a heroic age

ernest shackleton
(image via wikipedia)

tom crean, 1915

(image via 10 downing)

carsten borchgrevink, about 1898

(image via national archives of australia)

"heroic age of antarctic exploration"— a period of about 25 years from the end of the 19th century to the early 1920's when the exploration of the antarctic became an international focus. i love the the sound of it...heroic age of antarctic exploration...the syllables roll off the tongue and the words are leaden with meaning— all the implications of bravery and fortitude, adventure and endeavor, and grave grave danger. i'm reading a book right now about ernest shakleton's 1914 expedition and the failures and challenges him and his men encountered, and the heavy duty struggle to survive that they endured. it's practically unfathomable what they had to go through, and that they somehow managed to make it out alive. i've always obsessed over adventurers, explorers, wanderers, pioneers— the push, the drive, the madness, the totality of commitment, and the balls to have a daily dialogue with death.