The Last Viking

August 27, 2012
The discoverer of the South Pole and the first explorer to reach the North Pole, Amundsen's exploits entertained the world for decades during the early 20th century. But today he is arguably less well-known than his contemporary Ernest Shackleton, a situation that Bown aims to rectify with this captivating account of the Norwegian's extraordinary life. Amundsen's drive to witness the undiscovered began in childhood, when he would sleep with the windows open to acclimate to the cold and ski during snowstorms through the hills and mountains near Oslo to prepare for future harsh unknowns. He dropped out of university to acquire sailing experience and ultimately become a sea captain, enabling him to command his own ship. Amundsen treated his first expedition, the crossing of the Northwest Passage, like a military operation, an approach he'd employ in all of his adventures, anticipating nearly every possible complication or mishap. This painstaking method allowed him to prevail time and againâ whether that involved keeping his crew alive while wintering for two years in the Arctic ice or beating better-financed competitors. Years later, he again surmounted huge obstacles, securing critical financing for a nearly aborted North Pole expedition and overcoming near bankruptcy, press hostility, and family feuding. Bown makes a compelling case that Amundsen deserves renewed recognition for his outstanding achievements.

Starred review from August 15, 2012
Bown (1494: How a Family Feud in Medieval Spain Divided the World in Half, 2012, etc.) delivers an intensely researched, thoroughly enjoyable life of one of history's best explorers. As the author demonstrates, Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) was certainly the most skilled polar explorer. Obsessed with adventure from boyhood, the teenage Amundsen led companions on exhausting attempts to cross the mountains of his native Norway during winter. He joined the 1897 Belgian Antarctic expedition, receiving a painful education on the consequences of poor planning. In 1903, he outfitted a fishing boat with a crew of six and crossed the Northwest Passage from Greenland to Alaska. Moored for two years in the Arctic, he eagerly learned from the local Inuit. The lessons he learned--ignorance of which killed many polar explorers--included: Animal-skin clothes trump wool, and transportation requires dogs and skis. The crossing gave Amundsen international celebrity, making it easier to finance an expedition to the North Pole. When both Robert Peary and Frederick Cook claimed to have reached it (a controversy that persists), Amundsen aimed for the South Pole, announcing the decision before Robert Falcon Scott announced his expedition. Superbly organized and supplied, Amundsen's expert skiers and dog handlers won the race in 1911 and survived, while Scott's less efficient team died. After World War I, Amundsen failed to reach the North Pole by plane but succeeded by dirigible, finally disappearing in 1928 while flying to rescue another expedition. A superb biography of a fiercely driven explorer who traveled across the last inaccessible areas on earth before technical advances made the journey much easier.

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September 1, 2012
Amundsen achieved his aimfamethrough a number of firsts: first to navigate the Northwest Passage, first to the South Pole, and, as some, including Bown, argue, first to the North Pole. Amundsen's life of preparing and financing these accomplishments animates Bown's narrative, which portrays the youthful Amundsen devouring accounts of polar expeditions, toughening his tolerance of cold and ice, and securing the support of fellow Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen, celebrated for Arctic adventures in the 1890s. Amundsen was not, however, adept with money. He repeatedly eluded creditors (literally leaving some at the dock when he departed for the Northwest Passage in 1903) or was saved by a benevolent financier, as in the case of his Antarctic exploit in 1911. He was good press, though, and Bown tracks the articles and headlines his activities generated. On the other hand, Amundsen's geographical trophy hunting irked the panjandrums of British exploration. Was Amundsen heroic or villainous? Bown defends the former assessment in the course of this enjoyable, informative biography.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)