Sledging over a pressure ridge, 1909.
Image from Robert Peary as he portrayed himself in his 1910 book, The North Pole (New York: Stokes, 1910)
Peary shown calculating the latitude at the North Pole camp, 1909.
Image from Robert Peary as he portrayed himself in his 1910 book, The North Pole (New York: Stokes, 1910)
Igloo used by Peary and his sledge party at the North Pole camp, 1909.
Image from Robert Peary as he portrayed himself in his 1910 book, The North Pole (New York: Stokes, 1910)
Peary’s calculation of the sun’s altitude at noon on April 7, 1909, purporting to find a latitude of 89°50'37'' north, putting the party virtually at the North Pole.
Images from Robert Peary as he portrayed himself in his 1910 book, The North Pole (New York: Stokes, 1910)
Peary’s ceremonial photograph at the North Pole camp, April 7, 1909. (From left to right:) Ooqueah, Ootah, Matthew Henson, Egingwah, and Sigloo.
Image from Robert Peary as he portrayed himself in his 1910 book, The North Pole (New York: Stokes, 1910)
Four members of Peary’s North Pole expedition aboard the Roosevelt posing for a photograph on one of the sledges from the North Pole, 1909. (From left to right:) Donald MacMillan, George Borup, Roosevelt first mate Thomas Gushue, and Matthew Hensen.
The Peary-Cook controversy as portrayed on the cover of a New York humor magazine, highlighting the unseemly lure of lecture receipts and book royalties, 1909.
An editorial cartoon showing Peary and Frederick Cook as vultures racing back from the North Pole, 1909.
The gold metal awarded to Peary by the National Geographic Society in recognition of reaching the North Pole, 1909.
Images from Robert Peary as he portrayed himself in his 1910 book, The North Pole (New York: Stokes, 1910)
The author’s photograph of Peary’s Eagle Island, Maine, summer home and retirement retreat following the polar controversy.
Ernest Shackleton as he portrayed himself in the frontispiece of his 1909 book, In the Heart of the Antarctic.
Image from E. H. Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic: Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–1909, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1909)
King Edward VII, Queen Alexandra, and the Prince of Wales (the future King George V), on the Nimrod with Ernest Shackleton, 1908.
Image from E. H. Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic: Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–1909, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1909)
The Nimrod in the Ross Sea ice pack, 1908.
Image from E. H. Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic: Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–1909, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1909)
An interior diagram of the Nimrod Expedition’s winter quarters at Cape Royds, showing the elevated gas-lighting system and cramped living space.
Image from E. H. Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic: Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–1909, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1909)
The Nimrod Expedition’s shore party at their winter quarters with the Victrola, 1908.
Image from E. H. Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic: Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–1909, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1909)
Bernard Day driving the Arrol-Johnston automobile on the sea ice at Cape Royds, 1908.
Image from E. H. Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic: Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–1909, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1909)
The climbing party led by Edgeworth David at the crater’s edge on the summit of Mount Erebus, 1908.
Image from E. H. Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic: Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–1909, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1909)
Ernest Shackleton, Eric Marshall, Jamison Adams, and Frank Wild with their ponies Socks, Grisi, Quan, and Chinaman, marching south across the Ross Ice Shelf, 1908.
Image from E. H. Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic: Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–1909, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1909)
Looking south from Mount Hope toward the Beardmore Glacier with its “Golden Gateway” on the right, 1908.
Image from E. H. Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic: Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–1909, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1909)
Lower Glacier Depot near the base of Beardmore Glacier, 1909.
Image from E. H. Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic: Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–1909, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1909)
(From left to right:) Ernest Shackleton, Frank Wild, and Jamison Adams in a photograph taken by Eric Marshall at the flag marking their farthest south on the Polar Plateau, January 9, 1909.
Image from E. H. Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic: Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–1909, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1909)
Forbes Mackay, Edgeworth David, and Douglas Mawson, with their tent and sledge, on the Great Ice Plateau, 1909.
Image from E. H. Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic: Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–1909, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1909)
Photograph of Douglas Mawson, ca. 1915.
Image courtesy of the Library of Congress
Portrait of Edgeworth David, 1922.
Image from David Starr Jordon, The Days of a Man: Being Memories of a Naturalist, Teacher, and Minor Prophet of Democracy (Yonkers-on-Hudson, NY: World Book, 1922)
The route of the northern sledge party from Cape Royds to the south magnetic pole, 1908–09.
Image from E. H. Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic: Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–1909, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1909)
(From left to right:) Forbes Mackay, Edgeworth David, and Douglas Mawson in a photograph taken at the flag marking the south magnetic pole, January 16, 1909.
Image from E. H. Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic: Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–1909, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1909)
The southern sledge party upon its return to the Nimrod, 1909.
Image from E. H. Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic: Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–1909, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1909)
“The greatest story of exploration”: An advertisement for Ernest Shackleton’s magazine account of the Nimrod Expedition, 1909.
Image from Illustrated London News (1909)
The author’s photograph of the Nimrod Expedition’s Cape Royds hut as it appeared in 2004, with stables and a car port on the left and Mount Erebus rising in the background.
Photograph courtesy of the author.
About the Author
EDWARD J. LARSON is University Professor of history and holds the Hugh & Hazel Darling Chair in Law at Pepperdine University. He received the Pulitzer Prize in History for Summer for the Gods and a National Outdoor Book Award for An Empire of Ice. His other books include the New York Times bestseller The Return of George Washington. Larson is a past fellow of the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. He lives in Georgia and California.
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Also by Edward J. Larson
The Return of George Washington: Uniting the States, 1783–1789
An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton, and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science
A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America’s First Presidential Campaign
Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate over Science and Religion
Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory
Trial and Error: The American Controver
sy over Creation and Evolution
Evolution’s Workshop: God and Science on the Galapagos Islands
Sex, Race, and Science: Eugenics in the Deep South
George Washington, Nationalist
On Faith and Science (with Michael Ruse)
Copyright
TO THE EDGES OF THE EARTH. Copyright © 2018 by Edward Larson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Title page photograph Alinari Archives/Getty Images
Maps by Virginia Norey
Cover Design by Alicia Tatone
Cover Photographs © Antar Dayal/Getty Images (Globe); © Alfredo Dagli Orti/Rex/Shutterstock (Figure, Right); © Vittorio Sella (Background)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
Digital Edition MARCH 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-256451-1
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-256447-4
Version 02082018
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