Biography & Autobiography

Producer of Nanook of the North, Moana, Man of Aran, and other pioneering documentaries between 1920 and 1940, Robert J. Flaherty was America's first independent film artist. Popular conceptions of Flaherty have led many either to worship his work and regard him in mythical terms or to debunk him as a fraud and castigate him for lack of a social consciousness. Rarely has the attempt been made to understand him in the context of his times. This captivating study presents Flaherty through the eyes of someone who knew him personally—the brilliant British filmmaker and scholar Paul Rotha. A colleague and close friend of Flaherty, Rotha gives us s a powerfully written biography that is a balanced and intimate look at the life and work of an American genius.

Editor Jay Ruby has restored the Rotha biography, including a wealth of anecdotes, letters, and memoirs that begin to bring Robert Flaherty the man into focus. An especially valuable dimension of this work is the appraisal of Flaherty the filmmaker from the viewpoint of a major figure of the British industry. He summarizes in detail the critical response to Flaherty of his contemporaries, about which only sketchy information has previously been available.

Flaherty regarded himself as an explorer as well as a filmmaker. The exciting story of this biography takes us from the Arctic, where Flaherty spent years filming Nanook, to the South Pacific, England, the Aran Islands, and finally the United States. his courage and overarching vision resulted in an unprecedented recording of the human struggle and in documentary films that reached a wider audience than ever before.

What does it mean to be an explorer in the twenty-first century?

This is the story of what first led Benedict Allen to head for the farthest reaches of our planet - at a time when there were still valleys and ranges known only to the remote communities who inhabited them. It is also the story of why, thirty years later, he is still exploring. Benedict decides to journey back to a clouded mountain in New Guinea to find an old friend called Korsai, and to fulfil a promise they made as young men.

Explorer tells the story of what it means to be 'lost' and 'found'.

What does it mean to be an explorer in the twenty-first century?

Explorer is the story of what first led Benedict Allen to head for the farthest reaches of our planet - at a time when there were still valleys and ranges known only to the remote communities who inhabited them. It is also the story of why, thirty years later, he is still exploring. It's the story of a journey back to a clouded mountain in New Guinea to find a man called Korsai who had once been a friend, and to fulfil a promise made as young men. It is also a story of what it is to be 'lost' and 'found'.

Honest, sensitive and packed with insight, in Explorer Allen considers the lessons he has learnt from his numerous expeditions - most importantly, from the communities he has encountered: there is a value in disconnecting from all that we are familiar with, particularly in today's crowded world. And there is a value in connecting with worlds unfamiliar to us, some of whom have lived in harmony, not competition, with nature for generations.

We explore not to plant a flag, or leave a mark, but to open up and allow the place and people to leave their mark on us.

Dewey Soper first travelled to the Arctic in 1923. During the next seven years he accepted three research postings on Baffin Island, each of which lasted between one and two years. In 1929 he discovered the breeding grounds of the blue goose in the southwest corner of Baffin Island. He also charted the final unknown region of Baffin Island's coastline. Later in life he worked in the western Arctic. Outside the Far North, Soper studied bison in Wood Buffalo National Park, documented bird life on the Prairies, and made a detailed study of small mammals in Alberta.

Soper was the last of the great pioneer naturalists in Canada. He was also a skilled and meticulous explorer. As a naturalist, he was a major contributor to the National Museum of Canada, as well as to the University of Alberta and other museums across the country.

The working life of the distinguished surveyor Guy Blanchet reflects the story of northern Canada in the first half of the twentieth century. Beginning his career in the boreal forests of Alberta and Saskatchewan, using pack horses and dog teams, Blanchet went north to map large areas of the Barrens by canoe, and soon became caught up in pioneer northern aviation. His story encompasses the Great Depression and the Second World War, which in turn led to his work finding the routes for oil pipelines. His life was rich in contacts with First Nations people, and his friendships included most of the well-known northern travellers of the time. While Blanchet did not seek adventure, adventure often found him and he had many narrow escapes. While Blanchet published a number of articles about his experiences, this is the first time his fascinating life story has been told in book form.

George Mercer Dawson was indeed no ordinary man. Born in 1849, son of the first Principal of McGill University, Dawson defied health circumstances that would have defeated many people and went on to become one of our most exceptional Canadians.

As a geologist in the British North American Boundary Commission between Canada and the U.S.A. and as Director of the Geological Survey of Canada in 1895, Dawson examined and explored every aspect of Canada's unknown territories.

This collection of writings, letters, diaries and essays begins with the young George and moves through his developing years to his adult life.

"He climbed, walked and rode on horseback over more of Canada than any other member of the Geological Survey of Canada at that time -- yet to look at him, one would not think him capable of a day's hard physical labour .... It was his hand that first traced upon vacant maps the geological formations of the Yukon and much of British Columbia."
- Lois Winslow-Spragge

"To read about him is like taking a drink of water from a cool, unpolluted spring. His sense of values was so great that he once said he didn't care much for money or possessions. All he wanted was what he could hold in his canoe."
- Anne Byers, Ottawa

"We live, as we dream - alone." Sometimes our inner isolation is alleviated; in the aftermath of a cataclysmic event, rescuer and rescued meet, and loneliness is bridged.

This book of true stories shows ordinary people in extraordinary events - a ski accident, a missing child, thrilling sea rescues - that take place from snow-bound Labrador to the coast of California. It is about the lives of rescuers who search for life's meaning while engaging in deeds of heroism and compassion. It is about the aftermath of rescue. There are stories from each Canadian provinces and from the United States. Each is a story of action and inspiration.

As Bob and Mildred Lee, they amazed audiences with their death-defying motorcycle act. In reality they were Bob and Mildred Restall, parents of three, who balanced their glamorous show-business career with a happy, stable home life.

