The White Darkness

This book of narrative non-fiction tells the story of Henry Worsley, was a British Army officer who embarked on several adventures, retracing the steps of the notable polar explorers Amundsen, Shackleton, and Scott. It also briefly summarizes journeys taken by the explorers he admired and provides background on his personal life. The primary set piece of the book is Worsley’s 2015 attempt to cross Antarctica alone and unaided, pulling a sled laden with supplies and planning to complete a journey of approximately 1000 miles in 80 days. It is a story of single-minded dedication to accomplishing a goal, and the tragic consequences. It is a gripping story of attempting to survive in brutal conditions, pushing the body to the limits of psychological and physical endurance.

Short with many photos, this is the well-written account of one man's attempt to walk solo across the Antarctica. Henry Worsley is a descendent of one of the men that was in Shakleton's crew that survived so long in the Antarctica after their boat became stuck in ice. The first part of the story is the trip Worsley made along with two other men who had ancestors in that crew. They made it to the South Pole finishing what Shakleton was unable to do.

The second part of the book is Worsley's attempt to walk across the entire continent by himself. Because he did have the advantage of modern communication, the book can describe his ordeal. Within a hundred miles, however, he was unable to finish and had to be rescued. As his wife wrote, "he chose us".

I don't quite understand that drive to climb mountains or do such heroic tasks but have always been fascinated by those that do. The pictures told so much of the story

AUDIO BOOK VERSION: If it’s about adventure and it’s written by David Grann, it’s going to be good, and this short book didn’t disappoint. My first David Grann book, also an adventure book, was “The Lost City of Z.” My second was his huge bestseller, “The Wager.” That second book I also listened to as an audio book. This book, “The White Darkness,” tells the story of Henry Worsley, devotee of the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton, an explorer who reached the South Pole (first to do that) and attempted to cross Antarctica on foot in 1911, a fete he failed to complete. Shackleton is perhaps best known for rescuing his men from certain death several times, even when it meant the failure of the mission. In 2008 Worsley trekked across Antarctica with two descendants of Shackleton’s crew. After surviving sub zero temperatures and double digit sub zero wind chills, Worsley made his way home. In short order, he planned his next adventure, a solo trek across Antarctica on foot on November 13, 2015 at the age of 55. I won’t reveal the outcome of that trip in case readers choose to read this short (under 200 pages and 2 audio hours) gem. Grann has been called “simply the best narrative nonfiction writer working today,” and I would have to agree with that.

David Grann’s The White Darkness is a novella-length compilation of two New Yorker articles about Henry Worsley, a British military officer whose obsession with Antarctica led him to make two treks to the frozen land. The second adventure, a solo journey across the continent, ended in his death.

This short book is powerfully written and beautifully illustrated with photographs of the grim land. It deserves a wide readership.

4/2020. A well written short book of 143 pages, including many photos, about Antarctic walker Henry Worsley and his polar expeditions. I now understand what he did but I admit that despite having enjoyed winter mountaineering myself I still don't really understand why he persisted after his first success (apart from "Because it's there", and "What is Antarctica other than a blank canvas on which you seek to impose yourself?").

Quotes

Ernest Shackleton to his wife after having failed to reach the South Pole for the third time at the age of 42: "A live donkey is better than a dead lion, isn't it?" His wife said yes. He subsequently died on his fourth expedition to the Antarctic at the age of 47.

Henry Adams: "What is Antarctica other than a blank canvas on which you seek to impose yourself?"

This is a gem of a book about the lure of Antarctica for Henry Worsley, an ardent admirer of Shackleton. "What is Antarctica other than a blank canvas on which you seek to impose yourself?" (101, Henry Adams)He undertakes 2 expeditions: 1 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Shackleton’s original attempt at the South Pole with two other descendants of Shackleton's original crew and another attempt to traverse Antarctica solo. This book gives a nice overview of Shackleton but spends more time on Worsely’s exceptional heroism, leadership and extraordinary endurance. Amazing feat and utterly inspirational.

A fascinating easy to read book about Henry Worsley. Finished reading this after The Art of Stillness (so an interesting juxtaposition) (and finished it at work today). I remember as a child at the Nye Elementary school being fascinated by the Polar Exploration books, and getting them out constantly - books about the men exploring the North and South Poles. Seeing the frozen bodies in the pictures, and the talk about scurvy and what they had to do to survive (one of the North Pole explorers recounting a story of cannibalism for survival, etc.) and just being fascinated by it.

...obviously not to the degree that Henry Worsley was fascinated with Shackleton, but I was fascinated.

