Worlds to Explore Classic Tales of Travel and Adventure from National Geographic

by Winchester, Simon

• ISBN13: 9780792254874
• ISBN10: 0792254872
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-04-18
• Publisher: National Geographic

Summary

Polar fleece, titanium, and GPS have forever changed the face of exploration. Today an explorer can make a phone call from the top of Mount Everest and geo-locate himself in the thickest rain forest or the widest desert. Yet despite these advances, few modern adventures get close to the charm and romance of "The Desert Road to Turkestan," "Mysterious Temples of the Jungle," and "Airplanes Come to the Isles of Spice." In those bygone days, the pages of National Geographic were as close as most people could get to high adventure and faraway lands--and here's a chance to recapture them. Alongside noteworthy names like Robert Peary, Amelia Earhart, and Teddy Roosevelt, other less famous travelers take us on long-forgotten trips to places few Americans had gone. We follow as "An American Girl Cycles Across Transylvania," trek "A Thousand Miles Along the Great Wall of China," and glide "By Felucca Down the Nile." Introduced by brief essays that provide context and perspective, these engaging, engrossing selections speak for themselves--and trace the National Geographic Society's growth as it explored the unknown and brought it to readers eager for knowledge of "the world and all that is in it."

Author Biography

Mark Jenkins, chief historian of the National Geographic Society's archives, has in all likelihood read every single article ever published in the magazine. Among other accomplishments, he is the co-author of High Adventure, an illustrated history of the Society.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
Simon Winchester
Introduction	xix
Mark Jenkins
PART ONE The World Of Africa	1	(54)
Wild Man & Wild Beast in Africa (NGM 01/1911)	2	(9)
Theodore Roosevelt
Elephant Hunting in Equatorial Africa (NGM 08/1912)	11	(6)
Carx Akeley
At the Tomb of Tutankhamen (NGM 05/1923)	17	(8)
Maynard Owen Williams
Adventures in Eastern Darfur (NGM 01/1924)	25	(7)
Maj. Edward Keith-Roach
Crossing the Libyan Desert (NGM 09/1924)	32	(9)
A. M. Hassanein Bey
Cairo to Cape Town, Overland (NGM 02/1925)	41	(8)
Felix Shay
Three-Wheeling through Africa (NGM 01/1934)	49	(6)
James C. Wilson
PART TWO Remote Corners of the Russian Empire	55	(30)
An Island in the Sea of History: The Highlands of Daghestan (NGM 10/1913)	56	(8)
George Kennan
Life in the Great Desert of Central Asia (NGM 08/1909) The Afghan Borderland: The Persian Frontier (NGM 10/1909)	64	(12)
Ellsworth Huntington
With an Exile in Arctic Siberia (NGM 12/1924)	76	(9)
Vladimir Zenzinov
PART THREE The Middle East	85	(44)
Persian Caravan Sketches (NGM 04/1921)	86	(9)
Harold F. Weston
Crossing Asia Minor (NGM 10/1924)	95	(7)
Maj. Robert W. Imbrie
Into Burning Hadhramaut (NGM 10/1932)	102	(9)
Daniel Van Der Meulen
An Unbeliever Joins the Hadj (NGM 06/1934)	111	(8)
Owen Tweedy
Old and New in Persia (NGM 09/1939)	119	(5)
Mary Irene Curzon
Baroness Ravensdale
Back to Afghanistan (NGM 10/1946)	124	(5)