In October 1959, the Restalls embarked on the ultimate family adventure, as Bob led his family to the east coast of Canada to dig for the famous treasure of Oak Island. For nearly six years they lived without telephone, hydro, or running water while newspapers and magazines chronicled their attempts to solve the mystery of the Money Pit. On August 17, 1965, their quest ended in tragedy when four men died.

This biography, compiled by their daughter, includes material written by each family member. Lyrical descriptions of nature, amusing anecdotes, details of the dig, and numerous photographs help to tell the story. This book is a must for Oak Island enthusiasts.

Elizabeth Simcoe's diary, describing Canada from 1791 to 1796, is history written as it was being made. Created largely while she was seated in canoes and bateaux, the diary documents great events in a familiar way and opens our eyes to a side of Canadian history that is too little shown.

During her time in Upper Canada (now Ontario), Mrs. Simcoe encountered fascinating figures, such a explorer, Alexander Mackenzie, and Mohawk Chief, Joseph Brant. She took particular interest in the First Nations people, the social customs of the early settlers, and the flora and fauna of a land that contained a mere 10, 000 non-Natives in 1791. The realm she observed so vividly was quite alien to a woman used to a world of ball gowns, servants, and luxury in England, but the lieutenant-governor's wife was made of stern stuff and embraced her new environment with relish, leaving us with an account instilled with excitement and delight at everything she witnessed.

In 1607 Henry Hudson was an obscure English sea captain. By 1610 he was an internationally renowned explorer. He made two voyages in search of a Northeast Passage to the Orient and had discovered the Spitzbergen Islands and their valuable whaling grounds. In the process, Hudson had sailed farther north than any other European before him. In 1609, working for the Dutch, he had explored the Hudson River and had made a Dutch colony in America possible.

Sailing from England in 1610, on what would be his most famous voyage, Hudson began his search for the Northwest Passage through the Canadian Arctic. This was also his last exploration. Only a few of the men under his command lived to see England again. Hudson's expedition was one of great discovery and even greater disaster. Extreme Arctic conditions and Hudson's own questionable leadership resulted in the most infamous mutiny in Canadian history, and a mystery that remains unsolved.

James Douglas's story is one of high adventure in pre-Confederation Canada. It weaves through the heart of Canadian and Pacific Northwest history when British Columbia was a wild land, Vancouver didn't exist, and Victoria was a muddy village.

Part black and illegitimate, Douglas was born in British Guiana (now Guyana) in 1803 to a Scottish plantation owner and a mixed-race woman. After schooling in Scotland, the fifteen-year-old Douglas sailed to Canada in 1819 to join the fur trade. With roads non-existent, he travelled thousands of miles each year, using the rivers and lakes as his highways. He paddled canoes, drove dogsleds, and snowshoed to his destinations.

Douglas became a hard-nosed fur trader, married a part-Cree wife, and nearly provoked a war between Britain and the United States over the San Juan Islands on the West Coast. When he was in his prime, he established Victoria and secrured the western region of British North America from the Russian Empire and the expansionist Americans. Eventually, Douglas became the controversial governor of the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia and oversaw the frenzied Fraser and Cariboo gold rushes.

Born in Manitoba of Icelandic parents, Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879-1962) became one of Canada's most famous and controversial Arctic explorers. After graduate studies in anthropology at Harvard University, Stefansson lived with and studied Inuit in the Mackenzie River Delta in the Northwest Territories in the winter of 1906-07. In two subsequent expeditions he completed a major anthropological survey of the Central and Western Arctic coasts and islands of North America; located and lived with the Copper Inuit, a previously unknown group of aboriginal people; and discovered the world's last major land masses.

During his third and final great Arctic expedition from 1913 to 1918, some of Stefansson's men perished tragically, an outcome that severely damaged his reputation. Nevertheless, the hardy explorer contributed immensely to knowledge about the Far North, particularly in his championing of the "Friendly Arctic." Part scientist, part showman, Vilhjalmur Stefansson was truly unique among polar adventurers.

During the American Revolution and the border conflicts that followed, Simon Girty’s name struck terror into the hearts of U.S. settlers in the Ohio Valley and the territory of Kentucky. Girty (1741-1818) had lived with the Natives most of his life. Scorned by his fellow white frontiersmen as an "Indian lover," Girty became an Indian agent for the British. He accompanied Native raids against Americans, spied deep into enemy territory, and was influential in convincing the tribes to fight for the British.

The Americans declared Girty an outlaw. In U.S. history books he is a villain even worse than Benedict Arnold. Yet in Canada, Girty is regarded as a Loyalist hero, and a historic plaque marks the site of his homestead on the Ontario side of the Detroit River.

In Native history, Girty stands out as one of the few white men who championed their cause against American expansion. But was he truly the "White Savage" of legend, or a hero whose story was twisted by his foes?

This nonfiction book traces the childhood dreams of former Navy SEAL Marc Lonergan and the secret island world he created as a young boy. This is a story about a young man’s dreams becoming the reality of an adult. Starting at the age of ten, Marc played on an island in the forest behind his house and imagined himself as both a warrior and an explorer. He ultimately grows up to be a Navy SEAL/Sniper, and also travels the world on an expedition with one of our generation’s greatest sea captains, Sir Peter Blake. It is an epic quest to document the pulse points of the planet's health in Antarctica and the Amazon for National Geographic Channel and The Discovery Channel.

