Books with author Fridtjof NANSEN

“Not since the publication of Mr. Stanley's 'In Darkest Africa' has any work of travel been received with the enthusiastic welcome accorded to Dr. Nansen's 'Farthest North.'” –The Publisher, 1897 Written for the popular reading public, "Farthest North" delighted thousands by its vigor of imagination, its masterful handling of material, its distinguished style. Fiction has woven no story to compare in fascinating interest with this tale of actual struggle with the unrelenting forces of inhospitable nature. Nansen captivated readers by his brilliant exploits, and “lifted the veil which concealed the secrets of the North Polar regions.” Nansen's Fram expedition was an 1893–1896 attempt by the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930) to reach the geographical North Pole by harnessing the natural east–west current of the Arctic Ocean. In the face of much discouragement from other polar explorers, Nansen took his ship Fram to the New Siberian Islands in the eastern Arctic Ocean, froze her into the pack ice, and waited for the drift to carry her towards the pole. Impatient with the slow speed and erratic character of the drift, after 18 months Nansen and a chosen companion, Hjalmar Johansen, left the ship with a team of dogs and sledges and made for the pole. In 1897, Nansen published a narrative of the expedition, "Farthest North," which was received with jubilation at the time of its publication: "This unrivaled book of Arctic travel is an account of an expedition totally unlike all others before it." Hugh Robert Mill, Geographer “The heroism is magnificent…the man who defies the uncontrollable forces of Nature.” London Quarterly and Holborn Review “A remarkable book…a brilliant record of skill, courage and perseverance amid enormous difficulties as well as of a success without a parallel. Life and adventures in the Polar seas have never been described with a more brilliant pen. Nansen is a master in the art of writing as well as in the art of exploration…keeps readers’ attention and interest always on the alert.” Scottish Review Nansen's plan for the expedition had found scanty favor with the geographers, whom he gibbets in the early part of his book with evident enjoyment. Greely had called the expedition “Dr. Nansen's illogical scheme of self-destruction.” The details of building Fram, undoubtedly the most ingenious boat ever launched at that time, will be read with keen interest. She was to be a fully-rigged vessel of 170 tons, with 6-knot engines , built on such lines and of such materials as should withstand or evade the tremendous ice-pressure to which she would be subjected. From the designing and building of the ship to the minutest portion of the stores she carried, no pains had been spared to deserve success. Both while on the Fram and during his sledge journey with Johansen, Dr. Nansen kept a diary, and at times he has drawn largely on its pages in compiling his story. Nansen writes: “I laugh at the scurvy; I laugh at the ice; we are living, as it were, in an impregnable castle. I laugh at the cold; it is nothing. But I do not laugh at the winds; they are everything; they bend to no man's will.” Outside of the protection of the Fram, the warlike appearance of walruses or polar bears wasn't welcome, especially when the walruses ripped open the kayaks or the bears killed the dogs--or attacked the men. As Nansen relates: "I drew my sledge to the end of the ice, when I heard a scuffle behind me, and I turned round and saw an enormous bear throwing itself on him, and Johansen on his back...." A hundred years after the expedition the British explorer Wally Herbert called the Fram voyage "one of the most inspiring examples of courageous intelligence in the history of exploration." "Far North" was originally translated to English by Hubert Majendie Gepp (1857-1892)

