Philipp Felsch
How August Petermann Invented the North Pole
Original Title: Wie August Petermann den Nordpol erfand
original edition
Paperback, with flaps,
272 pages,
11.8 x 18.7 cm,
4.6 x 7.4 Inches,
10 colour illustrations,
16 b/w illustrations
ISBN: 978-3-630-62178-4
€
12.00 [D]
|
€
12.40 [A]
|
CHF
17.90*
(* rec. retail price)
recommended retail price
Publishing House:
Luchterhand Literaturverlag
Date of publication:
March 1, 2010
This title is available.
Rights sold to: Italy (Nutrimenti), France (Editions de la Maison)
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How a cartographer lured many polar expeditions on to destruction
The North Pole – the focus of yearning and thirst for adventure in the 19th century. The brilliant cartographer August Petermann wants to be part of this adventure. The English rub their eyes in surprise when this bookworm, who has never before even seen an iceberg, tells them of the probable whereabouts – according to “serious and prudent calculations” – of the missing John Franklin.
When the naval officers won’t accept Petermann’s theories, he withdraws in disappointment. Petermann conquers the North Pole in his own way: on paper. And in doing so, he sends numerous expeditions on the wrong path because he refuses to abandon his – erroneous – theory, no matter what…
A subtle portrait of a typical German explorer, a “desk-bound Humboldt”.
“Now the historian of science Philipp Felsch has recorded this tragic failure of the odd ‘armchair' cartographer in an absorbing monograph, How August Petermann Invented the North Pole. Whoever reads this will understand the appeal of this mathematical point, from which everything in the world lies to the south, and will feel something of the fascination of maps.”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
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