Following the tragic death of Sir Peter by pirates in the Amazon, Marc first works with the family of Jacques Yves Cousteau, as a mentor to his youngest son, then return to the world of combat with a classified government project. He risks his life to save innocent men, women, children; as well as his fellow warfighters on the streets of Baghdad, Iraq. To do this he battles elements of what has become current day ISIS, and ultimately defeat the enemy that hunts the ones he has sworn to protect. During his adventures, he finds the purpose of his life as that of a protector. His greatest challenge is finding redemption for the loss of those he felt he could have saved along his journey.

At 36 Jesse McNeil—at times carpenter, commercial fisherman, dabbler in real estate—decided to buy an untrained horse, make himself into a horseman, and ride all the way across the United States, from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.

A fiercely independent traveler, Jesse had navigated previous coast-to-coast trips— solo journeys by moped, bicycle, and small airplane. This time, however, he had a partner: a five-year-old Tennessee Walking Horse named Pepper. An inexperienced horseman with an equally inexperienced mount, Jesse would quickly discover the immense challenges of his new undertaking. Over the course of eight months and fourteen states—beginning in Oregon and ending on a beach in New Hampshire—he would be tested many times over as he learned not only what it took to keep Pepper safe and healthy, but the true value of qualities that he had once easily dismissed: patience and companionship.

The generosity of strangers, from helpful ranchers and storekeepers to suburban families, shaped the pair’s journey east. And while at some points the miles didn’t unfold as Jesse hoped, others yielded unexpected events that changed his perspective—and quite possibly, his future. Written with honesty, grit, and grace, On the Hoof captures an arduous voyage that broke a man down and built him back up, with the help of one special horse.

Rope Boy is the story of Dennis Gray, a young lad from Leeds who gets his first taste of rock at age eleven, and goes on to become a prominent figure in the UK climbing scene for decades to come.

Gray’s climbing career began with the ‘Bradford Lads’, climbing in Yorkshire, Scotland and Wales, exploring classic crags such as Clogwyn Du’r Arddu, tentatively venturing into an exciting new game, and inspired by the pioneering Arthur Dolphin. Just as the scene was rapidly developing in the 1950s, so was Gray’s desire to climb, and he was soon climbing with the Rock and Ice legends Joe Brown, Don Whillans and Nat Allen, among others, making first ascents such as North Crag Eliminate on Castle Rock in the Lake District and Grond on Dinas Cromlech in Wales.

Larger objectives beckoned, and Gray embarked upon multiple expeditions to the Alps as well as to the Himalaya, the Andes, and America, making numerous first ascents along the way including the north ridge of Alpamayo in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca, and Mukar Beh in the Kulu valley of India.

Rope Boy relays times of frustration, adventure and success, and the hilarious and dauntless friends with whom Gray shared his experiences. Dennis Gray’s transformation from rope boy to expedition leader is an inspiring and encouraging tale of one boy’s journey into adulthood via a world of rock, snow and ice.

‘A book grows rather like a snow crystal. One doesn’t write it from start to finish but, in greater or less degree, all at the same time … that is why my book is not in chronological order; for everything is of the present, held in the moment when thought captures it.’

Kurt Diemberger’s Summits and Secrets is a mountaineering autobiography like no other. Writing anecdotally, Diemberger provides an abstract look into his life and climbing career that is both fascinating and awe-inspiring to navigate.

Known for surviving the 1986 K2 disaster – an account described in harrowing detail in his award-winning book The Endless Knot – Diemberger provides a captivating insight into his earlier climbs in Summits and Secrets. From climbing his first peak in the Tyrol mountains of Austria, to the epoch-making first ascent of Broad Peak with Hermann Buhl in 1957, and then summiting Dhaulagiri in 1960, where he became one of only two people to have made first ascents of two mountains over 8,000 metres, Diemberger recounts his experiences with wit, honesty and an infectious enthusiasm:

‘Every climber knows the thrill … the unique inexplicable tension, which the regular shapes of the mountain world awake in him: huge pyramids, enormous rectangular slabs, piled-up triangles of rock, white circles, immense squares – the thrill of simplicity of shape and outline and the excitement of mastering them, to an unbelievable extent, by his own efforts, his own power … ’

Summits and Secrets is a must-read for those wanting an insight into the life and achievements of one of the toughest high-altitude climbers the world has ever known.

‘It is often from our setbacks, even our weaknesses, that we derive some of our greatest blessings.’

That Untravelled World is the autobiography of one of the greatest adventurers of the twentieth century. Eric Shipton was a pioneering explorer, journeying to places that did not feature on maps and to unexplored mountains, such as the High Dauphiné.

Shipton describes early childhood days filled with adventures; his first encounter with the high mountains on a visit to the Pyrenees, and the onset of his climbing career inspired by travels in Norway with a friend. He reminisces on first meeting infamous explorer H.W. ‘Bill’ Tilman, and their first expedition together to Mount Kenya. Tilman and Shipton were later to become one of the most famous climbing partnerships of all time.

Filled with anecdotes from different periods of his life, Shipton takes us on his journey from Kilimanjaro and Mount Stanley alongside Tilman, his discovery of the route to the Nanda Devi Sanctuary, summiting Mount Kamet with mountaineering icon Frank Smythe, and multiple expeditions to Everest.

First published in 1969, That Untravelled World is the story of an adventurer who, inspired by Edward Whymper, travelled to feral landscapes across the globe, and has in turn inspired generations of climbers and mountaineers.

The Story of my Boyhood and Youth is the affecting memoir of the now internationally renowned John Muir, a Scottish-American boy subject to a most unusual upbringing, his transition into adulthood, and the path that led him to petition for the concept of protected national parks.

Born in East Lothian, Scotland in 1838, Muir was raised by a fanatically strict, religious father with his numerous brothers and sisters and loving mother. From an early age, a shy Muir showed fascination with the natural world, and at aged eleven, his father announced the family were to move to an American wilderness in Wisconsin – Muir had a new playground.

