4 comments about A Handful of Summers.

1. "A Handful of Summers" is the most informative and entertaining book on tennis I've read.
   
   But the 1997 HarperCollins edition is dreadful: the paper quality is poor, and -- most importantly -- all the photographs are missing. I was so disgusted with it I returned it to Amazon and bought a second-hand copy instead.
   
   The five-star rating is for the writing, not the edition.
   
   Be warned.



2. I think this book was named the best book on tennis by some or other panel. Though I have not read all that many books on the sport, I cannot imagine a better book on tennis, or any other sport for that matter. Forbes is a delightful author, writing with gentle wit and charm about his childhood on a farm in the Eastern Cape, his tennis career and his life after tennis. Reading the book it is impossible not to mourn the passing of an era when sport was played for the enjoyment thereof, and sports star were friends.

   A book that should be read by everybody, not only people interested in tennis or sport.




3. Gordon Forbes has captured the essence of what sport used to and should still be. From South African farmlands to the lawns of Wimbledon "Forbsie" paints a humorous picture of tennis in the fifties and sixtys. The cast of characters become personal friends and the author like a big brother. A Handful of Summers is among the classics on my bookshelf.



4. This is a journey through one man's life in an era so different from today. An insight into the world of 'amateur' tennis and its twists of professionalism. An era when tennis was played for the joy of the game, travelling, a varied existence, and a lack of anything better to do!

   This traces the realities of life on the tennis tour in the 50s and 60s and the ups and downs which went with it, especially given that Gordon Forbes was from a culture as complex as that of South Africa.

   This books gets you really involved in the lives of some of the greatest tennis legends of all time, and others who strove to reach their heady heights, but never quite made it to the top! This book contains so much passion and honesty that it draws you in. You can almost believe that you are right beside these tennis greats, treading in their every footstep, hearing their every breath. You feel as if you grew up with them, laughed their every laugh, and suffered their every defeat.

   This is a must for every lover of tennis, and should not be written off by those who have no interest in the game. This is no ordinary tennis chronicle.

3 comments about Arnold Palmer: Memories, Stories, and Memorabilia from a Life on and Off the Course.

1. I was extremely surprised that Arnold didn't mention meeting me in the parking lot of Houston's Memorial Park one evening after he'd finished a round of golf and I was returning to my car after running on the track there. We had a memorably joyful conversation -- I asked him how he was doing, and he said fine, and he asked me how I was doing, and I said fine, and we both smiled. He should have mentioned that episode, but he didn't



2. This is another type of book that any Arnold Palmer fan will love to read. This edition not only had my interest from Palmer's written words, but the clever inserts of about a dozen or so Palmer collectibles made it all the more intriguing. It was a book that once I picked it up could not put down. The story of his career and family life that was extremely interesting and insightful, yet entertaining. From a personal perspective I liked 'A Personal Journey' but was even more impressed with this one !



3. Before there was Governator Arnie there was Arnie the golfer. It seems like golf has always had a shining star or two that go beyond the game to making a lasting impression on the world at large. And Arnie certainly fit that. He generated an image for a generation of people, inspiring to do better in their work, in their life. Not the world's best golfer, he's simply Arnie, the world famous guy next door. His approachability and down-home humility have secured his status as one of the most admired people in and out of sports.
   
   This book could almost be his scrapbook. It combines stories, both personal and professional, rare photos from his private collection and removable facsimilies of twelve collectibles from his archives.
   
   This is a fascinating book with which to curl up during the long winter months. A good Christmas present for the golfer in the family.

5 comments about Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig in His Time.

1. A well written piece with good research about the life of this great man. Good book for any sports fan.



2. This is the story of Lou in more than just baseball terms, from his humble upbringing, to his marriage and untimely death. The book is full of great stories and insights by someone who has obviously done their homework on the topic. Alot of fact-correcting with regards to the Ruth-Gehrig squabbles, and sets the record straight on aot of issues. It is not a "pageturner", but I came away feeling like I learned a great deal about a baseball legend I thought I knew alot about.



3. Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig In His Time charts the life and accomplishments of a truly legendary ball player, plus author Ray Robinson provides the reader with a wealth of background details on the era of baseball through the Depression years. Most of all, it's a recreation of the man who played over two thousand consecutive games before he was diagnosed with the fatal disease named after him. A lively writing style blends history and biography, setting the times and baseball events for newcomers to the sport and providing a vivid account of a legend. Highly recommended: even non-baseball readers will find it engrossing.



