THE CALL OF ANTARCTICA

One of the coldest and most remote places on Earth is brought into the spotlight with personal warmth, thrilling history, and bitter truths.

Henry presents a treasure trove of information about Antarctica as testimony to her late father George W. Gibbs Jr.’s impactful legacy as the first Black man to travel there in 1940 onboard the USS Bear as part of Richard E. Byrd’s expedition to establish permanent bases and further explore and map the continent. Excerpts from Gibbs’ diary frame stories of other intrepid explorers, the extreme challenges of the unique terrain, and the evolution of technology and equipment. Still, the story of Antarctica is at times unavoidably disheartening, as the same anti-Black racism that nearly erased from the history books Matthew Henson, a free Black man that played a pivotal role in Robert Peary’s famed 1909 expedition to the North Pole, is a point of focus here as Henry narrates her father’s own adventures and the historical context surrounding them. Fatal accidents, the mistreatment of wildlife, and negative human-made environmental impacts are also covered in this detailed description of the continent and our complicated relationship to it. This is an accessible look at the bio- and geo-diversity of our planet that focuses on a particular space full of relatively new discoveries and with much more still to teach us.

Antarctica is undeniably cool, and this volume makes sure we know it.