His adolescence is spent labouring on the family’s grassroots farm. Working seventeen-hour days, an exhausted yet inquisitive Muir desperately snatches moments to himself, yearning to explore the environment around him, secretly studying books on topics other than religion, and rising at 1 a.m. to pursue his hobby of inventing intricate time and energy-saving devices – much to his father’s disapproval and everyone else’s admiration.

At age twenty-two, Muir takes it upon himself to apply to university, and does so without financial or moral support from his father. He makes his way to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study chemistry and botany, and though never graduating with a degree, he is satisfied that he had learned all he wanted to there, before completing the rest of his nature education in ‘the university of the wilderness’.

The Story of my Boyhood and Youth includes a new foreword by Terry Gifford, and offers insight into the development of Muir’s spiritual connection with the natural world, and suggests an explanation for his passion for freedom in the wilderness, a stark contrast to the forced rigidity of his early years.

For Chris Bonington and Charles Clarke, long-time friends and expedition partners, few mountains were more alluring than Sepu Kangri. Known locally as ‘the Great White Snow God’, Tibet’s nearly 7,000-metre mountain had never before been visited by Westerners. Armed only with a tourist map for reference, the two set off for this elusive peak in 1996.

In the reconnaissance and two expeditions that followed, neither of them were expecting to be profoundly impacted by their experiences. However, they not only met their match in Sepu Kangri, but both found their expertise pushed to the limit. While Clarke acted as a travelling doctor, treating myriad ailments encountered along the way, including a life-saving diagnosis of an ectopic pregnancy, Bonington’s love of technology saw him testing out cutting-edge satellite phones and computers, allowing them to communicate with the outside world for the first time on an expedition.

Tibet’s Secret Mountain is a story of discovery as much as it is an account of the expeditions, and it is this that sets it apart from other mountaineering memoirs. The focus not only on the climbing itself, but the experiences, people and tensions that accompany it, offers a poignancy that anyone with a love of adventure will identify with. Beautifully written and full of unfailing cheer, Tibet’s Secret Mountain is Bonington and Clarke’s love letter to mountaineering.

‘The mountains are crystal under the blue sky, as we climb up our untouched peak. This is why we climb.’

In this fast-paced, refreshingly honest account, Stephen Venables invites you on an adventure like no other. Delving deeply into the unknown, the unclimbed and the undiscovered, Painted Mountains details the stories of two very different expeditions: the first ascent of 6,000-metre Kishtwar-Shivling in the Indian Himalaya alongside Dick Renshaw, before embarking on an Indo-British Expedition led by Harish Kapadia to Rimo: the Painted Mountain.

‘Most of us are content to settle for some sort of compromise between the desire to survive and the desire to retain an element of uncertainty.’

Venables – the first Briton to climb Everest without oxygen – does not shy away from the obvious challenges that come hand-in-hand with tackling expeditions such as these; this account details the highs and the lows, the dropped equipment, the toll of extreme conditions and the shining successes of reaching a summit – all while retaining a sense of humour and an unwavering enthusiasm for the thrill of the climb. Venables’ get-up-and-go attitude makes this a delightful read; he is never one to shy away from an opportunity, be it arisen from a year-long dream or a spontaneous invite.

Painted Mountains is an invaluable education for anyone who is interested in the greater mountain ranges explored in this book, as well as an inspirational tale of the commitment to a dream, the birth of new friendships and the innumerable rewards of time spent in the mountains.

Quest for Adventure is a collection of stories written by Sir Chris Bonington looking at the adventurous impulse which has driven men and women to achieve the impossible in the face of Earth’s elements: crossing its oceans, deserts and poles; canoeing its rivers; climbing its mountains, and descending into its caves.

Bonington selects seventeen of the most thrilling expeditions and adventures of the mid-late twentieth century, uncovering the common thread that drives men and women to achieve the impossible. Following a new preface, he charts such outstanding achievements as Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki voyage across the Pacific Ocean; Francis Chichester’s round-the-world tour in his boat Gipsy Moth IV; the race for the first non-stop circumnavigation of the globe under sail; and Ice Bird’s sail around Antarctica.

Away from the ocean, the travels of one of the world’s most outstanding desert explorers, Wilfred Thesiger, are detailed, journeying through what is menacingly called the Empty Quarter. Bonington returns to familiar ground as he writes about some exceptional mountain adventures, including the 1970 ascent of the South Face of Annapurna; Hillary and Tenzing’s first ascent of Everest; Reinhold and Gunther Messner on Nanga Parbat; Andy Cave’s triumph and tragedy on Changabang; and the Warren-Harding-led first ascent of The Nose of El Capitan in Yosemite. Wally Herbert’s team crossing of the Arctic Ocean and the equally gruelling Fuchs/Hillary crossing of Antarctica are written about in detail.

More recent adventures include the race to make the first circumnavigation of the globe by balloon – a high-stakes race with a high-profile cast, including Richard Branson and Steve Fossett. Quest for Adventure concludes with an account of the cave diving epic the Dead Man’s Handshake, leaving the reader with a chill in their spine and an appreciation for the natural wonders below the Earth’s surface.

Bonington’s eloquent writing on a subject in which he is a passionate authority makes for a highly engrossing read for adventurers and armchair explorers alike.

When leading mountaineer Sir Chris Bonington was researching Quest for Adventure, his study of post-war adventure, he contacted Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first person to sail single-handed and non-stop around the world, for an interview. This simple request turned into an exchange of skills, which then grew into a joint expedition to Greenland’s unexplored Lemon Mountains. Sea, Ice and Rock is the story of this epic journey.

