When explorers such as Ernest Shackleton, Roald Amundsen, and Robert Falcon Scott all set off to Antarctica in the early years of the 20th century, the polar regions were among the last truly unexplored areas of the world--and arguably the least hospitable. Scott lost his life, pinned down in a howling blizzard only 11 miles from his supply depot; Shackleton lost his ship, crushed in the ice. Even those who survived the icy wastes did so only with enormous effort. And yet, there is something about Antarctica that beckons people; eighty years after Shackleton's voyage, Sara Wheeler answered the call, leaving her comfortable home for "the Great White." Terra Incognita is the result of her sojourn in that legendary land. In addition to chronicling her own encounters with the people and the place, Wheeler brings the past alive as well, through vivid stories about the heroes of polar exploration: Shackleton, Scott, Amundsen, and others who practically become secondary characters in Wheeler's account. But it is her interactions with the living people who make up the community--scientists, drifters, and dreamers who have settled this forbidding landscape--that make Terra Incognita a rare and worthy book.


From Publishers Weekly
Journalist Wheeler (Travels in a Thin Country, on Chile) spent more than two years researching and organizing a seven-month journey to Antarctica, becoming the first foreigner to join the American National Science Foundation's Antarctic Artists' and Writers' Program. Her wry, lucid account of that journey juxtaposes the epic exploits of heroic early Antarctic explorers (Robert Scott, Ernest Shackleton, Roald Amunden, Douglas Mawson, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, et al.) with her own adventures. She offers a critical survey of the literature of Antarctic exploration and provides as well insights into the historical and cultural impact of Antarctic exploration on the British and Norwegian national consciousnesses. While the hardships the intrepid Wheeler suffered are a faint echo of those endured by polar pioneers, there's still a wealth of absorbing detail to make the point: use and operation of toilets in subzero; foodstuffs and their creative preparation; transportation, be it dogsled, skis or snowmobile; proper layering of protective clothing; the leisure activities and quirks of the varied scientists and support crews ("Frozen Beards") she encountered. Along the way, she offers a rare woman's view of a thoroughly male place, tolerant of women in most cases but downright hostile in some (as in the U.K. zone). Wheeler writes elegantly and movingly about the unearthly landscape and its effects: "The twin peaks... were backlit against a pearly blue sky.... Ribboned crystals imprisoned in the ice glimmered like glowworms. It was swathed in light, pale as an unripe lemon. The scene said to me, 'Do not be afraid.' It was like the moment when I pass back the chalice after holy communion." Her book, fascinating reading for any explorer, armchair or otherwise, concludes with the recipe for her renowned "Bread-and-Butter Pudding (Antarctic Version)." Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Wheeler was the first woman sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation to travel to Antarctica. Her 1995 journey forms the basis for this unique account in which she juxtaposes her observations and experiences against the exploits of those explorers from the early years of polar discovery who are immortalized in the annals of arctic history. Her love and awe of this stark environment are evident in nearly every word she writes. During her seven-month stay in this frozen land, she visited some of the national bases, traveled to several regions of Antarctica, and lived through four seasons. Wheeler immediately connects with this starkly beautiful land, despite the dangers of frigid temperatures and virtually nonexistent creature comforts. Most of the people she meets are warm, friendly, funny, and unique all qualities useful for getting along, sharing, and surviving in such bleak circumstances. Patricia Gallimore's British pronunciations are well suited to the book. Armchair travelers will be mesmerized by Wheeler's imagery; others will learn some interesting facts and obscure bits of history about this region; no one will be untouched by the stark beauty and eerie magnetism conveyed by her words. Highly recommended for all public library collections. Gloria Maxwell, Penn Valley Community Coll., Kansas City, MOCopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Michael Parfit
Terra Incognita is a straightforward narrative of characters, landscape and personal change. She records big and small moments, and--although you think, well, most of them are small--they add up to a beguiling accumulation of icy mornings, keys stuck to lips, funny signs, history that breathes chilly wind down your neck, seals that come up under your toilet hole and the tenaciousness of faith. You hardly notice what that accumulation is giving you until, with a pang just like the one you feel when it's time to leave Antarctica, you think: Oh, no! It's over.


Entertainment Weekly, Daneet Steffens
...her luminous narrative offers an engaging, warm portrait of the frozen continent.


The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani
Ms. Wheeler not only gives the reader gripping, emotional accounts of the chivalric heroism demonstrated by these early-20th-century explorers, but by cutting back and forth between their exploits and the exploits of present- day "polies," she underscores just how much things have changed.


The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, David Craig
Terra Incognita must be the first funny book about Antarctica.


