At the beginning of the twentieth century, the South Pole was the most
coveted prize in the fiercely nationalistic modern age of exploration.
In the brilliant dual biography, the award-winning writer Roland
Huntford re-examines every detail of the great race to the South Pole
between Britain's Robert Scott and Norway's Roald Amundsen. Scott, who
dies along with four of his men only eleven miles from his next cache of
supplies, became Britain's beloved failure, while Amundsen, who not only
beat Scott to the Pole but returned alive, was largely forgotten. This
account of their race is a gripping, highly readable history that
captures the driving ambitions of the era and the complex, often deeply
flawed men who were charged with carrying them out. THE LAST PLACE ON
EARTH is the first of Huntford's masterly trilogy of polar biographies.
It is also the only work on the subject in the English language based on
the original Norwegian sources, to which Huntford returned to revise and
update this edition.