“Not since the publication of Mr. Stanley's 'In Darkest Africa' has any work of travel been received with the enthusiastic welcome accorded to Dr. Nansen's 'Farthest North.'” –The Publisher, 1897Written for the popular reading public, "Farthest North" delighted thousands by its vigor of imagination, its masterful handling of material, its distinguished style. Fiction has woven no story to compare in fascinating interest with this tale of actual struggle with the unrelenting forces of inhospitable nature. This man, who captivated readers by his brilliant exploits, who “has lifted the veil which concealed the secrets of the North Polar regions,” is a typical Norseman characterised by the grace, the quiet dignity, and the unspoiled naturalness, that well become a great, self-reliant man of sublime achievement.Nansen's Fram expedition was an 1893–1896 attempt by the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930) to reach the geographical North Pole by harnessing the natural east–west current of the Arctic Ocean. In the face of much discouragement from other polar explorers, Nansen took his ship Fram to the New Siberian Islands in the eastern Arctic Ocean, froze her into the pack ice, and waited for the drift to carry her towards the pole. Impatient with the slow speed and erratic character of the drift, after 18 months Nansen and a chosen companion, Hjalmar Johansen, left the ship with a team of dogs and sledges and made for the pole. In 1897, Nansen published a narrative of the expedition, "Farthest North," which was received with jubilation at the time of its publication:"This unrivaled book of Arctic travel is an account of an expedition totally unlike all others before it." Hugh Robert Mill, Geographer “The heroism is magnificent…the man who defies the uncontrollable forces of Nature.” London Quarterly and Holborn Review“A remarkable book…a brilliant record of skill, courage and perseverance amid enormous difficulties as well as of a success without a parallel. Life and adventures in the Polar seas have never been described with a more brilliant pen. Nansen is a master in the art of writing as well as in the art of exploration…keeps readers’ attention and interest always on the alert.” Scottish ReviewNansen's plan for the expedition had found scanty favor with the geographers, whom he gibbets in the early part of his book with evident enjoyment. Greely had called the expedition “Dr. Nansen's illogical scheme of self-destruction.” The details of building Fram, undoubtedly the most ingenious boat ever launched at that time, will be read with keen interest. She was to be a fully-rigged vessel of 170 tons, with 6-knot engines , built on such lines and of such materials as should withstand or evade the tremendous ice-pressure to which she would be subjected. From the designing and building of the ship to the minutest portion of the stores she carried, no pains had been spared to deserve success.Both while on the Fram and during his sledge journey with Johansen, Dr. Nansen kept a diary, and at times he has drawn largely on its pages in compiling his story. Nansen writes: “I laugh at the scurvy; I laugh at the ice; we are living, as it were, in an impregnable castle. I laugh at the cold; it is nothing. But I do not laugh at the winds; they are everything; they bend to no man's will.”Outside of the protection of the Fram, the warlike appearance of walruses or polar bears wasn't welcome, especially when the walruses ripped open the kayaks or the bears killed the dogs--or attacked the men. As Nansen relates: "I drew my sledge to the end of the ice, when I heard a scuffle behind me, and I turned round and saw an enormous bear throwing itself on him, and Johansen on his back...." A hundred years after the expedition the British explorer Wally Herbert called the Fram voyage "one of the most inspiring examples of courageous intelligence in the history of exploration."

"An enthralling story." Saturday Review, 1914."One of the most valuable and interesting books of travel that has been written on Siberia." Bulletin, 1915"The name of the author is a guarantee that the book is worth reading." American Geographical Society, 1915"His power as a graphic writer and unusually equipped observer finds full expression in his remarkably interesting book." The Bookseller, 1914"One is amazed at the scope of his book and the mass of interesting matter it contains." Geographical Journal, 1915Nansen's book "Through Siberia" is an exciting account of the author's eventful journey by sea, river and rail from Norway, via the Kara Sea, to eastern Siberia. Published in 1914 as "Gjennem Sibirien," an English translation by Arthur Grosvenor Chater (1866-1951) was published in 1914.In August 1913, the steamer Correct left Norway loaded with goods for Siberia to make an attempt to open up a regular trade connection with the Yenisei River. August 27, the vessel safely reached the mouth of the Yenisei, discharged her cargo into river boats and returned to Norway without at any time being obstructed by the ice. Fridtjof Nansen (1861 –1930), who was a guest of the Siberian Company continued the journey up the Yenisei to Krasnoyarsk, and from there, as a guest of the chief engineer of the Imperial Russian railways, continued the trip over the Siberian Railroad to Vladivostok. From Vladivostok the journey homeward was via the new line of railroad being constructed along the Amur River, using steamboat and motor car where the railroad is in construction, and railway hand car over the completed sections, to the main Siberian line and thence to Europe.We are fortunate in having his account of that journey by water and land from Norway to Vladivostok. In wealth of information "Through Siberia" is premier among works on Siberia, while it possesses all the charm of description of those earlier books, "First Crossing of Greenland" and "Farthest North". As a lifelong student of out-of-door Nature Nansen sees what he looks at and makes scientific inferences from what he sees; his inferences reach into deep waters and beneath tundra and mountain; they connect the present with a prehistoric past. Needless to say, there is not a dull page or superfluous paragraph in the volume, and Nansen has lost none of his descriptive power.The author sees and describes the native Samoyedes, the Russian traders, political exiles, and the Siberian peasant, as well as ethnological and geological questions, industrial, social and political conditions, and the China-Russian problems created by the Japanese war. Regarding the Chinese, Nansen writes: "When it comes to fleecing natives, no European is a match for the Chinese. They poison them with their pernicious Chinese spirit, khanshin, and they also give them opium; they coax their sables and other valuable furs out of them at a ridiculous price, and charge heavily for their own goods which they supply in return; they contrive to get the natives so deeply into their debt that they can never be free, but must always procure them furs. They use their power over the natives to make them fear the Russians as their enemies and see in the Chinese their friends and saviours."Nansen notes that "Russia is unwilling to have her territory populated by Chinese and she has passed severe legislation against their immigration; but she is utterly unable without their labor to develop the resources of her eastern country. One of the results of her attitude is the growth of a strong feeling of hostility on the part of the Chinese."As an official guest Nansen can say little about the incompetence of the government; but one can read his thoughts between the lines. He tells of half a dozen officials being sent 1000 miles to superintend the customs inspection of one small steamer, or of three telegraph operators at a station where one message was received in two weeks.

