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[Book Review] Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure, by Adm. Richard E. Byrd

Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure

Adm. Richard E. Byrd

My husband, Jim Tedford, has been telling me about this book for years. He read it in high school back in the 1970s, and it is easy to see how formative it was for him. When I saw the book, which is an actual account rather than a novel, was available for download from the National Library Services for the Blind, I thought it was high time I read something that interests him uniquely. I am very glad I did.

In Alone, Byrd tells the story of his harrowing, nearly fatal months by himself in a tiny shack in an Antarctic winter. He was there in 1933, at 80 degrees 8 minutes to make meteorological observations. Bear in mind that the South Pole is 90 degrees. He was about as far from the pole as Detroit is from Kansas City. The original plan was for three men to work together, but for a number of reasons, Byrd, the expedition's commander, decided he should do it alone. This and other last minute decisions nearly ended his life. The book is his memoir of the months he spent at Advance Base.

I am one of those readers who is highly susceptible to events and situations in a book, so I absolutely froze while I read Alone. It is amazing how the temperature could range in one day in June or July, as much as from two degrees F below to more than 30. Byrd lived in a small shack with two tunnels for supplies and a shelter for the weather recording equipment outside. The shack was buried for insulation, but Byrd had to go outside several times a day to change the paper and so forth on the recording devices, to make any repairs, and to make visual observations of such phenomena as the Aurora Australis. At its coldest the thermometer read 82 degrees F below zero. At that point in July, he was already failing from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Byrd says that he chose to do this ordeal not just for the sake of science but also because he wanted to experience complete and utter solitude. He wanted to see what would happen away from the social interactions and demands of real life. He learned this in spades, coming to a spiritual awareness he had not foreseen. As you read, you learn what an earnest fellow he was, what warmth he could exude, his love for his colleagues and family, and his quiet modesty. More than that you learn what a man of true courage can endure.

I see so much of Jim in this book, his fascination not only with the extremes of geography and weather but his earnest desire to learn from everything around him. He, like Byrd, cares so deeply about those in his life, the world, the wonder of it all. I also see where his interest in simple liiving comes from. The one thing Jim and Byrd did not share is a love for radio technology. Jim adores it, Byrd hated it, though of course it saved his life.

The book has a highly informative afterword by another author, telling about the rest of Byrd's life, what discoveries were made after his expeditions, and more about the history of Antarctic exploration.

Byrd states early in the book that his diaries, which make up part of it, reveal little of his emotions during his weeks of isolation and hardship. I don't know what he thought emotions were, because I saw plenty of self reflection and thoughtful contemplation not only in his account but in those diaries. The result is a picture of a highly admirable human being. Just like Jim.

Terrible Tudors

Isn't that redundant??

Burning Issues #6: Women's Roles

Burning Issue #6 Women's Roles

It seems there is quite a split in how authors -- and readers -- view women's roles during their favored eras. Some feel too many of the women characters have too 21st century of ways of behaving and thinking, others insist that "times change, people don't: What do you think?

DO NOT LEAVE YOUR ANSWER IN COMMENTS!

Share your thoughts on our Facebook page!  Burning Issues in Historical Fiction: Discussions

While you are there, weigh in on the other Burning Issues... and tell us your own!

Boogie Knights

We all just love knights, right?  That certainly is evidenced in the number of songs about them.  To wit:

Boogie Knights - a happy-go-lucky group.  This is what Dorothy Dunnett wanted to call one of her Lymond Chronicle novels, but it was already taken, so she settled on Disorderly Knights.  Just doesn't have the same je ne sais quoi, though, does it?

Silent Knight - did not hang with the Boogie Knights much.  neither did the knight addressed in O Holy Knight.

December 1293 (Oh, What A Knight) - legend has it that the famous minstrel, Blondel, wrote this about Richard the Lionhearted.

Even The Knights Are Better - this song was penned during the rivalry between the knights Hospitaler and the Knights Templar.  The king of France put an end to that... and the Templars.

