Sir Douglas Mawson, Australia's greatest Antarctic explorer, made four trips to the Antarctic: in 1907-09 with Shackleton's British Antarctic Expedition; in 1911-14, having declined to join Scott's ill-fated Antarctic journey, as leader of the Australasian Antarctic expedition; and twice between 1929 and 1931 as leader of the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE). Mawson's Antarctic Diaries brings together for the first time all his descriptive writings while in the Antarctic. An uncensored record of events, they reveal Mawson's innermost thoughts at times of great stress and conflict on ship and on shore, through achievement and failure, joy and tragedy. This book includes some of Frank Hurley's most famous Antarctic photographs, as well as some not reproduced before.

Read the “grim and inspiring” Arctic survival story of the legendary explorer who completed one of the most harrowing journeys in Antarctica’s history (Wall Street Journal). For weeks in Antarctica, Douglas Mawson faced some of the most daunting conditions ever known to man: blistering wind, snow, and cold; the loss of his companion, dogs, supplies, and even the skin on his hands and feet. But despite constant thirst, starvation, disease, and snow blindness—he survived. Sir Douglas Mawson is remembered as the young Australian who would not go to the South Pole with Robert Scott in 1911. Instead, he chose to lead his own expedition on the less glamorous mission of charting nearly 1,500 miles of Antarctic coastline and claiming its resources for the British Crown. His party of three set out through the mountains across glaciers in 60-mile-per-hour winds. Six weeks and 320 miles out, one man fell into a crevasse—along with the tent, most of the equipment, the dogs’ food, and all except a week’s supply of the men's provisions. Mawson's Will is the unforgettable story of one man’s ingenious practicality, unbreakable spirit, and how he continued his meticulous scientific observations even in the face of death. When the expedition was over, Mawson had added more territory to the Antarctic map than anyone else of his time. Thanks to Bickel’s moving account, Mawson can be remembered for the vision and dedication that make him one of the world’s great explorers.

Douglas Mawson was determined to make his mark on Antarctica as no other explorer had done before him. What really happened on the ice has been buried for a century. Flaws in the Ice is the untold true story of Douglas Mawson’s 1911-1914 Antarctic Expedition, mistakenly hailed for a century as a courageous survival story from the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Prize-winning historian David Day takes off on a five-week odyssey in search of the real Douglas Mawson, famed colleague and contemporary of Ernest Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott. Beginning his book on board an expedition ship bound for the Antarctic, Dr. Day asks the difficult questions that have hitherto lain buried about Mawson —, his leadership of the ill-fated Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911–14, his conduct during the trek that led to the death of his two companions, and his intimate relationship with Scott’s widow. The author also explores the ways in which Mawson subsequently concealed his failures and deficiencies as an explorer, and created for himself a heroic image that has persisted for a century. To bolster his career and dig himself out of debt, Mawson would have to return from Antarctica with a stirring story of achievement calculated to capture public attention. South Pole expeditions, by-among others--Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen--were going on at same time With Amundsen having reached the South Pole-- and Scott having died on his return--Mawson would be forgotten if he did not return with an exciting story of achievement and adversity overcome. Mawson obliged, though the truth was something entirely different. For many decades, there has been only one published first-hand account of the expedition —Mawson’s. Only now have alternative accounts become publicly available. The most important of these is the long-suppressed diary of Mawson’s deputy, Cecil Madigan, who is scathing in his criticisms of Mawson’s abilities, achievements, and character that he instructed that his diary was not to be published until the last of Mawson’s children had died. At the same time, other accounts have appeared from leading members of the expedition that also challenge Mawson’s official story. While most historians ascribe the deaths of the two men to bad luck, the author’s re-examination of the existing evidence, and a reading of the new evidence, reveals that the deaths of two men on the expedition were caused by Mawson’s relative inexperience, overweening ambition, and poor decision-making. In fact, there’s some suggestion that Mawson was consciously responsible for one’s starvation so that Mawson himself could survive on the limited food rations. After the death of his companions, Mawson’s bungling of his return to the ship forced a team to remain for another full year during which he recovered his strength and began to craft an image of himself as a courageous and resourceful polar explorer. The British Empire needed heroes, and Mawson was determined to provide it with one. In this compelling and revealing new book, David Day draws upon all this new evidence, as well as on the vast research he undertook for his international history ofAntarctica, and on his own experience of sailing to the Antarctic coastline where Mawson’s reputation was first created. Flaws in the Ice will change perceptions of Douglas Mawson—one of the icons of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration— forever.

The Last Viking unravels the life of the man who stands head and shoulders above all those who raced to map the last corners of the world. In 1900, the four great geographical mysteries--the Northwest Passage, the Northeast Passage, the South Pole, and the North Pole--remained blank spots on the globe. Within twenty years Roald Amundsen would claim all four prizes. Renowned for his determination and technical skills, both feared and beloved by his men, Amundsen is a legend of the heroic age of exploration, which shortly thereafter would be tamed by technology, commerce, and publicity. Féd in his lifetime as an international celebrity, pursued by women and creditors, he died in the Arctic on a rescue mission for an inept rival explorer. Stephen R. Bown has unearthed archival material to give Amundsen's life the grim immediacy of Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World, the exciting detail of The Endurance, and the suspense of a Jon Krakauer tale. The Last Viking is both a thrilling literary biography and a cracking good story.

Douglas Mawson is famous as an Antarctic explorer who narrowly escaped death on the ice, yet he is enigmatic and cloaked in controversy. Here, McEwin reflects on her forebear's public and private persona. With access to personal papers, she writes intimately about his effect on generations of his family and the unmaking of myths about him.

Nine year-old Sophie Scott embarks on a mission to Antarctica aboard an icebreaker and documents her adventure in a diary of its natural wonders.

Mawson turned down an invitation to join Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova Expedition in 1910; Australian geologist Griffith Taylor went instead. Dawson chose to lead his own expedition, the Australian Antarctic Expedition, to King George V Land and Adelie Land, the sector of the Antarctic continent immediately south of Australia, which at the time was almost entirely unexplored. The objectives were to carry out geographical exploration and scientific studies, including visiting the South Magnetic Pole.