For one whole winter we were cut off from the world and immured among the Greenlanders. I dwelt in their huts, took part in their hunting, and tried, as well as I could, to live their life and learn their language. But one winter, unfortunately, is far too short a time in which to attain a thorough knowledge of so peculiar a people, its civilisation, and its ways of thought—that would require years of patient study. Nevertheless, I have tried in this book to record the impressions made upon me by the Eskimo and his polity, and have sought, as far as possible, to support them by quotations from former authors. There may even be things which a newcomer sees more clearly than an observer of many years’ standing, who lives in their midst.On many points, perhaps, the reader may not think as I do. I cannot, it is true, find that whatever is is very good; I am weak enough to feel compassion for a declining race, which is perhaps beyond all help, since it is already stung with the venom of our civilisation.

Greenland is in a peculiar manner associated with Norway and with the Norwegians. Our forefathers were the first Europeans who found their way to its shores. In their open vessels the old Vikings made their daring voyages, through tempests and drift-ice, to this distant land of snows, settled there throughout several centuries, and added it to the domain of the Norwegian crown.After the memory of its existence had practically passed away, it was again one of our countrymen[1]who, on behalf of a Norwegian company, founded the second European settlement of the country.It is poor, this land of the Eskimo, which we have taken from him; it has neither timber nor gold to offer us—it is naked, lonely, like no other land inhabited of man. But in all its naked poverty, how beautiful it is! If Norway is glorious, Greenland is in truth no less so. When one has once seen it, how dear to him is its recollection! I do not know if others feel as I do, but for me it is touched with all the dream-like beauty of the fairyland of my childish imagination. It seems as though I there found our own Norwegian scenery repeated in still nobler, purer forms.It is strong and wild, this Nature, like a saga of antiquity carven in ice and stone, yet with moods of lyric delicacy and refinement. It is like cold steel with the shimmering colours of a sunlit cloud playing through it.When I see glaciers and ice-mountains, my thoughts fly to Greenland where the glaciers are vaster than anywhere else, where the ice-mountains jut into a sea covered with icebergs and drift-ice. When I hear loud encomiums on the progress of our society, its great men and their great deeds, my thoughts revert to the boundless snow-fields stretching white and serene in an unbroken sweep from sea to sea, high over what have once been fruitful valleys and mountains. Some day, perhaps, a similar snow-field will cover us all.