Mid-knight at the Oasis - a basic training song for Saracen swordsmen, describing where the sword should be directed.  Another from this source, All Through the Knight, not to mention Help Me Make It Through the Knight.

Saturday Knight's All Right for Fighting - a novelty song about a well known knight who tended to drink heavily on the weekends.

Still of the Knight - no doubt belonging to the fellow who supplied Saturday knight's refreshments.

Tender Is The Knight - a love song.

A Hard Day's Knight - battle can take a lot out of a fellow.

Knightswimming - a bittersweet ballad about Holy Roman Emperorr Frederick Barbarossa's death.

Knight Moves - here's a training ditty for squires.

Knight Time is the Right Time - a send up of the Age of Chivalry.

Surely you can add to this list?  Yes, but please don't call you Sir Shirley.

Only A Few Days In, But ...

Only a few days into 2011, but some of us already need a chuckle.  Some of these provided one for me.  I bet you can guess which ones.

Those who jump off a bridge in Paris are in Seine.

A man's home is his castle, in a manor of speaking.

Dijon vu - the same mustard as before.

Dijon vu - the same mustard as before.

Practice safe eating - always use condiments.

Shotgun wedding - A case of wife or death.

A man needs a mistress just to break the monogamy.

A hangover is the wrath of grapes.

Dancing cheek-to-cheek is really a form of floor play.

Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?

Condoms should be used on every conceivable occasion.

Reading while sunbathing makes you well red.

When two egotists meet, it's an I for an I.

A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two tired.

What's the definition of a will? (It's a dead give away.)

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

In democracy your vote counts. In feudalism your count votes.

She was engaged to a boyfriend with a wooden leg but broke it off.

A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

If you don't pay your exorcist, you get repossessed

With her marriage, she got a new name and a dress.

The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered.

The man who fell into a lens grinding machine made a spectacle of himself.

You feel stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.

Local Area Network in Australia - the LAN down under.

Every calendar's days are numbered.

A lot of money is tainted - Taint yours and taint mine.

A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.

He had a photographic memory that was never developed.

A Litttle Person fortune-teller who escapes from prison is a small medium at large.

Once you've seen one shopping centre, you've seen a mall.

Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis.

Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.

Acupuncture is a jab well done.

medieval-novels.com Grand Reopening!

Today, January 1, 2011!!
No, not under new management... it is the same old folks here.  But we decided this site and you deserved a searchable database, as well as a way to input books and movies yourself.  So we relaunched on January 1, 2011, a much more useful tool, whether for buying books or just finding out about all the novels, movies, and television shows that take place in a slightly expanded period of 400 to 1600 AD.

As you know, this is an Amazon Associates site, which means all the links, or most of them, are to books on Amazon.com.  For this we receive a single digit percentage referral fee.  We do not ourselves sell the books.  If you have trouble with a purchase, contact Amazon.

We want to add Amazon.co.uk products too, but for now you can find a book here then use the UK search tool on the Catalog Home.

We are also adding ebooks as a Smashwords.com  affiliate.  These are not purchased from Amazon.com, so contact Smashwords with purchase issues.

We welcome... oh gosh, lots of things!  Add books,  movies and television shows... see instructions at the tab above.  We also welcome corrections and suggestions.  Just email us at hawthorne@nanhawthorne.com .

Why we set this up - not for the money, I can tell you.  We don't make what we spend.  I wanted an exhaustive list of medieval and Renaissance novels so I could check which were available in a format I could access.  (I cannot read print.)  It turned out that a small fraction were available through the NLS for the Blind, but thanks to the Kindle 3 reading machine with text to speech, there are lots m ore available to me now.  Once I got started, with help from a number of people I just couldn't stop.. and now medieval-novels.com in its easier to use format is fast on its way to becoming a universally useful resource!

Verily, a feast for the mind and heart, and may you have joy of it!

Kindle 3 Reading Device

This site is owned and operated by Nan Hawthorne of Bothell, Washington State.  Hawthorne is the author of An Involuntary King: A Tale of Anglo Saxon England and the owner of several blogs on historical fiction and history.  See her web site at http://www.nanhawthorne.com/ .