4. Lou Gehrig is a baseball legend. He played on the dynastic New York Yankees teams of the 1920s and 1930s alongside Babe Ruth. He had a .340 lifetime batting average and 493 career home runs. He set a record of 2,130 consecutive games played, a record that stood for decades. And he died of ALS in 1941 at age 38, a disease that now bears his name in the recollections of most Americans. His story, with proper dramatic license, was portrayed in the classic baseball movie, "The Pride of the Yankees," with Gary Cooper as Gehrig in what many consider the actor's greatest performance.
   
   Ray Robinson, a sports journalist and editor, tells this story in "Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig and His Time." It is a book very much in the genre of many other conventional sports biographies. It is a serviceable biography at best, and far from great. In it we learn about one of the greatest stars of major league baseball in the pre-World War II era. If you want a basic introduction to the life and career of Lou Gehrig this book is fine. If you want a well-researched, thoughtful, and sophisticated biography of the Yankee great go elsewhere. This work is very much a "once over lightly" treatment of a person who deserves better.



5. In "Iron Horse", Ray Robinson gives the reader an introduction to the Lou Gehrig persona. More than a list of records and triumphs of the baseball star, we meet the human being behind the records. I always had the impression that Gehrig was a good man, whereas Babe Ruth was only a good baseball player. This book confirms that impression.
   
   Growing up the son of German immigrants, Gehrig had the disadvantage of being something of an outsider in his own world. Baseball was just one avenue he traveled in his efforts to advance himself. Various jobs and Columbia University were other options pursued by Lou. His parents discouraged him from playing a game which they did not understand. When Lou had to choose between Columbia University and baseball, his parents urged the University, while a professor recommended baseball. Going to work every day was not extraordinary for Lou. That was how his parents raised him.
   
   In his chosen trade, Lou achieved excellence and attention wherever he played. Lou lived the thrill of playing baseball, and as a Yankee to boot! Lou always considered himself the luckiest man alive, even as he lived in the shadow of two giants, Babe Ruth at the start of his career, and Joe DiMaggio toward the end. Through it all, Lou considered himself a lucky man.
   
   Robinson leads the reader through a character study of his boyhood hero. We see Lou's relationships with his loving parents who could never understand the stage on which he strode. His wife, who gave him joy while suffering his mother's resentment, would be his solace in his illness. His relationships with his team mates, particularly Babe Ruth, get much attention. In this book we see Gehrig as a man not only driven by passions and wants, but guided by a sense of right and wrong. He was the moral compass of the Yankees. This trait prevented him from ever being the close friend of Ruth with whom he is so commonly associated in the public mind.
   
   Driven, perhaps, by contemporary interests, Lou's earnings are frequently reported. We are brought to understand that even a star of Gehrig's luminance earned a large salary, but still needed to work when he retired. Lou found post baseball employment in a department of the city in which he grew up, achieved stardom and gradually deteriorated and died.
   
   The illness of the only patient to give his name to a disease forms much of the latter sections of the book. Robinson tries to give an accurate report of how the disease affected Lou without over exaggerating its effects. We travel with Lou throughout his slump, ending of the streak and his gradual deterioration. At the end we have seen all 37 years of his remarkable and admirable life.
   
   Although the reader is introduced to the persona of Lou Gehrig, there is plenty of baseball too. This is an excellent book for any baseball fan with a desire to into the soul of one of baseball's most noble knights.

5 comments about Savage Summit: The True Stories of the First Five Women Who Climbed K2, the World's Most Feared Mountain.

1. There just aren't many books by women about high-altitude climbing so this one was a welcome addition to the pantheon. Jennifer Jordan (who is not herself an Alpinist) has written an interesting but slightly flawed book about the lives and deaths of the first five women to summit K2.
   
   Everest may be the world's tallest mountain, but K2 with it's unpredictable weather systems, isolated location, avalanche danger (made more prevalent by global warming), technical complexity and colder climate is considered the more difficult climb. At the time this book was written, out of the nearly 200 people who had summited, only five were women who are all now deceased (there have been a few more women who have successfully summitted in the time since.) Three had died on the descent, the other two later on subsequent climbs. In the group were two Frenchwomen (Chantal Mauduit, Liliane Barrard), one Pole (the legendary Wanda Rutkiewicz) and two Brits (Julie Tullis and Alison Hargreaves.) Jordan has researched their lives as best as she could given some (particularly Barrard) left little in the way of autobiographical information. Along the way, they deal with sexism-both from the Pakistani government as well as, more depressingly, their male climbers-as well as certain advantages of biology (women seem to be less prone to high-altitude sickness and frostbite although the reasons for this are still speculative.)
   
