{"id":2305,"date":"2018-12-11T09:17:51","date_gmt":"2018-12-11T15:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wilsonld.com\/weblog\/?p=2305"},"modified":"2019-01-09T16:53:36","modified_gmt":"2019-01-09T22:53:36","slug":"to-the-to-the-edges-of-the-earth-1909-the-race-for-the-three-poles-and-the-climax-of-the-age-of-exploration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/?p=2305","title":{"rendered":"To the To the Edges of the Earth: 1909, the Race for the Three Poles, and the Climax of the Age of Exploration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Edward J. Larson, 2018, Kindle Edition, William Morrow publisher<\/p>\n<p>One of the topics in this book was especially interesting to me because it depicted Shackleton&#8217;s 1909 attempt to reach the South Pole in 1909.&nbsp; I visited Shackleton&#8217;s hut on Cape Royds in Antarctica in 1971 when I was stationed there with the Navy.&nbsp; I didn&#8217;t know much about Shackleton&#8217;s expedition, however, so I didn&#8217;t have any context regarding the hut.<\/p>\n<p>This book was one of the selections for our men&#8217;s book club and I took some of the pictures I had taken in 1971 to our meeting to show the other participants.&nbsp; It generated some discussion as to why I had been there and what my role was during that time.<\/p>\n<p>The other two topics that were covered in the book was the race to the North Pole and an attempt to climb K-2 in the Himalayas in that same year. I didn&#8217;t have any knowledge regarding these two expeditions.<\/p>\n<p>The book itself wasn&#8217;t as well-written as I would have liked.&nbsp; I compare it to a book a read some years ago about Shackleton&#8217;s subsequent attempt to reach the South Pole when his ship became frozen in the ice.&nbsp; This book was written, I believe, in the 1950&#8217;s by a man named Roland Hungerford and is now out of print.&nbsp; It was one of the most exciting books I have ever read, but &#8220;To the Edges of the Earth&#8221; was pretty boring in places.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, I am glad I read this book, but for reasons other than my enjoyment of the book itself.<img decoding=\"async\" title=\"2 1\/2 stars\" alt=\"2 1\/2 stars\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wilsonld.com\/weblog\/wp-includes\/images\/stars-2-5.gif\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Edward J. Larson, 2018, Kindle Edition, William Morrow publisher One of the topics in this book was especially interesting to me because it depicted Shackleton&#8217;s 1909 attempt to reach the South Pole in 1909.&nbsp; I visited Shackleton&#8217;s hut on <span class=\"excerpt-dots\">&hellip;<\/span> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/?p=2305\"><span class=\"more-msg\">Continue reading &rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-2305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-non-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2305"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2317,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2305\/revisions\/2317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilsonld.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}