The Ends of the Earth

Starred review from September 15, 2007
Inspired by the advent of the 2007-08 Fourth International Polar Year, editors Kolbert ("Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change") and Spufford ("I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination") present an anthology of writings about the Arctic and Antarctic, which is actually two books in one. Halfway through, readers can turn the book upside down for writings about the opposite end of the eartha clever design for an important work during this time of heightened interest in the health of the polar ice caps. The anthology, which runs the gamut from journal entries to science fiction, does indeed live up to its claim of containing the finest writings on the topic. Included are primary-source accounts by early explorers such as Ernest Shackleton, John Franklin, and Kund Rasmussen, nature writings by Barry Lopez and Gretel Ehrlich, excerpts from novels by Jules Verne, Jack London, and H.P. Lovecraft, and essays by journalists and scientists. Each excerpt is just long enough to whet the readers appetite. Great reading for the armchair adventurer. Highly recommended for both academic and public libraries. [See also the review of Tom Griffithss "Slicing the Silence", p. 83.Ed].Maureen J. Delaney-Lehman, Lake Superior State Univ. Lib., Sault Ste. Marie

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2007
Here are two books in one; a collection of some of the choicest writing on the Arctic and Antarctic, chronicling four centuries of exploring and scientific study. With the threat of the polar ice shrinking, breaking apart, or disappearing, there is a plea for preservation in these first-person narratives, cultural histories, nature and science writing, and fiction. There are 20 pieces on the Arctic by such writers as Sir John Franklin (written in 1823), Jules Verne (written in 1866), Robert Peary (written in 1910), and Jack London (written in 1899). The 19 writers whose subject is the Antarctic include Ernest Shackleton (written in 1909), Roald Amundsen (1912), Robert Falcon Scott (1913), Richard Byrd (1938), and H. P. Lovecraft (1936). In the spring of 2001, Kolbert visited a research station known as the North Greenland Ice Core Project and wrote that if Arctic travel isnt quite what it used to be now that the danger, hardship, and solitude have been sheared away, it is still an other-worldly experience. Published to coincide with the International Polar Year, the book is an exceptional collection of writing.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)