Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World

"But like most stories of arctic adventure, there is a more prosaic aspect ..."

"More than just another book about a disastrous sea voyage, this is a richly evocative story about a particular period in the history of exploration.Icebound deserves a place beside such classics as Alfred Lansing's Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage and Roland Huntford's The Last Place on Earth: Scott and Amundson's Race to the South Pole ."

"The book faces limitations due to its very old source material ..."

"A meticulously researched history of maritime tragedy."

"Narratives of frozen beards in polar hinterlands never lose their appeal."

"Pitzer captures the terror of bone-chilling temperatures and crushing ice floes, and includes edifying digressions on the Dutch war of independence (1568–1648), Viking navigation techniques, and scurvy's deadly effects on the human body."

"Sitting in my warm, secure house, even I was utterly (and agreeably) terrified and marveled as I always do at the courage and stamina of early explorers."

"It's a darkly fascinating tale about a venture that appears today—and must have seemed to many at the time—sheer folly ..."