Not knowing anything about this exploration or any of his Antarctic explorations or even anything at all about the man - Henry Worsley - himself, this was fascinating, and then gut-wrenching at the ending passages finding out he was dead. When you read through the book, and see the various pictures, without knowing the ending, you almost have to assume he lives, that he survives, especially after you read through his first two explorations and survival of them, and then to find he dies from a perforated ulcer (assumption by the doctors), its ... sad for lack of better terms/words.

What sounds like an amazing man, and amazing adventures, sadly lost. You can't help but feel for his family Joanna, Alicia, and Max. At the same time, you have to wonder -- why -- and feel that he's selfish and mad at him for his choices as well. BUT, --- BUT.... its necessary sometimes to have people like Worsley in the world. People who are maybe a little bit crazy, are a bit selfish, obsessed, and willing to risk life and limb for no other reason than to say "Here I am World, I did this."

But, ultimately, sadly, despite trying to be a living donkey instead of a dead lion; he still ended up being a dead lion.

The line between focus and obsession is very thin. Henry Worsley was one of those who crossed backwards and forwards over the line. He was a devoted husband and father and when serving in the special forces, was decorated for bravery. One Worsley‘sobsessions though was Ernest Shackleton. This explorer tried to become the first person to reach the South Pole and even attempted to cross the frozen continent on foot. Sadly he never succeeded in these adventures, but his leadership skills meant that he kept his men from dying.

It was those leadership skills that Worsley used when commanding his own men. There was another link too, Frank Worsley, one of Shackleton’s men, was a relation. He began to collect some of the items from the expeditions across the ice. He began to feel the call of the ice and started to plan his own expedition there. In 2008 he arrived there with two other descendants from Shackleton’s team. Nothing is easy in Antarctica and they fought against the landscape and the place to reach their goal. However, it did not get it out of his system. Antarctica became a place that he felt at home and seven years later, he was back there; this time to walk alone on a 1000 mile journey across the whole continent. He was going to have to pull all his supplies on a sled as he was not dependent on supply drops. It was a high-risk journey that was fraught with danger.

This is a short and intense book that is very moving. I had never read any of Grann’s books before but I thought that his writing is excellent. The descriptions of Worsley’s trips to Antarctica are sparse and yet full of presence. Not only is the story in this book quite something, but the photos taken from Worsley’s and the Shackleton collection are stunning. Can highly recommend this for anyone who has a fascination with the southern ice and about an amazing guy who was so driven to the ultimate limit.

Can one call it a tragedy when persons go, against their better judgment, on a long walk against the elements, and end up having their toes amputated and even die?

Even though I cannot help but think of this book as a kind of description of the male ego—trying to go against all odds, proving oneself despite having a family at home which you'll leave devastated if you die—at its worst, it's very nicely written and structured.

Yet Shackleton, fearing for his men’s welfare, retreated again. After returning to England, he didn’t discuss his failure with his wife, Emily, though he said, “A live donkey is better than a dead lion, isn’t it?”

That's from Shackleton, an old explorer with whom the main character in this story was obsessed with.

On the return journey, he and his four men, including Edward Wilson, ran out of food. “We shall die like gentlemen,” Scott scribbled in his diary, before they all perished.

This is more a hagiography about intrepid conquerors rather than about humans.

Worsley and his men moved in single file and rarely spoke, hearing only the thumping of their sleds or the soundtracks on their iPods. Adams loved to listen to Rachmaninoff’s Vespers; Gow sometimes trudged along to an audiobook of Lansing’s Endurance. Worsley’s playlist included Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band playing “Eyes on the Prize” (“I got my hand on the gospel plow / Won’t take nothing for my journey now”) and “We Shall Overcome” (“We are not afraid, we are not afraid”).

Still, the book is saved by the writing style and its structure. And yes, I can't help but feel for the poor blighters who've set out into the big unknown (even though it's quite well known).

It's a good, tidy, small, and nice book. All hagiographies should be kept this small.

A modern-day man's attempt to cross Antarctica on a solo expedition is fluffed out with an overview of polar exploration in the early 1900s and lots and lots and lots of pictures in this short compilation of a couple magazine articles. More hagiography than biography or history, it lacks depth, but is good for what it is.

Henry Worsley was obsessed with Ernest Shackleton and his explorations of the Antarctic. Determined to follow in his footsteps, he gathered 2 other descendants of Shackleton's team in 2008 to follow his footsteps to the South Pole. He returned again in 2015 with the quest to walk across Antarctica alone. This book documents his journeys with photos, entries from his blog and diary and amazing description of the hardships faced. Only 146 pages long, but packed with adventure as he presses ever onward through the driving Antarctic snow.