Maynard Owen Williams
PART FOUR Along China's Turbulent Frontiers	129	(48)
The Land of the Yellow Lama (NGM 04/1925) Experiences of a Lone Geographer (NGM 09/1925)	130	(14)
Joseph E Rock
By Coolie and Caravan Across Central Asia (NGM 10/1927).	144	(8)
William J. Morden
The Desert Road to Turkestan (NGM 06/1929)	152	(9)
Owen Lattimore
From the Mediterranean to the Yellow Sea by Motor (NGM 11/1932)	161	(9)
Maynard Owen Williams
Explorations in the Gobi Desert (NGM 06/1933)	170	(7)
Roy Chapman Andrews
PART FIVE The Himalayan Realm	177	(38)
Tiger-Hunting in India (NGM 11/1924)	178	(8)
Gen. William Mitchell
Across Tibet from India to China (NGM 08/1946)	186	(7)
Lt. Col. Ilia Tolstoy
Caught in the Assam-Tibet Earthquake (NGM 03/1952)	193	(9)
Frank Kingdon-Ward
Triumph on Everest (NGM 07/1954)	202	(13)
Sir John Hunt
Sir Edmund Hillary
PART SIX The Far East	215	(22)
The Recent Earthquake Wave on the Coast of Japan (NGM 09/1896)	216	(5)
Eliza Scidmore
Here in Manchuria (NGM 02/1933)	221	(8)
Lilian Grosvenor Coville
Among the Big Knot Lois of Hainan (NGM 09/1938)	229	(8)
Leonard Clark
PART SEVEN The Malay Archipelago	237	(24)
By Motor Through Sumatra (NGM 01/1920)	238	(7)
Melvin A. Hall
The Island of Nias, at the Edge of the World (NGM 08/1931)	245	(9)
Mabel Cook Cole
Keeping House in Borneo (NGM 09/1945)	254	(7)
Virginia Hamilton
PART EIGHT Alaskan Adventures	261	(18)
A Narrative of the St. Elias Expedition of 1890 (NGM 05/1891)	262	(8)
Israel C. Russell
The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes (NGM 02/1918)	270	(9)
Robert E Griggs
PART NINE Along Old Spanish Roads	279	(18)
Along the Old Spanish Road in Mexico (NGM 03/1923)	280	(9)
Herbert Corey
Buenos Aires to Washington by Horse (NGM 02/1029)	289	(8)
Aime-Felix Tschiffely
PART TEN Lost Worlds of the Amazon and Orinoco	297	(24)
Exploring the Valley of the Amazon in a Hydroplane (NGM 04/1926)	298	(7)
Capt. Albert W. Stevens
A Journey by Jungle Rivers to the Home of the Cock-of-the-Rock (NGM 11/1933)	305	(9)
Ernest G. Holt
Jungle Journey to the World's Highest Waterfall (NGM 11/1949)	314	(7)
Ruth Robertson
PART ELEVEN Seas and Islands	321	(44)
Rounding the Horn in a Windjammer (NGM 02/1931)	322	(8)
Alan J. Vllliers
Sailing Forbidden Coasts (NGM 09/1931)	330	(9)
Ida Treat
Pearl Pishing in the Red Sea (NGM 11/1937)	339	(9)
Henri De Monfreid
Turning Back Time in the South Seas (NGM 01/1941)	348	(9)
Thor Heyerdahl
They Survived at Sea (NGM 05/1945)	357	(8)
Lt. Comdr. Samuel F. Harby
PART TWELVE New Worlds to Explore	365	(59)
From London to Australia by Aeroplane (NGM 03/1921)	366	(9)
Sir Ross Smith
The Conquest of Antarctica by Air (NGM 08/1930)	375	(9)
Rear Adm. Richard E. Byrd
Flying Around the North Atlantic (NGM 09/1934)	384	(10)
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
A Round Trip to Davy Jones's Locker (NGM 06/1931) A Half Mile Down (NGM 12/1934)	394	(8)
William Beebe
Exploring the Stratosphere (NGM 10/1934) Man's Farthest Aloft (NGM 01/1936)	402	(9)
Capt. Albert W. Stevens
Camera under the Sea (NGM 02/1956) I Found the Bones of the Bounty (NGM 12/1957)	411	(13)
Luis Marden
Acknowledgments	424	(2)
Index	426	(12)
Photo Credits	438