No comments about Voyage To The End Of The World: With Tales From The Great Ice Barrier.

3 comments about Hidalgo: The Desert Diaries 100 Days Across The Atacama.

1. This book's title is VERY misleading. Not what one would expect.



2. Wow! This book is absolutely amazing. To think Nathan and Elly Foote actually did this boggles the mind, and stories like this you just can't make up. An amazing tale of survival while crossing drought-striken landscape and true desert as well. Anyone who enjoyed movies like "Hidalgo", and "Bite the Bullet", and loved books like "Seabiscuit" and other amazing equine related tales will consider "Hidalgo: The Desert Diaries" a must-own!



3. The reviewer who rated this book one star because it mentions Hidalgo was unfair. There is indeed a connection to the recent movie Hidalgo. That was the story of a horse crossing the Sahara, this is the story of horses crossing the Atacama. In the preface, the authors mention watching Hidalgo, the movie, and saw "...moments of our own lives on the trail played out on screen;....our own dispair, our own relationship to our horses, our own journey. We use 'Hidalgo' in the title to help you find us." If the title helps even one person find this book who would not otherwise have, it was a good choice, because this true story deserves to be more widely known. I also read the authors' longer book "Riding into the Wind on Horseback Out of Patagonia" and was afraid this would simply be an excerpt of that, but it is not. Although a few entries are duplicates, of course, most of this book, since it focuses just on the Atacama desert crossing, is new material with more detail than the previous book, and many more pictures.
   
   But this is more than an adventure story. The Footes have a lot of useful insights, most still relevant today. Give this story a try. If you like it, get "Riding into the Wind." Hopefully the sequel to Riding will be published one day, to finish the story of the journey from the Mexican border to Canada.

No comments about Gracie and the Mountain: Growing Young Climbing Mount LeConte.

3 comments about South to Alaska: From the Heartland of America to the Heart of a Dream.

1. I was one of those bewildered people who used to drive by the ship taking shape on the small Oklahoma farm, miles from the nearest navigable water, and wonder who was building it and why. I now know this was the first of two boats built by this artisan and adventurer and the beginning of an incredible journey.
   
   His daughter has written a glowing tribute to this amazing man and his lifelong pursuit of his dream. She has crafted an exciting account of the dangers and hardships of his voyage and a touching portrait of him and his loving wife who stuck with him and shared in the ultimate realization of his dream.



2. As one who normally reads only fiction, I was expecting this book, a gift from a friend, to be hard to get into, & easy to put down. However, I was very pleasantly surprised, as from the first page, I was eager to keep reading to see what obstacles Melvin & Cecil Owens would overcome to realize their dream to live in Alaska. With each turn of a page, their determination leapt out to grasp hold of you & cheer them on. Melvin's solo journey through waters that would concern even career sailors, was exciting to read, leaving you not able to stop reading until you knew he was safe. This adventure grasped you from the beginning, leaving you with the knowledge that dreams are there to be realized, no matter what the obstacles.



3. 
   South to Alaska: From the Heartland of America to the Heart of a Dream is the true life travelogue and biographical excerpt of one man's voyage by sea from Arkansas to Alaska. Melvin Owens single-handedly constructed the 47-foot "Red Dog" in his backyard, and launched it on the Arkansas River in 1971. He traveled the Arkansas River and Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico; in 1973 he began a solitary expedition along the Caribbean coasts of Mexico and Central America, through the Panama Canal, into the Pacific Ocean and finally to Alaska. To achieve his dream he battled mechanical problems, nature's ill will, sickness, thievery, and loneliness. An amazing and inspirational tale of one man's solo 10,000 mile expedition, as told his daughter Nancy Owens Barnes.

5 comments about Scotland Is Not for the Squeamish.

1. Watkins has only got better. This second of a trilogy has it all.To quote " a smile that would free anyone's soul from gravity. " Read on.



2. This continues Bill Watkins's autobiography through his time at sea, and in the Scotland of the late 60's and ealy seventies.

   As well as the humour, you'll love the evocative prose, which with a surprisingly few words summons up as vivid a picture as any I've ever read.

   Especially clever is his rendition of the Scots tongue.

   His stories of the start of the Celtic music revival, of living "on the broo" in Edinburgh and the start of the "Silly Wizard" folk group will make anyone smile.




3. Bill,
   Delighted to purchase Scotland is not for the squeamish. I'm buying a celtic childhood again to give as a gift, what a riot reading this book on the plane,with the headphones on and "Laughing out loud."well, its that sort of funny book



4. Bill Watkins' second book is at least as good as the first('A Celtic Childhood'), and continues the 'History of Bill' through his young adulthood with great adventure in Scotland('Course, he has to get there first). I rated this book five out of fibe stars only because that is the limit. It's easily a 10!