   Jordan has lots to say about sexism in mountaineering that was quite illuminating. Additionally, she is a worthy voice for these women who are not near as famous as their male counterparts. She clearly liked some of the protagonists better than others but she does make the effort to portray them as the complex, flawed and original women that they were. There is lots of information about the history of mountaineering both in the Karakoram and on Europe's summits and some great anecdotes about the women's early climbing experiences.
   
   What was less enjoyable was Jordan's thesis that there is a curse on women who climb K2 (the mythology being that K2 is masculine energy as opposed to Everest's feminine energy.) With a 1 in 7 chance of a climber dying on descent, it is sad but not surprising some of the first women to climb K2 did not make it down. As many men in the book survive K2 only to die on a future summit as well (Michel Parmentier, Rob Hall and Benoit Chamoux to name a few), Rutkiewicz and Mauduit's later deaths are indeed tragic, but also not unexpected. High-altitude climbing is a hobby with high mortality rate. No mystical reasons need be sought and I think it does something of a disservice to the climbing community-female in particular-to spread superstition. As some other reviewers, I also found Jordan's habit of speaking of the dead's thoughts in their final days as disconcerting since some, such as Hargreaves who died in a storm on her descent from the K2, could not have left a record of her thoughts on making the summit. While Jordan mentions in the beginning she took "Perfect Storm" liberties, it was mildly off-putting.
   
   Despite these complaints, I still did enjoy this book. It is for the most part well-written and gives attention to a chapter in mountaineering that is sadly marginalized. Read it and learn about the pull of the Death Zone, the history of K2, and the victories a small group of exceptional women experienced in a male-dominated sport.



2. "Savage Summit" - it seems that every author who writes about K2 feels the need to write IN BOLD the difficulty of climbing the world's most dangerous peak. Or is it a weakness for climbing cliches? It is difficult to find well - written mountaineering books, and Jordan's lack of climbing experience (or is it writing experience? Or both?) marrs this attempt.
   
   The climbers she covers are all exceptionally interesting, and Jordan does do an adequate job of depicting the difficulties encountered by female alpinists in the hyper macho, competitive and male dominated world of Himalayan climbing. Especially interesting to read about are Mauduit and Rutkiewiecz, opposites in their personal style in the Himalayas. But I do agree with other reviewers - too much juvenile male-bashing here. And given the arena, its not hard to find easy targets.
   
   But her attempts to resurrect the psychological states of these five dead climbers can be awkward, and sometimes just inept or embarassing. The writing in general is unexceptional, too amateurish, and sometimes I wondered how much she really knew about the climbers, or climbing in general. In the end, it comes off as an attempt to write a feminist critique of Himalayan climbing by trying to show that there was some general feminist motive shared by all five of these climbers. And as they are all dead, we can't ask them, but Jordan founders in this respect. In the end their only shared legacy is a love for the highest ranges in the world.
   
   Overall, worth reading. Not worth buying.



3. Jennifer Jordan is an outstanding writer and somebody who knows mountaineering inside and out. Because of her background, she makes the tragic stories of the first five women who climbed K2 (Wanda Rutkiewicz, Liliane Barrard, Julie Tullis, Alison Hargreaves, and Chantal Mauduit) come alive. These women were all complex individuals, but they all had what I consider an insane drive to achieve something few people would bother to achieve. And in the end, like so many other top mountaineers, they ended up dead.
   
   Some may romanticize their deaths as something they would have "wanted," that the manner of their deaths was better than rotting away from Alzheimer's, cancer, or getting killed in other, more mundane accidents, but in the end this reader was totally appalled by their foolhardiness, their stupidity even. Just in case the reader may think I am sexist, I also think it is idiotic for men to engage in high-altitude mountain climbing. Sooner or later, there is a very real chance a person will die from it. And for what? For bragging rights? Talk about pointless.
   
   Nevertheless, this is a great read, almost as good as Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air.



4. I could not put this book down. I knew nothing of alpine climbing to begin with, but became engrossed by the descriptions of the mountains that inspired the lives of the first five women who climbed K2. Myself, I am inspired by the strength of these women. One reviewer commented that the author seemed to have something against male climbers. I did not get this feeling, but rather felt that she was descrbing things as they were, with men often resenting and feeling threatened by these women's accomplishments. As other reviewers have said, these women were indeed complex. I was struck by the pattern of some of their deaths: continuing on when weather was bad for example, or underestimating their need for gear in their summit bids. But then, at 8,000+ meters in freezing temperatures and with little food to eat and scarce oxygen in the air, one can understand how decisions would be difficult! I suspect that these mistakes are not unique to women, but have claimed the lives of many a climber, male and female alike.
   
