Swinging in my hammock under the shade of acacia trees 10 days ago in Zimbabwe, I finished what went down immediately as my favorite book. It’s been a long time since the final few minutes of anything — let alone one of the greatest, if not the best, adventure stories in the history of written word — has brought tears to my eyes.

In the 1950′s, Alfred Lansing, author of Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, penned 288 of some of the most gripping pages I’ve read. For the uninitiated, the back cover of Lansing’s paperback reads:

In the summer of 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton set off aboard the Endurance bound for the South Atlantic. The goal of his expedition was to cross the Antarctic overland, but more than a year later, and still half a continent away from the intended base, the Endurance was trapped in ice and eventually was crushed. For five months Shackleton and his crew survived on drifting ice packs in one of the most savage regions of the world before they were finally able to set sail again in one of the ship’s lifeboats. Alfred Lansing’s Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage is a white-knuckle account of this astounding odyssey.

Through the diaries of team members and interviews with survivors, Lansing reconstructs the months of terror and hardship the Endurance crew suffered. In October of 1915, there ‘were no helicopters, no Weasels, no Sno-Cats, no suitable planes. Thus their plight was naked and terrifying in its simplicity. If they were to get out–they had to get themselves out.’

This book is actually so much more. In fact, leadership training schools and outdoor survivalist training courses use Ernest Shackleton as a model for how to act and react in times of absolute desperation. And how to come out on top or simply alive. “How Shackleton did indeed get them out without the loss of a single life is at the heart of Lansing’s magnificent true-life adventure tale.” Don’t miss a chance to read this; you won’t put it down until you’re done. And when you are finished, you’ll think twice about the things you complain about when it’s cold outside.

Next up: Mark Twain’s tale of his 1895 journey around the world in Following The Equator.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 26th, 2007 at 11 am and is filed under books, history, must-read, reading, travel, unbelievable.