The Man Who Ate His Boots
  • Published: 15 May 2011
  • ISBN: 9781446402894
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 464
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The Man Who Ate His Boots

Sir John Franklin and the Tragic History of the Northwest Passage

Formats & editions
EBook
15 May 2011
Paperback
22 Mar 2011
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The enthralling, often harrowing story of the adventurers who searched in vain for the Northwest Passage, the holy grail of nineteenth-century British exploration.

Dozens of missions set out for the Arctic during the first half of the nineteenth century; all ended in failure and many in disaster, as men found themselves starving to death in the freezing wilderness, sometimes with nothing left to eat but their companions' remains. Anthony Brandt traces the complete history of this noble and foolhardy obsession, which originated during the sixteenth century, bringing vividly to life this record of courage and incompetence, privation and endurance, heroics and tragedy. Along the way he introduces us to an expansive cast of fascination characters: seamen and landlubbers, scientists and politicians, sceptics and tireless believers.

The Man Who Ate His Boots is a rich and engaging work of narrative history - a multifaceted portrait of noble adventure and of imperialistic folly.
  • Published: 15 May 2011
  • ISBN: 9781446402894
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 464
Categories:
Share…

About the author

Anthony Brandt

Anthony Brandt is the author of three previous books, and the editor of the Adventure Classics series published by National Geographic Society Press. He is also the books editor at National Geographic Adventure magazine and was previously the book critic for Men's Journal. His work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Esquire among many other magazines. He lives in Sag Harbor, New York.

Praise for The Man Who Ate His Boots

...this work paints a compelling portrait of a superpower sending its best men to die largely just to prove no challenge was beyond the English. ...scholarly, passionate text...

The Sunday Times

Anthony Brandt, in this excellent book, sets out to give us the whole history of the search for the North-West Passage...The Man Who Ate His Boots gives a surprisingly deep insight into the soul of imperial Victorian Britain. Like shoe leather, there's plenty here to chew over.

The Tablet

Brandt, the author of two previous historical books and a seasoned writer of magazine articles, draws on a rich vein of fact and fiction.

Irish Examiner

Exhaustive, elegant history.

The Guardian