In the tradition of The Ice Master and The Endurance, the incredible story of the first truly modern explorer, whose death-defying adventures and uncommon modesty make this book itself an extraordinary discovery. Hubert Wilkins was the most successful explorer in history: no one saw with his own eyes more undiscovered land and sea. Largely self-taught, Wilkins became a celebrated newsreel cameraman in the early 1900s, as well as a reporter, pilot, spy, war hero, scientist, and adventurer, capturing in his lens war and famine, cheating death repeatedly, meeting world leaders like Lenin and Stalin, and circling the globe on a zeppelin. Apprenticing with the greats of polar exploration, including Shackleton in the Antarctic, Wilkins recognized the importance for discovery of new technologies, like the airplane and submarine. He helped map the Canadian Arctic and plumbed the ocean depths from the icecap. He became the first to fly across the North Pole, which won him a knighthood. He was the first to fly to the Antarctic and discover land there by airplane, and the first to take a submarine under the Arctic ice. A visionary who grasped the link between the poles and changing global weather, Wilkins was a pioneer in weather forecasting and the study of global warming-a true hero of the earth.

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