Nansen: The Explorer as Hero

An amazing biography that reads like great fiction. Nansen was almost superhuman: a father of modern neurology, modern skiing, modern polar exploration and later an iconic and internationally respected humanitarian. Well-researched and even-handed, Nansen comes alive through this book. Nansen

Roland Huntford is, without a doubt, one of our greatest biographers on Polar explorers. His writings on Scott, Amundsen and Shackleton are among the very best. It is no less the case in NANSEN In this story of a very unusual, complex and troubled man, Huntford pictures Nansen as he really was, not some trumped up hero of his own making. Nansen was not a great leader of men, nor was he easy to be around. Yet, he had incredible drive and determination in all he did. His scientific research in his early days was ahead of its time and sadly, much of what he accomplished he was never given credit for. When he turned his life to Arctic pursuits, his drive was no less intense, as he perfected the art of Cross country skiing, was the first to cross Greenland and eventually ended up on one of the greatest epics of our time with his quest for the North Pole. Nansen's own account of the North Pole adventure was his book "Farthest North". Huntford, in his biography, covers this story in depth, drawing from Nansen's diaries as well as those of the other men involved. The result is that we have a deeper insight into what really happened rather than just relying on Nansen's own account. Whatever the case, this adventure was one of the most remarkable of all polar explorations and this alone is worth reading. The story of Nansen's life after this great episode, seems to bog down a bit. Nansen lived off his North Pole quest which made him a household name worldwide. This result was to put him into the political world in a way he never dreamed. Throughout the remainder of his life one has the feeling he really wanted to be exporing again and just get away from people and fame. He was a troubled and often unhappy man. Nonetheless, he certainly deserves his place as the father of Polar Exploration and many of those who followed owe much to him. An interesting story well worth the time.

Our book club, all ladies over 60, loved this book. It is a wonderful subject for discussion - Nansen himself, his adventures,his heroics, his accomplishments and Huntford's amazing writing makes for a great read whether or not you areNorwegian.

This is a very dynamically written biography of Fridtjöf Nansen, polar explorer who established the farthest north not to be beaten for a couple of next years. The journey in "Fram", custom built ship, is bizarre enough, indeed. As intended, the ship entered polar ocean close to the Siberian coast of Taimyr Peninsula, where it was locked frozen in the ice for the next three years. The expedition mainly performed some scientific observations, self-imprisoned in the lonely ice of the north. The drift helped the frozen ship move slowly towards the North Pole with no activity on the part of explorers. It failed however to approach the pole itself, so Nansen set for the pole using dogs and sleighs, together with only one human companion, Hjalmar Johanssen. Cut off from the ship and inventory, they tried hard to achieve their goal. Having failed, they decided not to come back to the ship, which itself would be hard to find given the conditions of the environment and the ice drift. They headed for Svalbard instead, hundreds of kilometers away, instead. Meantime, they discovered an unknown archipelago, or at least it seemed so to them. They spent winter there in the ice cave, having hunted enough walruses to make a living. The story is full of adventures, exciting, unexpected, amusing or just otherwise sad, but always engaging. Read for yourself how they ended up. The journey for the farthest north is only part of the book, which is extensively long, covering all Nansen's life, and all of his activities, including the League of Nations leadership, for which later he was awarded a Nobel prize. Very recommended, as it is by no means a typical biography.

Nansen is a norwegian hero and legend. Huntford does a thorough job uncovering Nansen, the man and his triumphs. The Fram expedition and his travels with Johansen make this book hard to put down. Huntford is the premier biographer of polar explorers. Shackleton, Scott, Amundsen, and Nansen are all featured in books by Huntford. To learn more about norwegians, one only needs to read this book. Nansen was not only an adventurer, he was a pioneering scientist!