This is a thrilling anthology of all the early adventurers right up to modern daredevils. These are the men and women who more than dared, they did. Dared to be first and were, dared to be more than the average traveler and were. Taken straight from diaries, journals, letters, and books written by the explorers themselves there was little David Roberts needed to add to the collection. He let the expeditions come alive through the words of the men and women experiencing them. But, don't think Roberts sat back and let this book happen without a little craftiness. He had enough sense to cut short the narratives right when the story was about to get interesting. He leaves you with cliff hangers (literally). Did they get out alive? Did they find their friends? You find yourself asking "What happened next?!" and jotting down the original story title just so you can go back and get the rest of the adventure in its entirety. ( )

Contains excerpts from 41 adventure memoirs. Authors include Edward Abbey, Peter Boardman, Tim Cahill, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Art Davidson, Colin Fletcher, Eric Hansen, Edward Hoaglund, Thomas F. Hornbein, David Howarth, Sebastian Junger, Jon Krakauer, Geoffrey Moorhouse, Eric Newby, Noel Odell, Redmond O'Hanlon, Piers Paul Read, Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton, Eric Shipton, Joshua Slocum, Freya Stark, Wilfred Thesinger, Bertram Thomas, H.W. Tilman, H.M. Tomlinson, Laurens Van der Post.