TRIUMPH OVER ODDS

A creative job of selection and editing, this is an anthology of records of ""man's unconquerable spirit"". Mr. Adams, known for years as the editor of the N.Y. Times Book Review, has brought together deathless reminders of the ways in which man can rise to sublime heights. Here are stories of ordeals, external and internal, taken from factual records. He goes back to the Bible, to the classic historians, to those like Francis Parkman, who have recorded history, to figures who still stand for incredible achievements like La Salle, Daniel Boone, Robert Scott, John Colter, Lindbergh. At times the pieces he has chosen compass ordeals both physical and spiritual -- as in Dunkirk and Bataan, in Powell's descent of the Colorado, Herzog's ascent of Annapurna, the broaching of new frontiers by the spelologists. Sometimes the victory seems wholly in a spiritual realm as with Job, St. Augustine, Joan of Arc, and more recently Anne Frank, Betsey Barton and young Gunther. There are some little known writers whose contributions are unforgettable- as in the extract from Haniel Long's The Power Within Us. Mr. Adams has contributed -- in addition to his editorial perspicacity- an Introduction and brief notes accompanying each selection. This is a book for the many who like tales of achievement.