The Last Explorer: Hubert Wilkins, Hero of the Golden Age of Polar Exploration

By Simon Nasht

“Nasht’s thoroughly captivating account of the exploits of Hubert Wilkins makes for an exhilarating, edge-of-your-chair read” (John Berendt, #1 New York Times–bestselling author).
 
In the tradition of The Ice Master and Endurance, here is the incredible story of the first truly modern explorer, whose death-defying adventures and uncommon modesty make this book itself an extraordinary discovery. Hubert Wilkins was the most successful explorer in history—no one saw with his own eyes more undiscovered land and sea. Largely self-taught, Wilkins became a celebrated newsreel cameraman in the early 1900s, as well as a reporter, pilot, spy, war hero, scientist, and adventurer, capturing in his lens war and famine, cheating death repeatedly, meeting world leaders like Lenin and Stalin, and circling the globe on a zeppelin.
 
Apprenticing with the greats of polar exploration, including Shackleton in the Antarctic, Wilkins recognized the importance of new technologies such as the airplane and submarine. He helped map the Canadian Arctic and plumbed the ocean depths from the icecap. A pioneer in the truest sense of the word, he became the first man to fly across the North Pole, which won him a knighthood; the first to fly to the Antarctic and discover land there by airplane; and the first to take a submarine under the Arctic ice. Grasping the link between the poles and changing global weather, Wilkins was a visionary in weather forecasting and the study of global warming. A true hero of the earth, he changed the way we look at our world.
 
“Anyone interested in the history of polar exploration will want to read this book.” —Booklist
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Nov 11, 2011
• ISBN: 9781628732641

Reviews for The Last Explorer

[sarcher-3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If Hubert Wilkins was like other pole explorers with dozens and dozen of books written about him, this book might not be the greatest work. Like many historical biographies there is a habit of injecting emotion and details into scenes which bring the work a little closer to fiction than I'm comfortable with. However, with so few books written about Hubert Wilkins this book becomes a really interesting read. His activities were put into historical context, but more could have been done to explore the rapid technological developments which made certain explorations impossible at the start of his career and possible by the end. The author is very aware of this and does bring it up regularly, but without detail. For example, only a few decades separated Wilkin's Nautilus from the Rickover Nautilus - that's incredible! A discussion of the differences between the two vessels (in greater detail than 'bigger and with nuclear power') would have been interesting, but perhaps a subject that is better left to another book. As usual, these kinds of books always need more maps and more diagrams.