As Told at the Explorers Club

October 1, 2003
Published on the eve of the Explorers Club centennial, this collection of stories and articles derives from the club's past publications. It's a wide array, covering every continent and charting adventure travel's course over the past 60-odd years. Plimpton divides the book geographically, with the bulk of the pieces falling into Africa, Arctic, Asia and the continental U.S. (places like Alaska, the Atlantic Ocean and Australia are represented with only one or two essays each). Although the selections vary in quality, they all convey a sense of immediacy; their first-person narratives offer the pleasure of campfire stories. Among the gems: Col. C. Suydam Cutting's recollection of cheetah hunting in South India, Anne Keenleyside's exploration of cannibalism in the Arctic and E. W. Deming's retelling of Sitting Bull's mystifying death in North Dakota. This fine book is the first volume in the Explorers Club Classic Series.

November 15, 2003
Founded in 1904, the Explorers Club is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting exploration and the field sciences. In this collection of stories and articles selected from its archives, Explorers Club member Plimpton, the recently deceased founder and editor of the Paris Review, offers readers a glimpse of its fascinating history in this latest installment of the publisher's "Explorers Club Classic" series. The selections are arranged geographically (e.g., "Asia," "Central America," and "Pacific Ocean") and vary in style, including both historic and firsthand accounts. Included are Charles Lindbergh writing on his famous flight, the African travels of Martin and Osa Johnson in the 1920s, Jean-Marc Boivin on hang-gliding, and W.H. Jackson describing bull-whacking across the American plains in 1866. Contrasting tales from the past with those that are more recent effectively demonstrates how the world and its exploration have changed. This entertaining collection is recommended for both academic and public libraries.-Alison Hopkins, Brantford P.L., Ont.

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2003
From this eclectic gathering of tales told at the legendary, century-old Explorers Club, it seems " adventure "is a pejorative word because several writers here equate it with poor planning. Nevertheless, they plunge into narratives of mischance, to the vicarious thrill of readers, who will, for example, enjoy ducking bandits' bullets along with legendary paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews. Not all are death-defying yarns, however, for one finds club members visiting mutineer Fletcher Christian's descendents on Pitcairn Island and the discoverer of the coelacanth, the fish hitherto known only from fossils. Geographically wide-ranging, late editor Plimpton's selections from club archives include, of course, Mt. Everest. Plimpton also accords prominence to broadcaster Lowell Thomas (the club's Manhattan mansion is named for him) in the form of several pieces by or about him. That only a few contributors are professional writers makes this volume's literary quality a hit-and-miss affair, but it is cover-to-cover descriptive adventure, which, for many readers, is the bottom line.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)