Alaska's Mount St. Elias was a mystical site to Waterman (In the Shadow of Denali, 1994, etc.), to be revered, and to be visited by fair means, without all the techno-wizardry climbers use today. To show its appreciation, the mountain beat him mercilessly. Mount St. Elias is not a trophy peak. It may be the fourth highest mountain in North America, it may stymie 70 percent of its climbers (and kill another 5 percent), but the trophy climbers want Denali. That was fine with Waterman; he preferred his mountains pure, free of the commercialization of climbing. Waterman was fascinated by the duke of Abruzzi, the aloof, melancholy, scholar-explorer who was the first to ascend St. Elias a hundred years ago, and he wanted to tackle the mountain as the duke did, though with fewer companions (just one partner) and a drastically reduced payload (no porters, for instance to carry an iron bedstead). No radios, thank you, and no flight in and out; he wanted the sanctity of the wild, to discover remnant instincts, deploy map-reading and route-finding talents, be self-sufficient. He would sail up from Seattle, climb, and return. Using diaries and letters from Abruzzi and his team, Waterman entwines his climb with the duke's, although the pleasure here is in Waterman's tale. The climbing almost immediately goes badly and then gets much worse. Crevasses lurk, nonstop avalanches thunder by, it rains watermelon-size rocks. The climbers run out of food. His companion isn't amused; then again, they survive, barely, returning without having gained the summit. Waterman's soul-searching can get trying, but he followed his dreams. In sharing them, he gives readers back some of their own. (24 b&w photos, 2 maps, not seen)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-8050-4453-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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