Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the U.S.S. Jeannette

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the U.S.S. Jeannette
reviewed on + 1438 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2


"On July 8, 1879, Captain George Washington De Long and his team of thirty-two men set sail from San Francisco on the USS Jeanette." A summary? A beginning? No, it's a historical statement documenting an an outstanding story about men who seek to find a path through North Pole ice. Dreams are made of such stuff that De Long and his colleagues hoped to fulfill. With careful research with the lure of arctic always before him, De Long gathered a carefully selected crew.

De Long is so human, so careful and so driven and the tale is so wonderfully told woven with historical facts that one feels one is on the Jeannette with the waves sloshing against her sides and the wind blowing into the sails. And the ship glides toward her destiny with its determined dreamers.

Better than any fiction book I've read, I devoured it quickly from start to finish.

Such meaningful stories should be told and always shared with readers who glory in them.