With both Bonington and Knox-Johnston having little experience in the other’s craft, their expedition was not without difficulty. But through one another’s support, the two men and their team sailed from Britain to Greenland, going on to twice attempt the Lemon Mountain’s forbidding highest peak, the Cathedral. Though their attempts ended in a dramatic descent, this could not dampen the unfailing optimism with which the two approached their task. They recount their experiences not only with appreciation for the awe-inspiring nature that surrounded them, but also for one another.

Layers of alternate narration between Bonington and Knox-Johnston make this a truly collaborative memoir. In the same way they exchanged skills on their expedition, the two authors rely on one another’s recollections to fill the gaps in their own. Full of ambition and perseverance, anyone wondering why Bonington and Knox-Johnston are masters in their fields need only read Sea, Ice and Rock.

‘It was Kongur that dominated everything, and was the focus of our gaze and aspirations.’

So thought Chris Bonington upon the Chinese Mountaineering Association's decision to open many of Tibet and China's mountains to foreigners in the 1980s. Not only did this mean that Kongur, China’s 7,719-metre peak, was available to climb, but that those choosing to do so would be among the first to set foot there. It was an opportunity too good to miss.

For the planned alpine-style ascent of this daunting peak, Bonington assembled a formidable team, including Peter Boardman, Joe Tasker, Al Rouse and expedition leader Michael Ward. Their reconnaissance and 1981 expedition brought opportunity for discovery and obstacles in equal measure: they were able to explore areas that had eluded westerners since Eric Shipton’s role as British Consul General in Kashgar in the 1940s; but appalling weather, unplanned bivouacs and tensions characterised their quest for the ever-elusive route to the summit.

Featuring diary extracts and recollections from each team member, this account not only captures the gripping detail of the ascent attempts, but also the ebb and flow of the relationships between the remarkable mountaineers involved. Add to this the pioneering medical work on high-altitude illnesses conducted by the four-man medical team, and the result is a book which captures a unique moment in mountaineering history.

Written with the cheer and eloquence typical of Chris Bonington, Kongur captures the essence of adventure and exploration that brings readers back to his books time and time again.

The Next Horizon, the second volume in Chris Bonington's autobiography after I Chose to Climb, picks up his story from 1962 and relates his subsequent adventures as a mountaineer, photographer, journalist and expedition leader alongside eminent climbers including Doug Scott and Don Whillans, throughout an extraordinary decade of adversity, thrill and discovery.

The book opens with a journey to Chile to climb the Central Tower of Paine. Bonington then recounts his ascents across the globe; from the Old Man of Hoy in Scotland, the Eiger in Switzerland, to Sangay in Ecuador to name but a few. He concludes in the summer of 1972 with preparations for his ambitious autumn Everest expedition.

This revealing narrative of Chris Bonington's experiences provides an insight into the charismatic generation of climbing personalities with whom he travelled, as well as his development into the celebrity we know today.

The Evidence of Things Not Seen is the autobiography of remarkable mountaineer, writer and environmentalist W.H. Murray. After being introduced to climbing in his early twenties, Murray’s relationship with the outdoors was shaped as much by his time on the mountains as away from them. His early Scottish climbs were brought to a halt by the Second World War, which saw him spend three years as a Nazi prisoner of war. These years were devoted to not only to philosophical study, but also to writing his classic Mountaineering in Scotland not once, but twice, on toilet paper.

The time to write about mountains only fuelled Murray’s enthusiasm to climb them. The regeneration in mountaineering that followed the war saw Murray complete three Himalayan expeditions, alongside other iconic figures such as Doug Scott, Tom MacKinnon and Tom Weir, and Eric Shipton. He not only explored Himalayan peaks never before attempted by westerners, but also established the crucial Khumbu Icefall route up Everest, which paved the way for the mountain’s first ascent in 1953.

Later life saw Murray return to Scotland and begin the fight to conserve the wild places that motivated him. From pioneering the John Muir Trust to fighting threats to forestry, Murray’s writing is laced with a philosophical edge and a contagious appreciation for Scotland’s wild places, capturing the essence of why Murray’s work has been inspiring readers for decades.

Written just before his death in 1996, and with a foreword by renowned Scottish mountaineer Hamish MacInnes, The Evidence of Things Not Seen is a must-read for anyone for which the mountains are still a source of wonder.

‘If I could choose a place to die, it would be in the mountains.’

Clouds from Both Sides is the autobiography of Julie Tullis, the first British woman to climb an 8,000-metre peak – Broad Peak – and the first to reach the summit of K2, the world’s second-highest mountain.

A truly remarkable woman, Julie describes her early days in a London disrupted by World War II; her family life, climbing, teaching and living by the sandstone outcrops of High Rocks and Harrison’s Rocks in Tunbridge Wells, Kent; and her experience as a high-level mountaineer and filmmaker. Tullis demonstrates her determination and self-discipline through training to black-belt standard in both judo and aikido, and never allows financial concerns to keep her away from the high mountains – a place where she felt at peace. Filled with vivid accounts of frostbite, avalanches, snow blindness and exhilaration alongside her climbing partner Kurt Diemberger, Clouds from Both Sides takes us to Yosemite, Nanga Parbat, Everest and K2.

First published in 1986 before her death, and with an additional chapter written by Peter Gillman documenting Tullis’s final, fated expedition to K2, this story is as relevant and awe inspiring today as it ever was. Tullis’s achievements are timeless and her attitudes and opinions far ahead of their time. Clouds from Both Sides is a tribute to the memory of an inspirational woman determined to strive for her dreams, an extraordinary account of her adventures and an exhilarating testament to her courage.

