Press releases
August 1, 2012
Review copies, photography and interviews are available upon request
Contact: Joan Boothe (Joannboothe@joannboothe.com)
Powerful history of human exploration of Antarctica brings life to a frozen world
Antarctica is the only continent so cold and deadly that humans can’t live there on their own. Yet for several hundred years, explorers have risked everything to explore the gigantic, frozen southern pole of the planet and discover its secrets.
The new book “The Storied Ice: Exploration, Discovery, and Adventure in Antarctica’s Peninsula Region” by Joan N. Boothe, offers a galvanizing and comprehensive history of the exploration of the Antarctic Peninsula Region, where nearly all Antarctic tourist go.
This part of the world, by far the most visited portion of the south polar regions, is not only a place of staggering scenic beauty and amazing wildlife but also a locale with a long and fascinating human history. Several expeditions to Antarctica's Peninsula Region are well known, in particular, the amazing story of Ernest Shackleton's ''Endurance'' expedition. ''The Storied Ice'' dramatically retells that story, along with many other less familiar but fascinating adventure tales of early explorers, sealers, whalers, seven expeditions (including ''Endurance'') during Antarctica's 1897-1917 Heroic Age, pioneer aviators and scientists. All this is woven together into a coherent whole, placing the individually exciting tales in a historical context that breathes new life into even the best known of them.
“The Storied Ice” focuses on the human experience in the Peninsula Region, but the book puts this history in the context of the entire chronology of known discoveries of the seventh continent. Explorations of Antarctica are difficult and not for the fainthearted. Boothe’s descriptions of each expedition, written in a style that reviewers call “riveting,” reveal the incredible strength, personality and diversity of character in the many explorers who ventured forth and the trials and tribulations they faced.
Abundant quotes from the explorers' accounts enrich the text, as do the nearly 100 illustrations and more than 30 maps. ''The Storied Ice'' is unique in the rich literature on Antarctica, the only modern, comprehensive Antarctic historical work that both focuses specifically on the historically exciting Antarctic Peninsula and tells its complete story.
Abundant maps and nearly 100 illustration accompany the text, and a detailed Antarctic timeline places the story of the Peninsula Region into the context of all of Antarctic history. The graphics aid the narrative descriptions of the events and expeditions. The detailed discussions of the entire Antarctic Peninsula Region provide modern travelers with knowledge and insights that will make tours of these regions far more satisfying.
Boothe details the dramatic explorations and adventures from Magellan through the first years of the 21st century, including, of course, Shackleton’s amazing "Endurance" expedition epic.
The Storied Ice: Exploration, Discovery, and Adventure in Antarctica's Peninsula Region
Joan N. Boothe
Publisher: Regent Press (www.regentpress.net)
ISBN 13: 978-1-58790-224-6 (hardcover) / $34.95
ISBN 13: 978-1-58790-218-5 (Softcover) / $24.95
ISBN 13: 978-1-58790-181-2 (e-book) / $14.95
Distributed to the trade by Baker & Taylor and Ingram
About the Author
Joan N. Boothe has been fascinated with stories of Antarctic adventure and exploration since childhood. In 1995, after many years working in the worlds of economics and finance and teaching business administration to graduate business students, she at last made her first trip to Antarctica and saw where so many things she had read about took place. Ms. Boothe has returned to the Antarctic regions many times since, including making a 67-day circumnavigation of the entire Antarctic continent aboard an icebreaker.
A graduate of Wellesley College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, she also earned an honors degree in economics and completed doctoral work in economics at Columbia University. Boothe received an M.B.A. in finance from the University of California, Berkeley, and also pursued doctoral studies in organizational behavior at Berkeley.
She is considered an expert on Antarctic history and has been interviewed by NPR, taught a course in the Stanford University Continuing Studies program on the history of Antarctica’s Heroic Age, guest lectured on Antarctic tour ships for and spoken to the Antarctic for the Explorers Club, Rotary Club chapters, Stanford Women's Club and Stanford University’s Green Library, among other venue. Boothe has one of the most comprehensive private Antarctic collections in the United States, containing more than 1,800 individual titles of Antarctic-related books and thousands of journal articles. Joan has recently contracted to donate the collection to Stanford University, over a period of several years.
She lives in San Francisco, California, with her husband and two children.
What People Are Saying
“. . . expertly rendered history of Antarctica’s most-visited region. . . . tells the explorers’ stories with such authority, readers forget (the author) was not part of their expeditions (as she) captures their motives, struggles, heartbreaks and triumphs. . . (This book is) a most rewarding journey.”
—Kirkus Reviews, which awarded The Storied Ice a Kirkus Star as a book “of remarkable merit.”
***
. . . a skillfully synthesized, eminently readable, and impressively encyclopedic book. . . . Boothe has a keen eye for lyrical Antarctic moments.
—Publishers Weekly, Starred review
***
. . . a comprehensive human history of the Antarctic Peninsula . . . that is erudite and exceedingly well researched, yet thoroughly approachable and fun to read. Like a dessert we all dream of, this book is rich and satisfying though surprisingly airy and digestible.
—The Explorers Journal
***
. . . a wonderfully researched book . . . Even the most hardened Antarctic aficionado will enjoy this freshly written and . . . important book. . . . a must read for anyone going to the Antarctic Peninsula. . . . a beautifully written . . . book to fill in the history of this most visited . . . region of Antarctica.
—Antarctican Society Newsletter
***
. . . much more than a modern update of the exploration of the area . . . every expedition has been re-analyzed by the author. . . The reproduction of contemporary illustrations from the expeditions . . . make the stories come alive. . . . this will become the handbook to use when referring to the history of this part of the Antarctic. . . fills an important gap in every Antarctic library. . . . a must for anybody interested in South Georgia, the subantarctic islands, and the Antarctic Peninsula from a historical point of view. It is both easy to read and to use as a reference book, and . . . fascinating.
—The Upland Goose and The Polar Post