Comments on: The Essential Adventure Library: 50 Non-fiction Adventure Books

By: sullivan christopher

sullivan christopher — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:37:43 +0000

Alvah Simon’s” North to the Night” is excellent.He voluntarily spends a winter iced into a bay in the Arctic Circle in complete darkness in a 40 foot sailboat with only a cat for company. Face to face encounters with polar bears, great cameraderie with indigenous folks, amazing journey to and from his destination, and a very candid look at human nature from a very unique perspective.Good companion piece for Emerson or Thoreau. Also, check out Somerset Maughm’s “Moon and Sixpence”, about Paul Gaugan dropping everything and moving to tahiti, where he lived out his remaining days in a grass hut.Maughm’s ” Razor’s Edge” is also great.

By: Jonathan Heatt

Jonathan Heatt — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:56:06 +0000

No mention of Richard Halliburton’s books?? The omission of his Royal Road to Romance book renders this “top 50″ list null & void!

By: Jonathon Kettle

Jonathon Kettle — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 03:15:12 +0000

The Lure of The Labrador Wild by Dillon Wallace. The lessen learned in this book? Be prepared, or you’re as good as dead

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 01:07:03 +0000

If you can find this out-of-print book, THE GOLD OF EXODUS, by Howard Blum, is a can’t put down, eye-opening, make-you wonder account of ancient history!!!

By: Chris Kavanaugh

Chris Kavanaugh — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:15:03 +0000

Tom Brown first appeared at some early blackpowder rendevous and primative skills meetings. He later claimed to pretend being a novice to rate the instructors. Not one of his claims can be verified, except the F.B.I. and several otehr agencies he claims to have worked with never heard of him. Niether have the Apache people themselves.
EVERYBODY is conveniently dead; Stalking Wolf ( a name apaches do not use and when pressed Tom decided it was a nom de plume) and Rick. Wehn I attednded an early class I greeted the apha male in the traditional Apache salutation. he stared back like a cow in the abatoir. Now he mumbles ‘apache’ that is somewhere between pentacostal talking in tongues and subliminal teaching tapes for Serbian. The book repeats numerous fallacies only a novice would accept; solar stills producing ‘gallons’ of water and a flawed deadfall trap illustration fossilized in the literature for decades only a few.
So today Tom sits in his HUMMER chain smoking and watching his time on a Rolleiflex, getting into lawsuits for non payment of wages to those actually teaching traditional apache skils ( debri huts- a USAF survival concept) tracking animals with ‘psychic skils’ promoting an unusable ‘knife’ and dismissing all critics with “You’ve insulted grandfather’ or ‘prove me wrong.’ Nice work for a guy who’s first book had to be co authored.

By: Chris Kavanaugh

Chris Kavanaugh — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:58:14 +0000

THE LONG WALK and PAPILLON are indeed great reads. Sadly,both are probably fictional accounts. A short websearch will find several resources giving strong evidence against both.
Eugene Bullard, anyone know the name? Long before the Tuskeegee airmen this black american joined the french army in WW1 and earned a fearsome reputation in the trenches before briefly becoming a flier. With one confirmed and one probable victory a french general ended his flying over a personal confrontation. Bullard later operated a club and was involved in espionage against the nazis. There are a few books in print about him.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:58:39 +0000

Great list! May I add one? How about “Sailing Alone Around the World,” by Joshua Slocum. An account of the first solo voyage around the world.

By: TS Moss

TS Moss — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 02:00:00 +0000

Check out Helge Pedersen’s “Ten Years on Two Wheels.” Ten years, 22 countries around the world on his early 80’s BMW GS. Tremendous photographs and simple, down to earth, humble narration make this a great book for any aspiring adventurer. He was the first, or one of the first, to “ride” a motorcycle through the Darien Gap–he more or less dragged the bike through 80 miles of jungle to say he was the first to do it.

By: Luc

Luc — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 04:14:48 +0000

Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean (A River Runs Through It) is an account of smoke-jumpers fighting a forest fire in Mann Gulch, MT in 1949. I would include it not only for the heroic story of the firefighters but as an outstanding example of clear precise writing.

For added interest, you can follow this up with Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire by John N. Maclean, Norman Maclean’s son, which is about another forest fire some 45 years later.

By: Russell curtin

Russell curtin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:35:34 +0000

Another Australia book worth reading is Shartaram by Gregory David Roberts.

http://www.curledup.com/shantara.htm

By: 853 OKG

853 OKG — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:05:44 +0000

As noted by others, Alan Moorehead’s The White Nile is superb. Cooper’s Creek, his account of the tragic mid 19th century Burke & Wills expedition across Australia, is just as good (and perhaps more dramatic). The Blue Nile is also excellent.

A First Rate Tragedy is a very good treatment of the Scott expedition to the South Pole. Although I would not put it in the Top 50, Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ recent re-examination of Scott’s journey, which includes a very fine analysis of what the derision of Scott reflects about the values of those who deride him, is well worth reading.

By: Ray

Ray — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:16:06 +0000

@Casey: That was a really great book!!
“The Long Walk” tells the true story of escapees from Siberian work camp in the Arctic Circle (I believe) who walked over mountains and through deserts all the way south, through China, to India, and freedom. This book is an amazing testament to the desire to be free and is an incredible story of survival and the people and cultures the adventurers met.
It is well worth the time spent reading it.

Another classic is “Two Years before The Mast” By Richard Dana. The descriptions of the California coast before it was “civilized” is worth it alone, I think.
A young scholar from Harvard College spends 2 years as an ordinary seaman in the 1830’s. It is known as an accurate portrayal of life in that period.

By: Shane

Shane — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:09:29 +0000

Great list with some great stories. However, I am shocked that no book by Edward Abbey made the list. “Desert Solitaire” would be most people’s choices. But “Down the River” would make a fantastic addition next to John Wesley Powell’s account of the same trip down the same river.

By: Shane Heins

Shane Heins — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:45:23 +0000

And a couple to add to this list:

Deep Survival – Laurence Gonzales (something every man, young and old, should read. It may very well save their life and those they love.)

Tracker – Tom Brown, Jr. (Now this one is up for debate whether it’s fiction or non-fiction. Either way, one cannot deny some extraordinary lessons that come from it and help us connect to a manliness that is becoming more and more difficult to hold on to these days.)

Again, great list (and thought provoking:)

By: Danny

Danny — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:17:42 +0000

You have some great books in your list! But I recommend some books from Reinhold Messner, maybe the greatest mountain climber of all time.
Anyway great list!