South: the Story of Shackleton’s Last Expedition

Shackleton set out in 1914 to cross Antarctica on foot and never set foot on the continent at all. Endurance was caught in the pack ice of the Weddell Sea, drifted for ten months, and was crushed. What followed is why the book is still read: camps on breaking floes, an open-boat run to Elephant Island, then the 800-mile passage to South Georgia in the James Caird and a mountain crossing to reach a whaling station. Shackleton published his account in 1919 in the flat, understated register of a man reporting facts, and he gives fair space to the Ross Sea party, whose parallel ordeal cost three lives. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.