This interview was originally broadcast in July, 2015
On July 8th, 1879, the USS Jeannette left San Francisco and sailed northward toward uncharted Arctic waters. Its ambitious destination: the North Pole, a place that had captured the imagination of 19th century scientists, explorers and the public, but that remained shrouded in mystery and wild scientific speculation. If the expedition succeeded, the American ship and its crew would be the first to discover what really existed at the top of the world.
It would be an understatement to say that things did not go smoothly. Hampton Sides tells this thrilling and harrowing true story in his book In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeanette. It’s now out in paperback.
Mr. Sides is an award-winning editor of Outside magazine, a frequent contributor to National Geographic and author of three bestselling histories. In the Kingdom of Ice, was named “A Best Book of the Year” by USA Today, The Washington Post and a number of other publications.