5. This is a great book. I couldnt put it down! - riotously funny in places but very poignant in others. Dont let the title put you off - this is a very memorable book and you will be glad you took the time to read it!

No comments about WINGS AROUND THE WORLD: The Exhilarating Story of one Woman's Epic Flight from the North Pole to Antarctica.

5 comments about The Most Offending Soul Alive: Tom Harrisson and His Remarkable Life.

1. It seems impossible to imagine capturing the full and complex life of this man in book form but Heimann has done so - carrying out Harrrison's own plan for his autobiography. He had intended to be to be "self-pitiless", and this accountspares us no `warts'- but what fascinating warts! I am convinced that he would have been profoundly grateful to the author for this recording of his life. Only when fairly measured against the flaws of character and errors of judgment can we fully appreciate his amazingly varied contributions to human knowledge (on human behavior as well as that of birds,orangutans, turtles...) He said of himself that his greatest task was to keep up with himself but he gave it a gallant try, writing as much as 8000 words a day on a wide variety of subjects. One of his better known exploits was the creation of a team which discreetly observed the British public during WW II, getting a feel for the people's frame of mind, in ways that make today's polls look slapdash and superficial.

   Heimann makes it clear why Harrisson was more comfortable during his many years in Borneo (among other difficult travels) than he was back `home' in England, happier in the long houses with the various tribes he came to know and love, getting drunk with them and carousing with their women. His beloved tribesmen later gathered to help rid the Island of the Japanese near the end of the war (some using their blow pipes).

   The knowledge he acquired was never fully accepted by the academic community, due to his lack of formal training, but as Heiman points out, he contributed more to our knowledge of both anthropology and archaeology of Sarawak, where he was a museum curator among other things, than was garnered by specialists in either field in other areas of Southeast Asia. Throw in ornithology - his first love as a student - always a strong interest....and protection of orangutans, and green sea turtles.

   Harrisson had incredible energy, and an amazing lack of requirements for personal comfort, suffering every imaginable discomfort and disease, walking miles through jungle, climbing mountains at a brisk pace, and expecting the same from his behind-the-lines soldiers in the interior of Borneo during the war. He would eat anything, without complaint - had good survival skills! But in what is referred to as polite sociey he often behaved outrageously, being rude, picking fights and in fact being "the most offending soul alive." He had a dreadful talent for offending people who were later able to get back at him and cause a great deal of harm.

   This review could go on and on - buy the book! I am simply amazed at the amount of research that Ms. Heimann has done; there is no stone unturned, yet all this is laid out for us with no unwelcome suppositions on her part - he left plenty of traces without having to invent them - rather one feels led along by someone with a wise and balanced understanding of her subject. Some books about extraordinary people leave disappointing, pale images - the reader longs for a quick glimpse of the real McCoy. Heimann has been able to bring us Tom Harrisson alive and kicking, even while including the immense amount of details that needed to be sorted through and pulled together to describe his life. Bravo!




2. If the purpose of a book is to inform, entertain and delight - Ms. Heimann's book rates A+. Tom Harrisson must have been one of the most gifted persons of the 20th Century. His contributions in many fields of science were incredible. In his early 20's he became a veteran of scientific expeditions to the Arctic and Borneo with oustanding treatises on ornithology to his credit. His scientific pursuits only began there. He provided basic work, inter alia, in sociology, anthropology, ethnology as well as market research and documentary filmmaking! He was too brilliant for formal training and avoided it all his life to the chagrin and jealousy of many with degrees.

   An outstanding leader in WWII, he formed a small army of headhunters with deadly blowguns to drive the Japanese from the jungles of Borneo. This he did with a handful of losses while inflicting casualties in the thousands on the Japanese. Harrisson was no diplomat and often seemed to enjoy rubbing people the wrong way. Although his enemies were legion, he had a way with women. The book's title provides the kernel of his story. From Henry V, the full quotation is:

   But if it be a sin to covet honor, I am the most offending soul alive.

   This book demands reading.




3. Tom Harrisson did more different things in his life than any human being should be allowed to, and did them all outstandingly. And Judith Heimann does a remarkable job of following across continents and professions as he goes from one amazing adventure to the next. He was a war hero, an anthropologist, a naturalist, a pollster and much else. He was also a very difficult person who alienated many people, left a trail of broken hearts, and sorely neglected his children. But he was one of the most colorful and memorable men of his generation, and Heimann's terrific research and fine writing takes you along for an astounding ride. Once you've met Tom, you won't forget him.