   A wonderful read, an inspiration, and a tribute to the awesome power of nature and the strength and fragility of human life.



5. As a man, I came looking for a story of risk and adventure from a woman's perspective. I too wanted to understand what drew these pioneers to the high and lonely places. The stories of the five women were gripping and well written, but I found the harsh and unrelenting criticism of the male ego tiring. The men and women of the climbing community share the same desire to conquer and to be tested. I had hoped for a story of shared desire, not of bitter divide between fraternity and sorority.

1 comments about Clough: The Autobiography.

1. A good read from old "big mouth". He comes across as the arrogant, self confident, single minded man that made him a great manager and great entertainment.

   One of the best football autobiographies I've read.

3 comments about John Henry (Thoroughbred Legends (Unnumbered)).

1. Haskin provides a serviceable equine biography of American horse racing's last true superstar. As one Chicago journalist recently pointed out, John Henry's life story is a close approximation of Seabiscuit's: ex-claimer with bad conformation makes very, very good. Not the fastest race horse to ever set foot on a track, John Henry often won on sheer endurance and wits--part of his allure. Most fans will find little new in the way of facts, but will nevertheless want the book for its often amusing anecdotes. Who can resist a horse who drinks coffee? (Oddly enough, one of the most famous stories told by Chris McCarron--John Henry's habit of checking the leader board after winning a race--doesn't make an appearance.) Haskin's prose does not exactly fly, and some of his more rhetorical flights are unintentionally funny. The photographs, despite a somewhat annoying layout, are well-chosen; I was particularly glad to see the award-winning photograph of John Henry regally contemplating an adulatory crowd. Overall, entertaining enough as a quick read.



2. After reading this heartwarming story of the ugly
   horse who blooms and wins our hearts and
   breaks racing records I wanted to stand up and cheer.
   I was inspired to visit this living legend
   and found him as mystical and charismatic in
   person as related in this wonderful book.
   A good book for the horse lover and for anyone
   who loves the unconquerable spirit.



3. "John Henry" is book number ten in the Thoroughbred Legends series published by the Eclipse Press out of Lexington, Kentucky.

   Steve Haskin, an award-winning writer for "The Blood-Horse" tells a lively tale of the dumpy little bay horse that was back at the knees and, "like a bargain-basement sale item, ...always seemed to be available at a dirt-cheap price."

   John Henry was a demon in his stall---he hated to be confined. He passed through the hands of a number of owners and trainers who thought he showed some promise as a runner, even though he was in the habit of ripping his feed tub off of the wall and hurling it down the shed row. Once, when he was stabled at a track he didn't like, John Henry did the same thing to his trainer:

   "After one of the races, [John Henry] returned to the barn and was given a bath. Marino [his trainer] started walking him, and before he knew it, his jacket sleeve was in John's mouth. John picked Marino up off the ground and took off down the shed row, dragging him along. Marino was being lifted in the air and was completely helpless...'Thank God I had a goose down jacket or he would have taken a big chunk out of me,' Marino said. `That's how mad the horse was.'"

   Then the trainer, Ron McAnally took in the gelding that vented his anger on his water buckets, feed tubs, and sometimes his groom, and turned him into a demon on the race track. How did the trainer do this? McAnally says it was by treating him kindly and earning John Henry's trust.

   The ugly little demon-turned-race-horse repaid his trainer's kindness by earning an amazing $6.6 million in eighty-three starts and thirty-nine wins. His durability and courage became a legend, and he attracted record numbers of fans to the tracks where he ran. He won his second `Horse of the Year' title and closed out his racing career at the advanced age of nine.

   John Henry and his trainer, Ron McAnally were both elected to the Thoroughbred Hall of Fame in 1990, which was only fitting.

   John is now spending his retirement at the Kentucky Horse Park, and is shown to his visitors three times a day during the season (March 15th through October 31st). Go see him soon, as he turned twenty-six this year. Just don't visit the grand, old gelding on a day when he's been given medicine:

   "John also hates medicine, and whenever he's given a dewormer, which is a pasty substance, he keeps it in his mouth for hours and refuses to swallow it. One time, Roby [his groom] took him out to show him several hours after he had been given the medication. `John was standing in the ring,' she said, `and all of a sudden, he blows this wormer all over the audience.'"