Winner, Mountain Literature (Non-Fiction) Award, Banff Mountain Book Festival 2018

Nick Bullock is a climber who lives in a small green van, flitting between Llanberis, Wales, and Chamonix in the French Alps. Tides, Nick's second book, is the much-anticipated follow-up to his critically acclaimed debut Echoes.

Now retired from the strain of work as a prison officer, Nick is free to climb. A lot. Tides is a treasury of his antics and adventures with some of the world's leading climbers, including Steve House, Kenton Cool, Nico Favresse, Andy Houseman and James McHaffie. Follow Nick and his partners as they push the limits on some of the world's most serious routes: The Bells! The Bells! and The Hollow Man on Gogarth's North Stack Wall; the Slovak Direct on Denali; Guerdon Grooves on Buachaille Etive Mor; and the north faces of Chang Himal and Mount Alberta, among countless others.

Nick's life can be equated to the rhythm of the sea. At high tide, he climbs, he loves it, he is good at it; he laughs and jokes, scares himself, falls, gets back up and climbs some more. Then the tide goes out and he finds himself alone, exposed, all questions and no answers. Self-doubt, grieving for friends or family, fearful, sometimes opinionated, occasionally angry - his writing more honest and exposed than in any account of a climb. Only when the tide turns is he able to forget once more.

Tides is a gripping memoir that captures the very essence of what it means to dedicate one's life to climbing.

From somewhere out in the vast whiteness of the blizzard we hear a cry for help. Instinctively the three of us turn and head across the mountainside. We find two men and a woman, huddled together in the snow, unable to descend the steep icy slope between them and safety.

The woman asks if we are experienced in conditions like this. My friends and I have tackled a few winter hills in the Lake District and bumbled up easy rock climbs, but we have never been in a full Scottish winter snowstorm. I laugh and assure her that this is nothing to mountaineers like us.

Soon our hills will be empty and one day the last hillwalker will disappear over the horizon. In the 21st century we are losing our connection with the wild, a connection that may never be regained.

The Last Hillwalker by bestselling author John D. Burns is a personal story of falling in and out of love with the hills. More than that, it is about rediscovering a deeply felt need in all of us to connect with wild places.

Edmund Hillary – A Biography is the story of the New Zealand beekeeper who climbed Mount Everest. A man who against expedition orders drove his tractor to the South Pole; a man honoured around the world for his pioneering climbs yet who collapsed on more than one occasion on a mountain, and a man who gave so much to Nepal yet lost his family to its mountains.

The author, Michael Gill, was a close friend of Hillary’s for nearly 50 years, accompanying him on many expeditions and becoming heavily involved in Hillary’s aid work building schools and hospitals in the Himalaya. During the writing of this book, Gill was granted access to a large archive of private papers and photos that were deposited in the Auckland museum after Hillary’s death in 2008. Building on this unpublished material, as well as his extensive personal experience, Michael Gill profiles a man whose life was shaped by both triumph and tragedy.

Gill describes the uncertainties of the first 33 years of Hillary’s life, during which time he served in the New Zealand air force during the Second World War, as well as the background to the first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953, when Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers to reach the summit – a feat that brought the pair instant worldwide fame. He reveals the loving relationship Hillary had with his wife Louise, in part through their touching letters to each other. Her importance to him during their 22 years of marriage only underlines the horror of her death, along with that of their youngest daughter, Belinda, in a plane crash in 1975. Hillary eventually pulled out of his subsequent depression to continue his life’s work in the Himalaya.

Affectionate, but scrupulously fair, in Edmund Hillary – A Biography Michael Gill has gone further than anyone before to reveal the humanity of this remarkable man.

I can move only with the aid of barrels of anti-inflammatory gel, sticking plasters and real ale anaesthetic. Martin and I descend from hours of walking to the small town of Middleton-in-Teesdale. I walk, stiff legged, into the campsite office and a plump, middle-aged woman looks up from her desk and can see the old timer is in trouble.

“Oh, what a shame you weren’t here last week,” she says, pity radiating from behind her horn-rimmed specs. “You’ve missed him.”

I look at her, puzzled.

“Elvis!” she explains. “You missed Elvis.”

Oh God, now I’m hallucinating…

In Bothy Tales, the follow-up to The Last Hillwalker from bestselling mountain writer John D. Burns, travel with the author to secret places hidden amongst the British hills and share his passion for the wonderful wilderness of our uplands.

From remote glens deep in the Scottish Highlands, Burns brings a new volume of tales – some dramatic, some moving, some hilarious – from the isolated mountain shelters called bothies. Meet the vivid cast of characters who play their games there, from climbers with more confidence than sense to a young man who doesn’t have the slightest idea what he’s letting himself in for…

The true story of a half-Chinook, half-Scot adventurer who entered feudal Japan in 1848 and helped pave the way for its modernization.

How Japan, after 250 years of self-imposed isolation, began the process of modernization is in part the story of Ranald MacDonald. In 1848 this half-Scot, half-Chinook adventurer from the Pacific Northwest landed on an island off Hokkaido. Although promptly arrested and imprisoned for seven months in Nagasaki, the intelligent, well-educated MacDonald fascinated the Japanese and became one of their first teachers of English and Western ways.

Based on primary research in Japan and North America, this book chronicles the events leading to MacDonald's journey and his later struggle to obtain recognition at home.