Excerpt from Farthest North, Vol. 1 of 2: Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship "Fram" 1893-96 and of a Fifteen Months' Sleigh Journey by Dr. Nansen and Lieut. JohansenA time will come in later years when the Ocean will unloose the bands of things, when the immeasurable earth will lie open, when sea farers will discover new countries, and Thule will no longer be the ex treme point among the lands. - seneca.Unseen and untrodden under their Spotless mantle of ice the rigid polar regions slept the profound Sleep of death from the earliest dawn of time. Wrapped in his white Shroud, the mighty giant stretched his Clammy ice-limbs abroad, and dreamed his age-long dreams.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The Incredible Expedition to the Frozen Latitudes of the North These are the diaries of Nansen's lunatic three-year long expedition to the North Pole, which made him the John Krakauer of his age. In 1893 Fridtjof Nansen set sail for the North Pole in the Fram, a ship specially designed to be frozen into the polar ice cap, withstand its crushing pressures, and so drift North. Experts said that such a mission was tantamount to suicide. This is the stirring first-person account of this historic voyage. Nansen tells of his expedition's struggle against snowdrifts, ice floes, polar bears, scurvy, gnawing hunger, and the seemingly endless polar night that transformed the Fram into a "cold prison of loneliness." Setting out in the end on a harrowing fifteen-month sledge journey to reach his destination by foot, he was required them to share a sleeping bag of rotting reindeer fur and to feed the weaker sled dogs to the stronger ones. Given up for dead, he traveled 146 miles farther north than anyone else in the past four hundred years. For the first time in 100 years this version contains the complete unabridged journey with some photographs that have not been seen for 100 years. Also included are photographs from the original Norwegian edition and a few photographs that were never published before.

Excerpt from Farthest North, Vol. 1 of 2: Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship "Fram" 1893-96 and of a Fifteen Months' Sleigh Journey by Dr. Nansen and Lieut. Johansen About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

For one whole winter we were cut off from the world and immured among the Greenlanders. I dwelt in their huts, took part in their hunting, and tried, as well as I could, to live their life and learn their language. But one winter, unfortunately, is far too short a time in which to attain a thorough knowledge of so peculiar a people, its civilisation, and its ways of thought-that would require years of patient study. Nevertheless, I have tried in this book to record the impressions made upon me by the Eskimo and his polity, and have sought, as far as possible, to support them by quotations from former authors. There may even be things which a newcomer sees more clearly than an observer of many years? standing, who lives in their midst.

Before placing his ‘Eskimoliv’ in my hands for translation, Dr. Nansen very carefully revised the text, and made numerous excisions and additions. Thus the following pages will be found to differ in several particulars from the Norwegian original. I also requested and received Dr. Nansen’s permission to suppress one or two especially nauseous details of Eskimo manners, which seemed to have no particular ethnological significance. The excisions made on this score, however, probably do not amount to half a page in all.Dr. Nansen suggested that I should follow the example of Dr. Rink in his ‘Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo,’ and treat the word ‘Eskimo’ as indeclinable. I have ventured, however, to overrule his suggestion. There is precedent for both ‘Eskimo’ and ‘Eskimos’ as the plural form; and where there is any choice at all, it seems only rational to prefer the regular declension.In Chapters XIII. and XIV. Dr. Nansen naturally makes numerous references to that great storehouse of Greenland folk-lore, Dr. Rink’s ‘Eskimo Sagn og Eventyr,’ which has been translated and condensed by the author himself, under the above-mentioned title. Where it was possible, I have given the reference to the English edition; but in cases where the text has been very freely condensed or expurgated, I have referred to the Danish original as well. Even where I have not done so, students of folk-lore may be advised to go back to the original text, which is often fuller and more characteristic than the English version.

Eskimo LifeFridtjof Nansen, norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1861-1930)This ebook presents «Eskimo Life», from Fridtjof Nansen. A dynamic table of contents enables to jump directly to the chapter selected.Table of Contents-01- About this book-02- TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE-03- AUTHOR'S PREFACE-04- GREENLAND AND THE ESKIMO-05- APPEARANCE AND DRESS-06- THE KAIAK AND ITS APPURTENANCES-07- THE ESKIMO AT SEA-08- WINTER HOUSES, TENTS, WOMAN BOATS, AND EXCURSIONS-09- COOKERY AND DAINTIES-10- CHARACTER AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS-11- THE POSITION AND WORK OF WOMEN-12- LOVE AND MARRIAGE-13- MORALS-14- JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS DRUM DANCES AND ENTERTAINMENTS-15- MENTAL GIFTS ART, MUSIC, POETRY, ESKIMO NARRATIVES-16- RELIGIOUS IDEAS-17- THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY-18- EUROPEANS AND NATIVES-19- WHAT HAVE WE ACHIEVED-20- CONCLUSION

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