Tag Archives: North Pole Exploration

08.24.23
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BATTLE OF INK AND ICE/DARRELL HARTMAN

You’ll explore as much about the New York City competitive newspaper environment at the turn of the 20th Century as you will about the discovery of the North Pole by either Robert Peary Frederick Cook! Darrell Hartman’s book is a fascinating enlightenment of the parallel stories, each with its own surprising turns. BATTLE OF INK AND ICE reads like a historical novel making all of the facts easily digestible.

Who got to the North Pole, Cook or Peary? Better yet, the book raises the prospect that neither of the men may have accomplished the feat.

The personalities of Cook and Peary are fascinating but the in sight into Adolph Ochs of the New York Times, James Gordon Bennett of the Herald, William Randolph Hearst of the Journal reveals the competitive environment of the period amongst the New York media barrons.

Who first reached the North Pole, which newspaper got the story right? You will be the judge.

06.07.17
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IN THE KINGDON OF ICE/ THE USS JEANNETTE

Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldier and Blood and Thunder has impeccably researched and brilliantly written the saga of the ill-fated  North Pole quest of the USS Jeannette. In The Kingdom of Ice is an adventure narrative that keeps the reader gripped to the pages throughout the journey.  If you have read the story of  Ernest Shackleton’s  expedition with the ship Endurance you will be astounded  by the incredible story of  George De Long and his ship the Jeannette.

Within these pages, author Sides unfolds the parallel story of James Gordon Bennett Jr , owner of the New York Herald, adding  historical dimension to this work of non-fiction. Publisher Bennett, always seeking ways to dramatically promote his newspaper’s  circulation , stepped forward to underwrite the entire cost of De Long’s quest for the North Pole. Bennett was the same publisher who sent Stanley to find Livingstone, thought to be lost in the depths of Africa. That story, as would coverage of the fate of the Jeannette, became a sensation as it unfolded in the pages of the Herald. 

I recommend this read with great enthusiasm.  You will be unable to leave these pages until the fate of every man who sailed aboard the Jeannette is known.