Review
"A triumph . . . I cannot believe that anything better will ever be written about Antarctica." --Daily Telegraph

"Compelling . . . leaves the reader with a visceral understanding of the mysterious, even sublime power the poles have exerted
on the human imagination, and the desolate beauty that resides there amid the glaciers and icebergs and penguins."
--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"I have read many accounts of polar exploration, but never one which so touchingly describes its emotional topography. . . . What she has done could not be done better." --Richard Eyre, The Independent

"The first funny book about Antarctica." --Los Angeles Times


Review
"A triumph . . . I cannot believe that anything better will ever be written about Antarctica." --Daily Telegraph

"Compelling . . . leaves the reader with a visceral understanding of the mysterious, even sublime power the poles have exerted
on the human imagination, and the desolate beauty that resides there amid the glaciers and icebergs and penguins."
--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"I have read many accounts of polar exploration, but never one which so touchingly describes its emotional topography. . . . What she has done could not be done better." --Richard Eyre, The Independent

"The first funny book about Antarctica." --Los Angeles Times


Book Description
It is the coldest, windiest, driest place on earth, an icy desert of unearthly beauty and stubborn impenetrability. For centuries, Antarctica has captured the imagination of our greatest scientists and explorers, lingering in the spirit long after their return. Shackleton called it "the last great journey"; for Apsley Cherry-Garrard it was the worst journey in the world. This is a book about the call of the wild and the response of the spirit to a country that exists perhaps most vividly in the mind. Sara Wheeler spent seven months in Antarctica, living with its scientists and dreamers. No book is more true to the spirit of that continent--beguiling, enchanted and vast beyond the furthest reaches of our imagination. Chosen by Beryl Bainbridge and John Major as one of the best books of the year, recommended by the editors of Entertainment Weekly and the Chicago Tribune, one of the Seattle Times's top ten travel books of the year, Terra Incognita is a classic of polar literature.



From the Inside Flap
It is the coldest, windiest, driest place on earth, an icy desert of unearthly beauty and stubborn impenetrability. For centuries, Antarctica has captured the imagination of our greatest scientists and explorers, lingering in the spirit long after their return. Shackleton called it "the last great journey"; for Apsley Cherry-Garrard it was the worst journey in the world.

This is a book about the call of the wild and the response of the spirit to a country that exists perhaps most vividly in the mind. Sara Wheeler spent seven months in Antarctica, living with its scientists and dreamers. No book is more true to the spirit of that continent--beguiling, enchanted and vast beyond the furthest reaches of our imagination. Chosen by Beryl Bainbridge and John Major as one of the best books of the year, recommended by the editors of Entertainment Weekly and the Chicago Tribune, one of the Seattle Times's top ten travel books of the year, Terra Incognita is a classic of polar literature.


From the Back Cover
"A triumph . . . I cannot believe that anything better will ever be written about Antarctica." --Daily Telegraph"Compelling . . . leaves the reader with a visceral understanding of the mysterious, even sublime power the poles have exerted
on the human imagination, and the desolate beauty that resides there amid the glaciers and icebergs and penguins."
--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times"I have read many accounts of polar exploration, but never one which so touchingly describes its emotional topography. . . . What she has done could not be done better." --Richard Eyre, The Independent "The first funny book about Antarctica." --Los Angeles Times

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Ever since the time of Captain Cook, Antarctica has captured the imagination of countless explorers who set off against great odds in search of riches and honor, for science or a better world. Sara Wheeler weaves together her own experiences on the ice with the grueling adventures of Antarctica's most mythic figures - the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, who beat his rival to the Pole by twenty-nine days; Ernest Shackleton, whose men lived on seal and penguin blubber for three months when their ship was pierced by an iceberg; Apsley Cherry-Garrard, who famously braved the polar winter to hunt down rare penguin eggs that were ignored and eventually lost back home; Robert Falcon Scott, whose heroic example inspired countless young men to sacrifice themselves in the First World War. Accounts of these epic expeditions alternate with Sara Wheeler's own adventures in Antarctica, where a motley crew of scientists, drifters and dreamers search for bacterial traces that might hold the key to life on Mars, harass penguins and seek to measure this still largely impenetrable land.

FROM THE CRITICS

Michael Parfit

[A] straightforward narrative of characters, landscape and personal change. —The New York Times Book Review

Publishers Weekly

Journalist Wheeler (Travels in a Thin Country, on Chile) spent more than two years researching and organizing a seven-month journey to Antarctica, becoming the first foreigner to join the American National Science Foundation's Antarctic Artists' and Writers' Program. Her wry, lucid account of that journey juxtaposes the epic exploits of heroic early Antarctic explorers (Robert Scott, Ernest Shackleton, Roald Amunden, Douglas Mawson, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, et al.) with her own adventures. She offers a critical survey of the literature of Antarctic exploration and provides as well insights into the historical and cultural impact of Antarctic exploration on the British and Norwegian national consciousnesses. While the hardships the intrepid Wheeler suffered are a faint echo of those endured by polar pioneers, there's still a wealth of absorbing detail to make the point: use and operation of toilets in subzero; foodstuffs and their creative preparation; transportation, be it dogsled, skis or snowmobile; proper layering of protective clothing; the leisure activities and quirks of the varied scientists and support crews ("Frozen Beards") she encountered. Along the way, she offers a rare woman's view of a thoroughly male place, tolerant of women in most cases but downright hostile in some (as in the U.K. zone). Wheeler writes elegantly and movingly about the unearthly landscape and its effects: "The twin peaks... were backlit against a pearly blue sky.... Ribboned crystals imprisoned in the ice glimmered like glowworms. It was swathed in light, pale as an unripe lemon. The scene said to me, `Do not be afraid.' It was like the moment when I pass back the chalice after holy communion." Her book, fascinating reading for any explorer, armchair or otherwise, concludes with the recipe for her renowned "Bread-and-Butter Pudding (Antarctic Version)." (Mar.)

Michael Parfit - The New York Times Book Review