The Last Explorer: Hubert Wilkins, Hero of the Great Age of Polar Exploration
Unlike such famous explorers as Amundsen, Peary, Scott, and Shackleton, Sir Hubert Wilkins is little known. Nasht has now brought Wilkins' exploits to readers' attention with this book. He writes that Wilkins began his exploration by sledging thousands of miles across ice and slogging for years on foot through the deserts and tropics. He was the first to grasp the potential of discovery from the air and by submarine and, in 1928, completed a map of the world in eight months of flying. In August 1931, aboard the submarineNautilus,Wilkens and his crew were the first to dive into the Arctic Ocean. He was the first to fly across the North Pole, resulting in a knighthood; the first to fly to the Antarctic; and the first to discover land by plane. Wilkins, a scientist, was the first to understand the link between the pole and changing global weather. Anyone interested in the history of polar exploration will want to read this book.George CohenCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved