Classics of True Adventure (Must Be at Least 25 Years Since Publication)

Extollager

Extollager

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Herewith a thread for discussion of accounts of true adventure that have been around long enough perhaps to have earned the designation "classic" -- I'm asking that nominations have been published at least 25 years or more from the year of one's posting. As of the present, this would mean that nothing published after 1993 (Into the Wild) would be eligible, but next year 1994 will be the cutoff date, etc.

I will start by mentioning Albanov's polar adventure In the Land of White Death. On hand are, among others, Alfred Lansing's Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage and Tomalin and Hall's The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst.

The adventures need not have occurred in far-away locales, provided real adventure occurred.
 
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The Last Stand by Nathaniel Philbrick. A must for anyone interested in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and an adventure few would like to undertake.
 
Dask, what was the copyright on Philbrick's book -- which sounds interesting?
 
Well, I did it again. Somehow I ignored the 25 year limit on publication. My mistake, I apologize. The year was 2010. Too young to qualify. I'll be more careful in the future.
 
George R. Stewart's book about the Donner party, Ordeal by Hunger? Yet another book I have but haven't read yet.

How about wartime adventures? David Howarth's We Die Alone -- but I haven't read it.
 
Here are some more, which I have read (the first not all the way through yet)

Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World
Heinrich Harrer's Seven Years in Tibet
Peter Fleming's Brazilian Adventure
Moss's Ill Met by Moonlight: The Abduction of General Kreipe
Barbara Greene's Too Late to Turn Back
 
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Are you suggesting that Tunnel in the Sky is a work of fiction?
 
Extollager said:
Tomalin and Hall's The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst.
Click to expand...
You're aware I just read this of course. It was written in 1970, the year after Crowhurst's misadventure, and is a powerful and readable account. I think that if you were writing an essay on, or otherwise studying, Conrad's Heart of Darkness, it would be valuable to read Tomalin and Hall's account of Crowhurst's voyage and decent into madness.
 
Of course Sir Francis Chichester's classic account of his round the world single-handed voyage in 1967 would fit the bill for sure (Gypsy Moth Circles the World), but I've not read it. It was based on Chichester's success at the age of 65 that Crowhurst set off to try it non-stop in '68.
 
A Narrative of the Mutiny on board His Majesty's Ship "Bounty" by William Bligh. Pretty dry at times, but if you have any interest in the Royal Navy at this time it is Bligh's accounts of the events. Some incredible sailing and surviving.
 
It's Apsley Cherry-Garrard. I didn't spot that, perhaps because I was working with a printout of the list from another source that had the title right.
 
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