4. What a life! Tom Harrisson is hardly a household name in the US but he was one of those rather well-connected and well-educated British misfits who turned their lack of enthusiasm for the British Isles into a grand adventure. He served the waning empire both as a military man and as a civil servant. The high point of his military doings is the guerrilla war against the Japanese that he organized and fought in Borneo with the local population. That part of his life alone deserves a movie.

   After the war he went back to his long standing interests in botany, zoology and ethnography, keeping at some point turtles in his bathroom as part of a study of their migratory habits. All through his life there was much womanizing,boozing and boasting. The latter two mainly got him the reputation that the title of the book refers to. But there was also much serious scholarly work and real concern for the local population he worked closely with. The work produced several publications and a couple of documentary movies.

   As Judith Heimann, who knew Harrisson personally and researched his life for about 10 years, tells the story, his contributions to ethnography have been underrated because of his unorthodox methods and his knack for making enemies. Of course, without that approach he would be a much less interesting character and a less engaging writer: after having read this book, one is actually curious about reading Harrisson's own books.

   However, don't skip this biography. It is a great read: carefully researched, well-written and not over-interpreted as so may biographies tend to be these days.




5. This is a fascinating biography of a man who can truly be considered a "hero in history" because he so personally designed his own life and lived by his own rules and yet had a huge impact. In this sense this is an inspiring biography of a man who in his individualism personified what Western culture is all about. But, the book is also a major contribution to history and social science in that it describes little known events about the war against Japan, the birth of survey data collection, etc. etc. A first rate job of writing and a hard to put down read. Herbert Weiss, Emeritus Professor, City University of New York

2 comments about Flying Cold: The Adventures of Russel Merrill, Pioneer Alaskan Aviator.

1. Heroic account of how Russell Hyde Merrill brought aviation to Anchorage Alaska. This book is a must read for pilots and anyone interested in Alaskan History and bush pilots. Merrill was an ex Navy pilot who was the fist man to fly into Petrsburg,Wrangell.Kodiak and Anchorage. He discovered Merrill Pass in the Alaska Range and put Anchorage on the map as the "Tranportation Hub of Alaska" He brought aviation to Anchorage in 1927 the same year that Lindberg crossed the Atlantic.He faced incredible hardships and pioneered air routes all over Alaska that are still used today. He was a true hero and a very thoughtfull and kind man whose mark on aviation and Alaska is still very evident even today. He was lost over Cook inlet on 9/16/29. He was never found, but it is evident he went down and perished in the frigid water off Tyonek Alaska. Merrill Field(very busy general aviation airport in Anchorage) and Merrill Pass(important pass to the west through the Alaska Range)bear his name.In Alaska we all stand on the shoulders of this great man.



2. Trained as a pilot during World War I, Russel Merrill was determined to spend his life flying. His love of flight lured him from Oregon to Alaska, the far frontier of aviation, where Merrill piloted the first airplanes to fly into Petersburg, Wrangell, Kodiak, and Anchorage. FLYING COLD chronicles Merrill's daring 750-mile journey across the Gulf of Alaska in a flying boat with a single small motor, his first rescue mission by air, crash landings, and strandings. In 1928, Merrill nearly died after being forced down in the Arctic, showing up weeks later, half dead, but still carrying a cup of rice he had saved for an "emergency." Many photos. A great read.

4 comments about Horizon Chasers: Lives And Adventures of Richard Halliburton And Paul Mooney.

1. As the foremost expert on the life of Richard Halliburton, I found this book to be full of errors and inaccuracies. The author uses the hook, Halliburton's homosexuality, to promote an inconsequential person, Paul Mooney, who has no historical significance beyond being Halliburton's partner. Even the vast majority of the photos in the book were used without the permission of the current owner, which is not the acceptable or correct way to go about gathering materials for a worthwhile publication. Other materials were quoted without giving the source or credits. My recommendation would be to wait until a better biography, with correct information, comes along and leave this sleazy book where it belongs, in the dust bin.