   John still knows what he doesn't like.

1 comments about Capt. Joshua Slocum: The Life and Voyages of the America's Best Known Sailor.

1. Having read SAILING ALONE AR0UND THE WORLD, I found Victor's book enlighening. He is not the writer his father was, but his recollections fill out the years of preparation leading eventually to his father's 'sailing alone around the world.' If it lacks the poetic style of his father, it does refer to his mother and ships owned and sailed by his father which lends romance(both senses)and understanding to the Captain. Joshua Slocum was a true man of the sea whose self-taught knowledge made him capable of deeds covering the gamet of seamanship. One can not read the chapter about the LIBERDADE, a canoe of hardly more than 30 feet in length built in the wilds of Brazil with ingenuity unknown today and sailed over 5,000 miles to Washington D.C., without a sense of wonder at the achievment. If you enjoy success stories, you will love this one which explains, in large part, the Captain's remarkable success in the sloop SPRAY. One other book, THE SEARCH FOR CAPTAIN SLOCUM, completes the triad, but that is a subject of another review.

No comments about The Old Man: The Biography of Walter J. Travis.

4 comments about Spirit of the Wind: The Story of George Attla, Alaska's Legendary Sled Dog Sprint Champ.

1. George Attla was no more than a name to me before I picked up SPIRIT IN THE WIND: THE STORY OF GEORGE ATTLA. The cover said he was Alaska's legendary sled dog sprint champ. Whuh? I scoffed, thinking "legendary" was a word that is overused nowadays and should be reserved for people like Helen of Troy or George Washington. However, one quick peek through the contents of this book made me think that for once, Lew Freedman is not overstating things, for George Attla has indeed all the attributes of a legendary figure. Did you ever read Joseph Campbell's HERO OF A THOUSAND FACES? That will come to mind when you sit down with a hot cup of cocoa and a copy of SPIRIT OF THE WIND. For Attla is to ordinary mushers what Margot Fonteyn is to ballerinas--the gold standard to which all others have to kneel down.
   
   He is good with dogs, and Freedman spends a lot of time detailing the extraordinary bonds set up by a trainer like Attla with some very special beasts. Freedman ascribes some of his magic to his First Peoples ancestry, for he is an Alaskan Indian with a kind of "horse whispering" background and a crippling childhood disease, one that would bring tears to your eyes, and when he conquers it the Northern Lights seem to glow a little brighter. You'll be wiping away the tears with a chamois.
   
   He has achieved too many feats to mention, and nine gold medals. When he left school, it was with a first grade education--no, I guess he made it into second grade. At the end of our lives when we approach the Pearly Gates, St Peter will ask us what we did for other people while we were alive, and George Attla will shake his noble head and say, "I did it for the dogs."



2. Without a doubt one of the most poorly written books that I have every read. The author normally writes newspaper articles and it's obvious. Each chapter is written like a short article off the main page which results in a shallow read. There is no transition between chapters and much of the information in one chapter is repeated in subsequent chapters. It takes talent to make such a fascinating life such an incredible bore.



3. This biography on George Attla proves to be interesting and well written. The book tells the story of this great Alaskan musher in an easy to read and entertaining prose.

   However, as information goes, the book suffered because while the author tells us so much about Attla's accomplishments, the book doesn't go into the man itself. Its a very friendly biography written by the author who does his best not to paint any negative aspects of George Attla. A good example would the short time Mr. Attla spent in jail up in Fairbanks for reason Mr. Freedman should have known but did not go into.

   Biography is a two edge sword. If you are going to write about a man, his greatness and his flaws must be presented. So far, the author seem to be high with praises only. How will we supposed to know who George Attla is without his weaknesses as well. Because of this, I can only considered this book as "half biography" of George Attla, entertaining reading but pretty lightweight material.




4. It was 1958 when a twenty-four-year-old George Attla limped to the staring line of the Fur Rendezvous World Championships sled dog race in Anchorage, Alaska with a team of dogs borrowed from family and friends in his hometown of Huslia, Alaska. Three days later he won with a record-setting victory -- the first of many championships won by the man who would become the greatest spring dog "musher" of all time. An athabascan Indian from a tiny Koyukuk River village, Attla was diagnosed with crippling bone tuberculosis as a child, a disability that resulted in a permanently fused knee. Unable to work with his father on the family trap line (as Attla boys were expected to do), George began work training the family pups as a young boy. The dogs became his life, and "mushing" his life's work. Spirit Of The Wind: The Story Of Alaska's George Attla, Legendary Sled Dog Spring Champ is the inspiring biography of an unusual man who overcame all manner of obstacles and impediments to fulfill his life's dream, and in doing so, became a true and authentic champion!

