Explorer: The Life of Richard E. Byrd

Rose has delved into Byrd's only recently available papers together with those of his supporters and detractors to present the first complete, balanced biography. From his first pioneering aviation adventures in Greenland in 1925, through his daring flights to the top and bottom of the world and across the Atlantic, Byrd dominated the American consciousness. Then he overreached himself, foolishly choosing to endure a blizzard-lashed six-month polar night alone at an advance weather observation post more than one hundred long miles down a massive Antarctic ice shelf. His ordeal proved soul-shattering, his rescue one of the great epics of polar history. Yet he chose to return again and again to the beautiful, hateful, haunted secret land at the bottom of the earth, claiming that he was mayor of this place.