2. Horizon Chasers returns to life its two principals, travel writer Richard Halliburton and "ghost" writer Paul Mooney with scholarship, literary flair, and personal interpretation. Both lives have a surprisingly modern ring to them, considering both died before World War II commenced. Amply quoted, Halliburton's letters reveal a man equally driven to popular acclaim and to remote seclusion; they also show the inner workings of a brilliant mind and complex man whose moods, even at their grimmest or most joyful, have an element of chic Byronic glamour to them. The chapters devoted to the early life of Paul Mooney are skillfully constructed, as they piece together from the fewest clues a person who, in other accounts, just seems to emerge out of nowhere. Horizon Chasers introduces us to him. From Washington, D. C., Paul was the son of American Indian authority James Mooney; this I hadn't known. Much to the chagrin of his sponsors at the Smithsonian, James, to get into the psyche of the Native American tribes he had been sent west to study, got high with them during religious rituals which involved the use of peyote. Be that as it may, James also wrote monographs on Native American life distinguished not only for their learnedness but for their lucidity and freedom from academic pedantry. According to Max, Paul inherited his writing gifts from his father (and, through his mother Ione, from very distant relative the poet the Earl of Surrey), yet, implicitly, earnest home schooling played a keen part as well. James Mooney died in 1921 when Paul was just sixteen. Paul was now the head of a household which included his mother, four sisters, and a younger brother. Like his father a free-thinker, but more anxious to see the wider world, Paul barely finishes high school and soon drops out of college. He hops a freighter bound for Constantinople, returns home, then goes to New York where he does some travel ad writing and hangs out with artists. About 1927, he goes off to Paris, returns home again, then (about 1930) drives off to California where, at a party of aviation aficionados and Hollywood stars, he meets celebrity Richard Halliburton and the two hit it off. At first a Halliburton fan, Paul moves on to become his general manager: he chauffeurs him about, sees to it that he gets his celebrity tan, and, in time, tries his hand at rewriting the rough drafts of his travel writings. Anyone who has worked for a newspaper or advertising agency knows how deadline pressures can encourage co-writing alliances. Materials get overworked. A mood is lost. Tired sentences need wake-up calls. Getting life out of last week's scribblings is like kicking a dead mule. Besides assist Halliburton, Paul also assisted ex-Nazi Kurt Ludecke in I Knew Hitler (1937), an early look at the Fuehrer and the earliest book in which I have heard the word "cell" used to refer to an organized unit of mischievous political activity within a host country. One wonders what other ghost writing and editing Paul did; evidently author Max looked. Horizon Chasers features a cast of hundreds, but the sheer number does not overwhelm. Supporting players include architect William Alexander, who designed and built Halliburton's 'dream' house in Laguna Beach, California, TWA pilot Moye Stephens, American aviatrix Florence "Pancho" Barnes, and German aviatrix "flying girl" Elly Beinhorn. Cameo appearances feature stunt journalist Nellie Bly, poet Hart Crane, poet/novelist Rene Crevel, "eco-poet" Robinson Jeffers, dancer Jose Limon, writer Ayn Rand, architect Raymond Hood, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, writer Charles Warren Stoddard, writer Carl Van Vechten, novelist Thomas Wolfe, and many others. There are quite a few people of whom I had never heard: painter Don Forbes, dancer Gluck Sandor, writer/raconteur Eugene MacCown (apparently, every-writer-who-came-to-Paris' welcome wagon). Also making appearances are Paul's Laguna Beach cats, whose descendants, one gathers, are now as populous as the descendants of Hemingway's cats in Cuba! Locales count in a book about a world renowned traveler, though it is understandable that not every place Halliburton visited is mentioned, but New York, San Francisco, Hong Kong and Laguna Beach (almost a character in itself) figure as main ports of call. Documentary and testimonial evidence support the book's claims. I count about 500 footnotes, varying in length from a one line citation to a fifty-line source rundown. There are about 75 or so photographs. A couple of these I would date differently. As one who is about to travel to Hong Kong (again), I would have appreciated a photograph, or map, showing me exactly where it was/is that the Sea Dragon was built and where it did its preliminary maneuvers ("off the Kowloon docks"?). Call it the Then (1938) and Now (2007) approach. I would like to put a commemorative plaque in the area. As letters have become lost and recollections dim, gaps in a story, which, in part, concerns cloaked or guarded professional and sexual relationships, are to be expected. As letters have come to light about famous writers following the publication of substantial biographies--as happened when letters were found of Stephen Crane, and later of or to Hart Crane, perhaps Horizon Chasers (in my opinion, a very special book) will jog further memories or produce a long-hidden cache of letters about free spirits Halliburton and Mooney.