Labib Habachi, Egypt’s most perceptive and productive Egyptologist, was marginalized for most of his career, only belatedly receiving international recognition for his major contributions to the field. In Labib Habachi: The Life and Legacy of an Egyptologist, Jill Kamil presents not only a long-overdue biography of this important scholar, but a survey of Egyptian archaeology in the twentieth century in which Habachi’s work is measured against that of his best-known contemporaries—among them Selim Hassan, Ahmed Fakhry, Abdel Moneim Abu Bakr, and Gamal Mokhtar.
The account of Habachi’s major discovery, the Sanctuary of Heqaib on Elephantine in 1946, was shelved by Egypt’s Antiquities Department for thirty years. When it was finally released for publication, it became the subject of a heated controversy between Habachi and a western scholar that was never resolved.
To construct her picture of Labib Habachi, Jill Kamil draws on a wide range of sources, including a long personal acquaintance with the subject. Tracing the arc of Habachi’s career, Kamil sets his life’s work in its full context, providing a valuable perspective on the development of Egyptian Egyptology and the sometimes fraught relationship between Egypt’s scholars and the western archaeological establishment.

Few Western scholars of the Middle East have exerted such profound influence as Edward William Lane. Lane’s Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (1836), which has never gone out of print, remains as a highly authoritative study of Middle Eastern society. His annotated translation of the Arabian Nights (1839–41) retains a devoted readership. Lane’s recently recovered and published Description of Egypt (2000) shows that he was a pioneering Egyptologist as well as orientalist. The capstone of his career, the definitive Arabic-English Lexicon (1863–93), is an indispensable reference tool.
Yet, despite his extraordinary influence, little was known about Lane and virtually nothing about how he did his work. Now, in the first full-length biography, Lane’s life and accomplishments are examined in full, including his crucial years of field work in Egypt, revealing the life of a great Victorian scholar and presenting a fascinating episode in east–west encounter, interaction, and representation.

Italian adventurer and sea captain Celso Cesare Moreno traveled the world lying, scheming, and building an extensive patron/client network to establish his reputation as a middleman and person of significance. Through his machinations, Moreno became a critical player in the expansion of western trade and imperialism in Asia, the trafficking of migrant workers and children in the Atlantic, the conflicts of Americans and Native Hawaiians over the fate of Hawaii, and the imperial competitions of French, British, Italian, and American governments during a critically important era of imperial expansion during the nineteenth century. Oh Capitano! teases out Moreno’s enormous peculiarities and fascination as well as his significance.

Celso Cesare Moreno was simultaneously toxic, deceitful, and charming in equal measure. He wandered, adventured, cheated, exaggerated, promoted (mainly himself), and continuously created newly invented past lives. He repeatedly sought a role at the center of a globalizing world with gusto and had no qualms about lying or betraying others. He claimed at times to be the ruler of a Southeast Asian island that he then offered for sale to several western nations. He briefly became prime minister of Hawai’i. He testified before the U.S. Congress as an expert witness. He sought to promote a trans-Pacific cable project. He fought with the ministers and leaders of many countries (and with his fellow Italians and Catholic churchmen almost everywhere) but was more often ignored and rejected than feted. He was accused, probably with good cause, of abusing his obligations after claiming guardianship of the sons of King David Kalakaua of Hawaii. Dragged by his uncontrollable polemical passions, the old Captain died alone, unloved by anyone and with no significant relations to others.

With its focus on Moreno, Oh Capitano! illustrates some of the most puzzling cultural traits of emigrant Italian elites. Called a “carpetbagger,” “land pirate,” “extinct volcano,” among many other derogatory monikers, Celso emerges in this fascinating biography as a multifaceted, chameleon-like personality not reducible to a single epithet.

A veteran dog musher, Dave Olesen finished the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race eight times. After a fifteen-year career as a sled dog racer, Olesen set out to fulfill a lifelong dream. In four successive winters he steered his dogs and sled on long trips away from his remote Northwest Territories homestead, setting out in turn to the south, east, north, and west, and home again to Hoarfrost River.

His narrative ranges from the personal and poignant musings of a dogsled driver to loftier planes of introspection and contemplation. Olesen describes his journeys day by day, but this book is not merely an account of his travels. Neither is it yet another offering in the genre of “wide-eyed southerner meets the Arctic,” because Olesen is a firmly rooted northerner, having lived and travelled in the boreal outback for over thirty years. Olesen’s life story colours his writing: educated immigrant, husband and father, professional dog musher, working bush pilot, and denizen of log cabins far off the grid. He and his dogs feel at home in country lying miles back of beyond.

This book demolishes many of the clichés that imbue writings about bush life, the Far North, and dogsledding. It is a unique blend of armchair adventure, personal memoir, and thoughtful, down-to-earth reflection.

Author Corey Ford writes the classic and moving story of naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller, who served on the 1741-42 Russian Alaska expedition with explorer Vitus Bering.

Steller was one of Europe's foremost naturalists and the first to document the unique wildlife of the Alaskan coast. In the course of the voyage, Steller made his valuable discoveries and suffered, along with Bering and the crew of the ill-fated ship St. Peter, some of the most grueling experiences in the history of Arctic exploration. First published in 1966, Where the Sea Breaks Its Back was hailed as "among this country's greatest outdoor writing" by Field & Stream magazine, and today continues to enchant and enlighten the new generations of readers about this amazing and yet tragic expedition, and Georg Steller's significant discoveries as an early naturalist.