Henry Worsley grew up obsessed with Ernest Shackleton. One of Shackleton's crew men, Frank Worsley, was a relative. In 2008, in a team with two other men who were also descendents of former Shackleton crewmen, he successfully walked across the Antarctic. In 2015 he attempted a solo journey across the Antarctic.
Grann uses Worsley's journals and radio broadcasts, plus interviews with his family and crew mates to recreate both journeys.
Recommended.

David Grann is the epitome of journalism.

What he has done with the Lost City of Z and the Killers of the Flower Moon, he does once again with the riveting, and at times hard to believe, true story of Henry Worsley and his trek through the South Pole. The White Darkness is a story about a man meant for exploration: a natural leader and tireless traveler with a healthy appetite for adventure.

3.5 I have such a fascination with books set in places that are excessively cold and snow laden. Not sure why that is, especially since I don't really want to live in these places, and due to health reasons will probably never even get to visit. I also find intriguing people who do dangerous and near impossible things. I try to figure out the mindset of people who feel compelled to take these risks. I'm not very adventurous, was more so when I was younger, but not to some extreme extent.

Worsley, who idiolized Shackleton, was a descendant of one of the men on his crew, and was a British special Forces Officer. With two other men, also descendants of Shackletons crew, set off to complete the journey in Antartica that Shackleton was unable to complete. This mission would not be enough, there would be another trip, and then at the last when Worsley attempts to walk across Antartica on a solo trip.

The writing is very detailed, the pictures aid the reader along with the descriptions to feel as if they were at times along for the journey. The book is rather short, and moves quickly. There are interesting touches of his personal life, his wife, son and daughter, how they felt about his journeys. Quotes from Shackleton and a few brief mentions of Prince William presenting the men with a signed Union Jack flag.

A look at a brave man who felt compelled to accomplish the impossible.

ARC from Edelweiss.

My understanding is that David Grann's new book started life as an article in The New Yorker. Even as a book is it only 146 pages.

From childhood David Worsley idolized explorer Ernest Shackleton. He became an Army officer emulating the behavior of his hero. Due to an obsession that never wavered, Worsley became an adventurer himself by successfully tracing Shackleton's route in 2009 at the age of 49. Six years later he made an attempt to make the first solo crossing of the Antarctic.

It is Worlsey as adventurer that Grann makes the focus of the book, not a study of the expeditions but rather a profile of the unusual man who made them. I'm not a particularly adventurous person but I like reading about those who are and Grann's writing along with stunning photographs made this a good armchair adventure that could be completed in an evening.

My obsession with Antarctic explorers began when I was eleven and read The Great White South by Herbert Ponting, the photographer on the 1911 Scott expedition. As a girl, I held a heroic idealization of Scott and his men freezing in their hut. It seemed all so heroic, then. Later readings lowered Scott in my estimation.

Henry Worsley idolized Ernest Shackleton for his courage and leadership. Although Shackleton was never able to complete his expeditions, he did save his men's lives. And Worsley's own grandfather had been with Shackleton on his failed expedition to the reach the South Pole.

Henry made a career in the army, completing Special Forces training while pursuing his obsession by collecting Shackleton artifacts.

The White Darkness by David Grann tells the story of how Henry Worsley, after retirement from the army, participated in a centennial expedition retracing Shackleton's trek, along with two other descendants of the original team. The goal was to reach the South Pole, which Shackleton failed to do. They made it. Not content with this achievement, Henry afterward endeavored to complete the other journey that Shackleton had to abandon: crossing the Antarctic. Henry, though, would do it solo.

Once again, I am amazed how men can be driven to endure the unimaginable physical stress of the Antarctic, not just once, but returning again to the dangerous beauty of ice. A hundred years ago men wanted to bring honor to their country and the Antarctic and Arctic were the last unexplored places on earth. But there has always been something more, a need for men to test themselves to the ultimate, to conquer the most extreme conditions imaginable.

In this short book about Henry Worsley, Grann covers the history of Antarctic exploration and conveys a chilling exposure to the 'white darkness' of the freezing desert landscape that has lured so many men to their deaths.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

"The White Darkness" was published in the February 2018 issue of The New Yorker along with a 2h15m audio version available on Audible, and Doubleday is releasing a 144 page hardcover in October 2018, with pictures. This is a review of the audio version.

David Grann gives a lot in a short space, most writers would have made this story four times as long. His magazine writings are his best work, five of the articles from his Sherlock anthology are currently being made into Hollywood feature-length movies. This is another small masterpiece. It would be wonderful to have another collection like The Devil and Sherlock Holmes, his best book IMO, with this as an anchor piece.