At Grips with Everest
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Type
Book
Authors
Snaith ( Stanley Snaith )
Category
900 --History & Geography
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Publication Year
1938
Publisher
URL
[ private ]
Pages
257
Tags
Description
Mr. Snaith retells the story of the five Everest expeditions, and of the expeditions to Kang- chenjunga, Nanda Devi and Nanga Parbat. He also includes an account of the Houston gverest flight, and an interesting chapter on the history of mountain-climbing. It is surprising how many facts Mr. Snaith manages to squeeze into-- a comparatively small space, though there is no impression of cramming, and the 'narrative is always simple and broken up with the sort of dialogue traditional in boys' bOoks. There is .a little too much speech-day stuff : " clarion calls," "imperishable epics," and so on ; and some rather ridiculous talk about Everest being " spiritually within our Empire." But on the whole Mr. Snaith has done a good job. So has the publisher,-though more illustrations (there is not a single por- trait of any of the book's heroes) would have improved it. But at the price it is good value.
Stanley Snaith writes the first English-language history of Himalayan climbing for young readers in his At Grips with Everest. The book was published in 1938, and includes expeditions to Everest, Kanchenjunga, Nanda Devi, and Nanga Parbat. This history focuses on the sharp end of the expeditions, giving general highlights of the lead up to the assaults and then telling of the hard climbing in dramatic detail. Snaith does make some assumptions in his dialogue and also has a little messiness in his details, but it's overall a good telling. On Everest, he includes all expeditions, including the 1938 expedition and the 1933 fly over, except for the 1935 reconnaissance.
The Everest expeditions are a large part of this book. Snaith sets the stage with Noel's 1913 illegal dash towards the mountain, and works his way through the climbing expeditions chronologically to the 1936 expedition. The fly over and Maurice Wilson's fatal attempt appear in a following chapter, and the 1938 expedition gets a mention in a postscript. Perhaps Snaith is the author responsible for the erroneous idea getting into the Everest literature that Wilson's fasting cure was some sort of Yoga, since it's the earliest book I've yet read that says so, and certainly not the last. (Or maybe there's a newspaper out there somewhere that's to blame.) I was somewhat relieved that T. Howard Somervell said in his introduction to this book that he had not read it, since Snaith goofs a bit on Somervell's climb, stating that he nearly choked to death while waiting for Norton to finish his climb rather than on their descent. At Grips with Everest doesn't quite rack up as many drama points at Younghusband's The Epic of Everest (thank goodness!), but it does have some uncomfortable moments for the modern reader who is racially sensitive.
Stanley Snaith writes the first English-language history of Himalayan climbing for young readers in his At Grips with Everest. The book was published in 1938, and includes expeditions to Everest, Kanchenjunga, Nanda Devi, and Nanga Parbat. This history focuses on the sharp end of the expeditions, giving general highlights of the lead up to the assaults and then telling of the hard climbing in dramatic detail. Snaith does make some assumptions in his dialogue and also has a little messiness in his details, but it's overall a good telling. On Everest, he includes all expeditions, including the 1938 expedition and the 1933 fly over, except for the 1935 reconnaissance.
The Everest expeditions are a large part of this book. Snaith sets the stage with Noel's 1913 illegal dash towards the mountain, and works his way through the climbing expeditions chronologically to the 1936 expedition. The fly over and Maurice Wilson's fatal attempt appear in a following chapter, and the 1938 expedition gets a mention in a postscript. Perhaps Snaith is the author responsible for the erroneous idea getting into the Everest literature that Wilson's fasting cure was some sort of Yoga, since it's the earliest book I've yet read that says so, and certainly not the last. (Or maybe there's a newspaper out there somewhere that's to blame.) I was somewhat relieved that T. Howard Somervell said in his introduction to this book that he had not read it, since Snaith goofs a bit on Somervell's climb, stating that he nearly choked to death while waiting for Norton to finish his climb rather than on their descent. At Grips with Everest doesn't quite rack up as many drama points at Younghusband's The Epic of Everest (thank goodness!), but it does have some uncomfortable moments for the modern reader who is racially sensitive.
Number of Copies
1
Library | Accession‎ No | Call No | Copy No | Edition | Location | Availability |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Main | 129 |
915.42 SNA |
1 | Yes |