3. Richard Halliburton was unknown to me until an old school friend referred me to this work. In many ways, the most dynamic and often worst documented decade of the twentieth century is the 1930's. The most dramatic change is of course that of Germany, a struggling liberal democracy in 1930 and the personification of brutish totalitarianism in 1940. I have done some research on the religion of a demagogue of the period named Gerald L K Smith, who began the decade as a minister preaching a message of leftward social change with a labor emphasis (well-received even in synagogues); at the end of it he sought support from major corporations and was well on his way to becoming "the dean of American anti-Semites". The odyssey of Halliburton and friends is another part of the patchwork quilt of that era, which the author tells somewhat episodically (as befits the evidence) in a distinctly literary vocabulary, perhaps to emphasize the Mooney connection. While the disappearance of Amelia Earhart brings enduring fame; that of Halliburton and company seems to seal an anticlimax. Almost in dramatic fashion his final descent into the Pacific Ocean parallels the descent into obscurity that seems his literary fate. Even as the assassination of Huey Long may have forever altered U.S. political history, this work helps give some idea of the courses cultural trends might have taken or heroes that might have endured.
   
   What I found most interesting is the subtext about homosexuality. While hardly a subject discussed openly in this period, there were obviously subcultures in major cities where it was openly practiced, if not accepted. This book provides both examples of and clues to its reception in three different religious traditions, whether actively or vestigially practiced: the Wesleyan (Halliburton), in which it is an unspeakable deviation from the path to holiness; the Roman Catholic (Mooney), in which it is a serious sin--from Trent on a matter of continual scrutiny in the clergy--but not one which cannot be dealt with; and the Jewish (Alexander), in which we see the obvious tension between the emancipated modern and those lingering condemnations in Leviticus written for his ancestors (original surname Levy). The interplay of these traditions as well as the movements in and out of sheltered enclaves is the area in which this book most illuminates, although in an oblique manner much like the indirect lighting often used by Frank Lloyd Wright, whose concepts also figure in the "dream house."
   
   
   C J Dull



4. Horizon Chasers...
   is a work still rare for our time. More biographical sketches in this vein need to be written; and in fact as this century rolls on I believe a recasting of the `social history' of the previous century will certainly be undertaken.
   
   I enjoyed your effort - and your style at times moved into the baroque with ambient touches that detailed a virtually untold social history of the Twenties and Thirties. Halliburton, as I have learned through you, is a self-cast personality, portraying the drama of `living beyond Des Moines' - and yet feeling the necessity of expanding the vision of Des Moines. He embodies the contradiction of a public and private persona; selling the former for profit, and the latter hidden and unknown to most: and yet not hidden within his circle in the `fringe' communities in Paris, London, New York, San Francisco, etc. Thus, as you in introduce Paul Mooney and others, your work becomes a parallel story of `straight' and `gay' life-struggles in a generally uninformed environment. Those tensions shape the communication and the terms of the relationships between the characters in the book. Nothing is lasting, relationships stay transient, words better not committed to paper seem better than clarity of feeling.
   
   I hadn't known of Halliburton's writing before reading your book; yet I've known many Halliburtons in my life. His is a tragedy (as is Paul's), and the number of events that warned them all not to proceed from Hong Kong were overwhelming. Yet, in spite of all the obvious, they sailed into eminent disaster - untested fantasy sailors in an unworthy craft. That was a death wish without a doubt. Mooney, injured and ankle in a cast was not even able to crawl to a life boat...yet he went along to his fate, knowing as he wrote in his correspondence that his fate was grim. Halliburton was then 40, aging and now less able to maintain the public-image (that brought in the dough); was he able to fall back to the image of his private life with lovers and privacy at Hangover, and raise a garden yearly? Not on his life! So he cast away in a clownishly over-painted island taxiing transport craft to face thousands of miles of high seas. Joshua Slocum, he told his parents, had sailed around the world several generations before, so why couldn't he? Yet, Halliburton wasn't stupid. He knew the difference between Slocum's vast knowledge of the sea, and his own ineptness. His is not a wish for a triumphant return to San Francisco to sell tickets on his public reputation. His reputation was in jeopardy in his own mind I suspect: the public and private sides of him were - in lethal combat.
   
   Historical reappraisal is the obligation of writers who look back and shape the perspective of the past, collective vision. Halliburton and Mooney are symbolic of a multitude of literary and non-art aspiring folks who live in the `shadow'. How they handled that perception took many forms; yet one feature in common with many was the need to live in a dualistic manner. As we progress in this century, maybe greater circles of inclusion will reduce the need for shadows

2 comments about African Obsession: The Life and Legacy of Carl Akeley.

1. This is the best account of Carl Akeley and his accomplishments that I have ever read.



2. Carl Akeley was a true pioneer in so many fields that it must have been difficult for Bodry-Sanders to decide which to emphasize. She has managed to combine the stories of his youth, his innovative taxidermy, his adventures in Africa, and his concern for the wild animals he loved, into an immensely readable book, that engages the reader from start to finish. Even though the author has been more than thorough in her research (she actually travelled to Africa to experience what Akeley did), she makes you want to know more. This is a fine book, by a fine writer.