who, in 1897, during the great age of Arctic endeavor, left to discover the North Pole by flying to it in a hydrogen balloon. Called by a British military officer “the most original and remarkable attempt ever made in Arctic exploration,” Andrée’s expedition was followed by nearly the entire world, and it made him an international legend.
 
The Ice Balloon begins in the late nineteenth century, when nations, compelled by vanity, commerce, and science, competed with one another for the greatest discoveries, and newspapers covered every journey. Wilkinson describes how in Andrée several contemporary themes intersected. He was the first modern explorer—the first to depart for the Arctic unencumbered by notions of the Romantic age, and the first to be equipped with the newest technologies. No explorer had ever left with more uncertainty regarding his fate, since none had ever flown over the horizon and into the forbidding region of ice.
 
In addition to portraying the period, The Ice Balloon gives us a brief history of the exploration of the northern polar regions, both myth and fact, including detailed versions of the two record-setting expeditions just prior to Andrée’s—one led by U.S. Army lieutenant Adolphus Greely from Ellesmere Island; the other by Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian explorer who initially sought to reach the pole by embedding his ship in the pack ice and drifting toward it with the current.
 
Woven throughout is Andrée’s own history, and how he came by his brave and singular idea. We also get to know Andrée’s family, the woman who loves him, and the two men who accompany him—Nils Strindberg, a cousin of the famous playwright, with a tender love affair of his own, and Knut Fraenkel, a willing and hearty young man.
 
Andrée’s flight and the journey, based on the expedition’s diaries and photographs, dramatically recovered thirty-three years after the balloon came down, along with Wilkinson’s research, provide a book filled with suspense and adventure, a haunting story of high ambition and courage, made tangible with the detail, beauty, and devastating conditions of traveling and dwelling in “the realm of Death,” as one Arctic explorer put it.

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: Jimmy So, The Daily Beast
   • content:

     "Once in a while you come across a book that so fully transfixes your imaginative gaze, it ceases to become a book but simply a story. . . In 1897, three men in a cold lonely balloon float toward the North Pole--and to their deaths. A haunting book."

2. • premium: False
   • source: Emily Donaldson, The Toronto Star
   • content: "A rare work of nonfiction whose sublimely understated writing rivals the inherent drama of the subject matter . . . Wilkinson gives us not only an exhilarating account of Swedish engineer S.A. Andrée's ill fated expedition, he offers a finely nuanced psychological portrait of a unique race of men--the Victorian-era Arctic explorers--and the age that produced them."
3. • premium: False
   • source: David B. Williams, The Seattle Times
   • content: "A gripping account of what has been called the heroic age of Arctic exploration."
4. • premium: False
   • source: Library Journal
   • content: "Entertaining and extremely well-written. This captivating story [is] essential for all avid readers of exploration and polar literature."
5. • premium: False
   • source: Kate Tuttle, Boston Globe
   • content: "Fabulous . . . Readers meet 'a parade of fanatics' who attempt to reach the Pole, discover what is there, and return alive."
6. • premium: False
   • source: Stephen J. Lyons, Minneapolis StarTribune
   • content: "[Wilkinson's] superb storytelling skills shine on every page. The descriptions that Andrée and his expedition mates wrote about the harsh but stunning Arctic landscape, and the slow, agonizing march to their inevitable deaths make for riveting armchair reading."
7. • premium: False
   • source: Sara Wheeler, The New York Times Book Review
   • content: "Wilkinson writes with insight and flair, artfully interleaving Andrée's story with a brief history of Arctic exploration. . . . [His] prose style suits the spare polar landscape, making his occasional poetic touches even more effective . . . And Wilkinson doesn't get bogged down in too much detail. He understands that the value of polar stories isn't to be found in guy ropes and provisions. It lies elsewhere, in our endless love of discovery and the drama of being human."
8. • premium: False
   • source: Kirkus Reviews
     

   • content: "Beautifully focused and controlled, Wilkinson, ever elegant and thorough, fleshes out his account by delineating the previous expeditions of Greely and Nansen in order to get at the motivations in the minds of this 'parade of fanatics heading for the deep places'."
9. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from February 13, 2012
     A reporter for The New Yorker since 1980, Wilkinson (The Protest Singer) recounts Swede S. A. Andrée's failed 1897 bid for the North Pole via hydrogen balloon (dubbed Örnen, or The Eagle) in this epic tale of adventure. Toward the end of the 19th century, global discovery was still a novelty, and though Andrée was one of many "thrill seekers…romantics… visionary dreamers," his mode of transport set him apart. Relying on Andrée's journal—discovered by a Norwegian sloop in 1930 along with Andrée's remains on a remote Arctic island—and extensive research, Wilkinson's anecdotal narrative is captivating, and he deftly conjures images of forbidding ice-white landscapes. A portrait not only of a man, but of an age, the book is packed with technological, geographic, cultural, and scientific tidbits. Andrée comes across as forward-thinking and cavalier, as well as disciplined and rational. However, Andrée's motives and reputation were, and still are, hotly debated—was he, as Urban Wrakberg sought to disprove, an "isolated dreamer out of touch with the real polar science and technology of his period," or a pioneer and catalyst for more than a century of discovery? Regardless, Wilkinson's book is a thrilling account of a remarkable man and, in the words of Alexis Machuron—a witness to Andrée and Örnen's departure—his daring exploration of "the sea, the ice-field and the Unknown!" Photos and maps.

10. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      December 15, 2011
      A tidy, methodical look into some of the perilous expeditions to the Arctic, especially S.A. Andrée's ill-fated hydrogen-balloon expedition of 1897. New Yorker writer Wilkinson (The Protest Singer, 2009, etc.) fixes on the explorers who set out with megalomaniacal intent in search of a Northwest Passage through the pitiless frigid northern regions, such as Henry Hudson, Sir John Franklin, Fridtjof Nansen and Adolphus Greely. When Swedish patent officer and engineer Andrée first proposed his plan to reach the North Pole by hydrogen balloon, the legendary American explorer Greely denounced the proposal as not viable. In fact, Andrée believed the Arctic ideal for aircraft travel, rather than sledge, which only ran into icy impediments. He proposed taking only two other men up in the balloon, steered by guide ropes and sails and bearing many innovations, and underwritten by Alfred Nobel and the king. Liftoff from Dane's Island had to be postponed a year because of unfavorable winds, but the balloon finally took off July 11, 1897, intending to reach the North Pole in three days. Once it vanished from sight, however, it took 33 years to learn more or less what happened to the men; the discovery in 1930 of their remains and diaries reveals that they did not reach the pole, but wrecked on land and died of exhaustion and cold as the winter set in. Wilkinson, ever elegant and thorough, fleshes out his account by delineating the previous expeditions of Greely and Nansen in order to get at the motivations in the minds of this "parade of fanatics heading for the deep places." Beautifully focused and composed.

      (COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

11. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      August 1, 2011
      

      In 1897, Swedish explorer S.A. Andree tried to discover the North Pole by flying there in a hydrogen balloon. The flight failed after three days, after which Andree and his two colleagues attempted a sledge ride back to civilization that lasted three months and ended in death on a frozen isle. Journalist/author Wilkinson (e.g., The Protest Singer) relies on the three aeronauts' diaries and photographs, discovered decades later. With books on the Arctic now showing up regularly, this should attract interest.

      Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

12. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      Starred review from January 1, 2012
      A writer known for discerning portraiture (The Happiest Man in the World, 2007), Wilkinson here probes the personality of Swedish explorer Salomon Andr'e, who, along with two companions, disappeared in an 1897 attempt to discover the North Pole by balloon. Their remains were found three decades later on an island near Spitzbergen, and from their accompanying diaries, letters, and photographs, Wilkinson narrates their flight and ensuing retreat toward civilization. That story of intrepid struggle caps Wilkinson's main interest in placing Andr'e within the tradition of exploration of the Arctic and adventurers' emotional responses to the icescapes. Unlike his contemporary, Fridtjof Nansen, an expressive explorer who in his writings exulted in the sublime scenery, Andr'e, an engineer, was a reticent man of facts and figures, one who comes to life a little resentfully, as if interrupted. Contemplating Andr'e's possible motivationsdesire for fame and scientific achievement, intention to prove the balloon was a practical aircraftWilkinson concludes that the cautious Andr'e became as zealous and wild-eyed as any fanatic who went off toward the unfound places. Wilkinson proves to be an evocative stylist and a solid historian in this fine addition to the annals of polar exploration.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

13. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      Starred review from February 1, 2012
      

      In 1897, Swedish national S.A. Andree and a crew of two attempted to fly from Spitsbergen to the North Pole and back via hydrogen balloon. Wilkinson (staff writer, The New Yorker; The Protest Singer: An Intimate Portrait of Pete Seeger) vividly describes this little-known Arctic expedition and provides details about late 19th-century ballooning. After being aloft for nearly 66 hours while traveling 517 miles, the balloon landed 300 miles short of the pole. Thus Andree, Nils Strindberg, and Knut Fraenkel began the hard work of crossing the Arctic to find land. The book recounts contemporary expeditions by Adolphus Greely, FridtjofNansen, and Charles Francis Hall, which provide historical context and flesh out the conditions met by Andree and his crew. Andree's journal abruptly ends with his landing on White Island after nearly three months of sledging. No one knows exactly how or when the men died, a fact that lends greater mystery to this unusual Arctic expedition. Andree's last camp and journals were not discovered until 1930. VERDICT Entertaining and extremely well written, this captivating story about an obscure Arctic expedition is an essential purchase for all avid readers of exploration and polar literature. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 7/18/11.]--Margaret Atwater-Singer, Univ. of Evansville Libs., IN

      Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

popularity

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In this grand and astonishing tale, Alec Wilkinson brings us the story of S. A. Andrée, the visionary Swedish aeronaut who, in 1897, during the great age of Arctic endeavor, left to discover the North Pole by flying to it in a hydrogen balloon. Called by a British military officer “the most original and remarkable attempt ever made in Arctic exploration,” Andrée’s expedition was followed by nearly the entire world, and it made him an international legend.
 
The Ice Balloon begins in the late nineteenth century, when nations, compelled by vanity, commerce, and science, competed with one another for the greatest discoveries, and newspapers covered every journey. Wilkinson describes how in Andrée several contemporary themes intersected. He was the first modern explorer—the first to depart for the Arctic unencumbered by notions of the Romantic age, and the first to be equipped with the newest technologies. No...

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S. A. Andree and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration

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2. • code: HIS051000
   • description: History / Expeditions & Discoveries
3. • code: TRV001000
   • description: Travel / Special Interest / Adventure