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The Last Viking

The Life of Roald Amundsen

Contributors

By Stephen R. Bown

Formats and Prices

Price

$11.99

Format

Format:

  1. ebook $11.99
  2. Trade Paperback $21.99

The Last Viking 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. Féd 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 Worst Journey in the World, the exciting detail of The Endurance, and the suspense of a Jon Krakauer tale. The Last Viking is both a thrilling literary biography and a cracking good story.

On Sale
Sep 25, 2012
Page Count
400 pages
Publisher
Da Capo Press
ISBN-13
9780306821622

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Stephen R. Bown

About the Author

Stephen R. Bown is author of The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen and White Eskimo: Knud Rasmussen’s Fearless Journey into the Heart of the Arctic, which won the Williams Mills Award for the best book on the Arctic in 2016. His award-winning books, including Scurvy and Madness, Betrayal, and the Lash, have led to a reputation as “Canada’s Simon Winchester.”

Learn more about this author