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879) is a work of travel literature by British explorer Isabella Bird. Adventurous from a young age, Bird gained a reputation as a writer and photographer interested in nature and the stories and cultures of people around the world. A bestselling author and the first woman inducted into the Royal Geographical Society, Bird is recognized today as a pioneering woman whose contributions to travel writing, exploration, and philanthropy are immeasurable. In 1872—after a year of sailing from Britain to Australia and Hawaii—Isabella Bird journeyed by boat to San Francisco before making her way over land through California and Wyoming to the Colorado Territory. There, she befriended an outdoorsman named Rocky Mountain Jim, who guided her throughout the vast wilderness of Colorado and accompanied her during a journey of over 800 miles. Traveling on foot and on horseback—Bird was an experienced and skillful rider—the two formed a curious but formidable pair, eventually reaching the 14,259 foot (4346 m) summit of Longs Peak, making Bird one of the first women to accomplish the feat. A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, Bird’s most iconic work, was a bestseller upon publication, and has since inspired generations of readers. This edition of Isabella Bird’s A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains is a classic of American literature and travel writing reimagined for modern readers.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879) is a work of travel literature by British explorer Isabella Bird. Adventurous from a young age, Bird gained a reputation as a writer and photographer interested in nature and the stories and cultures of people around the world. A bestselling author and the first woman inducted into the Royal Geographical Society, Bird is recognized today as a pioneering woman whose contributions to travel writing, exploration, and philanthropy are immeasurable. In 1872—after a year of sailing from Britain to Australia and Hawaii—Isabella Bird journeyed by boat to San Francisco before making her way over land through California and Wyoming to the Colorado Territory. There, she befriended an outdoorsman named Rocky Mountain Jim, who guided her throughout the vast wilderness of Colorado and accompanied her during a journey of over 800 miles. Traveling on foot and on horseback—Bird was an experienced and skillful rider—the two formed a curious but formidable pair, eventually reaching the 14,259 foot (4346 m) summit of Longs Peak, making Bird one of the first women to accomplish the feat. A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, Bird’s most iconic work, was a bestseller upon publication, and has since inspired generations of readers. This edition of Isabella Bird’s A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains is a classic of American literature and travel writing reimagined for modern readers.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

Depicted by the man himself, The Journals of James Cook is an intimate first-hand account, providing an uncensored and reliable narrative of adventures spanning across the globe. The Journals of James Cook depict three of Captain James Cook’s most glorious expeditions, starting in 1768 and leading to Cook’s tragic death in 1779. Having ventured all over the Pacific, Cook encountered lands not yet charted by the British. Though his discoveries and maps inadvertently led to British colonization, Cook held a deep respect for the native people he encountered. He recorded their practices and wrote of them fondly. Cook even befriended some of the native people he encountered, including a Tahitian man who, after hearing of Cook’s homeland, wanted to visit it as well. Per the man’s request, Cook sailed him to Britain, where the man stayed until he and Cook sailed back to Tahiti three years later. After charting Australia, and the whole coast of New Zealand, Cook was involved in a plot to kidnap a Hawaiian monarch and ransom them in order to recover stolen property. He was killed during this expedition, leaving behind a legacy of a detailed description of the Pacific Ocean and its coasts.

James Cook’s expeditions around the world and his detailed and innovative work as a cartographer inspired advancements in scientific, medical, historical and geological fields. His influence has also reached the literary world, inspiring novel series and characters, including the infamous Captain Hook. Exuding ambition, courage, and confidence, The Journals of James Cook provide a privileged peak into the travels and accomplishments of an adventurous, and invaluable man. Packed with wonder but free of imperialistic arrogance, The Journals of James Cook serve as a valuable an intriguing primary source of a time when places in the world were yet to be mapped.

Now presented in an easy-to-read font and redesigned with a stunning new cover, James Cook’ The Journals of James Cook is accommodating to contemporary readers, providing a fresh version of the esteemed literary work while preserving its wonders and adventures.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

Depicted by the man himself, The Journals of James Cook is an intimate first-hand account, providing an uncensored and reliable narrative of adventures spanning across the globe. The Journals of James Cook depict three of Captain James Cook’s most glorious expeditions, starting in 1768 and leading to Cook’s tragic death in 1779. Having ventured all over the Pacific, Cook encountered lands not yet charted by the British. Though his discoveries and maps inadvertently led to British colonization, Cook held a deep respect for the native people he encountered. He recorded their practices and wrote of them fondly. Cook even befriended some of the native people he encountered, including a Tahitian man who, after hearing of Cook’s homeland, wanted to visit it as well. Per the man’s request, Cook sailed him to Britain, where the man stayed until he and Cook sailed back to Tahiti three years later. After charting Australia, and the whole coast of New Zealand, Cook was involved in a plot to kidnap a Hawaiian monarch and ransom them in order to recover stolen property. He was killed during this expedition, leaving behind a legacy of a detailed description of the Pacific Ocean and its coasts.

James Cook’s expeditions around the world and his detailed and innovative work as a cartographer inspired advancements in scientific, medical, historical and geological fields. His influence has also reached the literary world, inspiring novel series and characters, including the infamous Captain Hook. Exuding ambition, courage, and confidence, The Journals of James Cook provide a privileged peak into the travels and accomplishments of an adventurous, and invaluable man. Packed with wonder but free of imperialistic arrogance, The Journals of James Cook serve as a valuable an intriguing primary source of a time when places in the world were yet to be mapped.

Now presented in an easy-to-read font and redesigned with a stunning new cover, James Cook’ The Journals of James Cook is accommodating to contemporary readers, providing a fresh version of the esteemed literary work while preserving its wonders and adventures.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

Nick Jans leads us into his "found" home—the Eskimo village of Ambler, Alaska, and the vast wilderness around it. In his powerful essays, the rhythms of daily arctic life blend with high adventure—camping among the wolves, traveling with Inupiat hunters, witnessing the Kobuk River at spring breakup.

The poignancy of a village funeral comes to life, hordes of mosquitoes whine against a tent, a grizzly stands etched against the snow—just a sampling of the images and events rendered in Jans' transparent, visual prose. Moments of humor are offset by haunting insights, and by thoughtful reflections on contemporary Inupiaq culture, making A Place Beyond a book to read and enjoy.