5 comments about View from the Summit: The Remarkable Memoir by the First Person to Conquer Everest.

1. Sir Edmund Hillary was clearly a remarkable man with his life marked particularly by the first successful ascent of Mt. Everest. The descriptions of the climb to the summit of Everest along with Tenzing Norgay are particularly interesting, especially his discussion of the period immediately flowing the first ascent when immense pressure was brought on Tenzing to say that he had reached the summit first. However, Everest was not the only adventure for Hillary. Other trips to the Himalayas and to other parts of the world are described and give you an idea of Hillary's overall achievements.
   The most meaningful parts of the book to me were Hillary's efforts to lead the way in helping the Sherpas by building schools, hospitals, and pipelines. Also, the chapters detailing his upbringing give you a good idea of how far he had come from his early days in a beekeeper's family. The chapter about the plane crash in Nepal that took the lives of his wife and daughter was extremely emotional.
   However, the book does have its slow moments. I found the sections about the journey to the South Pole to be tedious and confusing. A good map would have helped. Hillary's writing style is fairly pedestrian, but he does give a number of examples of where he thought he fell short as a person, husband, and father. His extreme confidence in his own abilities shows through during the book.
   All in all, the book is certainly worth reading if you are interested in Edmund Hillary or mountain climbing.



2. On the plus side, this is indeed a proper 'boys own' story and is very well written. Unfortunately, the reader becomes quickly aware of the arrogance of Hillary. Clearly he is a gifted climber who possesed endurance way beyond that of the average human. However, this is over-shadowed by the authors arrogance as he tells the reader how much better he was than those around him.
   
   In a way i wish i had not read the book as it has shattered a romantic illusion I had of what Hillary was really like. It also made me very sympathetic of those who had to endure him in the ice packs of Antartica and the isolation of the death zone of Everest.



3. I remember how exciting it was for those of us in London for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation (on June 2, 1953) to find out that Mount Everest had been climbed at last! And Sir Edmund Hillary's story of how he and Tenzing Norgay did it is terrific and even to my suspicious eyes seems sincere.
   
   The portion of the book I was most curious about dealt with the Antarctic Expedition of 1957 to 1958. Hillary was the leader of the Ross Sea Party, which was to was to lay provisions between the Ross Sea and the South Pole to support the crossing of Antarctica by the Transpolar Party, starting from the Weddell Sea. The Transpolar Party was led by the overall expedition leader, Dr. Vivian (Bunny) Fuchs. The two parties reached the South Pole in January, 1958 after which they made it to the Ross Sea in less than six weeks. As the two parties neared the Pole, the telegrams between Bunny and Hillary were in all the newspapers. Vivian had told the story from his point of view in his 1958 book, "The Crossing of Antarctica," and even though that book also included eighteen pages written by Hillary, I was glad to see more of what Hillary had to say, especially with his perspective of writing about it so much later.
   
   This entire book is worth reading and tells us plenty about the life of a successful adventurer.



4. I found this book a pleasant surprise, after having read a few mountaineering adventure books. If you are looking for one, look elsewhere; Hillary climbed Everest, but did not have any major mountaineering accomplishments thereafter. Instead, we see the picture of a simple man, a very likeable and sincere one, with flaws and virtues.

   We can see his sneakiness in going for the south pole despite orders not to, we can see his dedication to the people of Nepal, we can see his somewhat estranged relationship with Tenzing and the tensions that arose after Tenzing said he had reached the summit first. The discussion is a futile one, but it seems to put a damper on the relationship.

   In this book we also follow his life, not just his great conquests. We see the backstage of the lecture circuit he went through after Everest, then the honors he received and his attempt to maintain some normalcy in his life. Overall, it is a very good life book, and despite it being filled with adventures, we see the character of a person that is much more than simply an adventurer.




5. Unless Edmund Hillary can produce definitive evidence that A.) George Mallory and Andrew Irvine did not reach the summit of Mt. Everest in 1924 or B.) that Tenzing Norgay was not actually the first to set foot on the summit, he cannot truthfully bill himself as "The First Person to Conquer Everest."