Book Report: To the Edges of the Earth
In 1909, three expeditions set off to capture the world’s four “poles.” An American team led by Robert Peary left hoping that on this attempt he’d finally be the first person to set foot on the North Pole. Another team meanwhile ventured south, intent on planting the English flag on the South Pole and, via a separate party, the Southern Magnetic Pole. Finally, an Italian expedition headed to the Himalaya, where it planned to reach the Earth’s so-called “Pole of Altitude,” by climbing K2, what was then believed to be the highest mountain in the world. Weaving the stories of these 1909 expeditions together into a cohesive narrative, Edward Larson’s To the Edges of the Earth is a must read for any lover of polar work.
A 2018 National Outdoor Book Award recipient, Larson’s work begins with a detailed survey of prior polar expeditions as well as the alpine efforts that aimed to claim the altitude pole. In tracing these histories, he introduces the readers to the book’s three protagonists: Peary, who’d made multiple efforts at reaching the North Pole before his 1909 attempt, the Duke of the Abruzzi, who’d climbed in the Alps, North America, and Africa, and Shackleton, who’d been involved in one of England’s first major efforts aimed at the South Pole.
While Larson uses the three expeditions as the vehicle to explore the “Age of Exploration,” his book is a much deeper study than a popular hero-worshiping of these “great races.” For example, Larson puts these stories within the broader context of the aristocratic origins of alpinism as well as the burgeoning outdoor movement of the late-1800s. He also shows the reader how aspirations of fame, recognition, and riches motivated the explorers, particularly Peary, and their decision making (often negatively, as he repeatedly mentions).
Also significant, Larson’s story gives voice to many of the expeditions’ other participants. Of particular note, Larson focuses on Matthew Henson, an African American who accompanied Peary on many polar expeditions and was with him when they—supposedly—reached the North Pole. Henson also tries to contemplate the perspectives of the Inuits who participated in Peary’s expedition, several of whom accompanied Peary all the way to the Pole and another who was his teen aged mistress and mother of his child. He does the same for the participants on the Duke’s expedition, although there his source material understandably seemed more limited.
Perhaps one of the hardest challenges Larson faced in Edges of the Earth was uniting the disparate stories of the multiple expeditions. He does a nice job threading that needle, almost seamlessly bouncing between the stories as they are going in 1909. All in all, it makes To the Edges of the Earth is well worth reading if you haven’t already.
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