Best of
Adventure

1953

The Young Hornblower Omnibus: Mr Midshipman Hornblower, Lieutenant Hornblower and Hornblower and the Hotspur


C.S. Forester - 1953
    But he was soon to gain his sea legs.Amid battle, action and adventure he proves himself time and time again - courageous in danger, resourceful in moments of difficulty and decisive in times of trouble. The reader stands right beside him as he prepares to fight his first duel, feels the heat as he battles to control a blazing ship and shares his horror as he experiences for the first time the panic of the Plague.C.S. Forester's classic Hornblower books are now lavishly adapted for the screen in a major new ITV series.This omnibus edition contains: Mr Midshipman Hornblower, Lieutenant Hornblower and Hornblower and the 'Hotspur'.

The Silent World


Jacques-Yves Cousteau - 1953
    Cousteau, Philippe Tailliez, and the great civilian diver Frédéric Dumas, plunged into the Mediterranean with the first aqualung, co-invented by Cousteau.In this fascinating report, Cousteau and Dumas tell what it is like to be “menfish” swimming in the deep twilight zone with sharks, mantas, morays, whales, and octopi. They tell of exploring sunken ships and of the treasures they brought up. They describe ventures into an inland water cave that all but claimed their lives, and their crazy human-guinea-pig experiment with underwater explosions. Cousteau writes brilliantly of his audacious 50-fathom dive into the zone of rapture, where divers become like drunken gods; and of the 396-foot dive that took a brave companion's life.Cousteau, Dumas, and their courageous teams of divers have used their new techniques of exploration to make important discoveries in almost every branch of science. In The Silent World they share with us the greatest undersea experience men have ever had.

Horn of the Hunter: The Story of an African Safari


Robert Ruark - 1953
    No other book can give you the feel of Africa like this one can.

Jungle Lore


Jim Corbett - 1953
    Jungle Lore is the closest Jim Corbett ever came to an autobiography, revealing his life-long passion for the people, jungle, and animals of the Kumaon hills in the Himalayan foothills, and his despair at humanity's estrangement from its environment.

Seven Years in Tibet


Heinrich Harrer - 1953
    Recounts how the author, an Austrian, escaped from an English internment camp in India in 1943 and spent the next seven years in Tibet, observing its social practices, religion, politics, and people.

The Rivers Ran East


Leonard F. Clark - 1953
    A former U.S. Army intelligence officer, Clark is joined on his expedition by Inez Pokorny, a gutsy, multilingual female explorer. Their treacherous journey includes encounters with head-hunting Jivaro Indians, man-eating jaguars, 40-foot-long anacondas, poisonous plants, and shamanistic healers. Against the odds, Clark and Pokorny reach their destination, but nearly starve to death trying to transport sacks of gold out of the dense tropical foliage.

The Overloaded Ark


Gerald Durrell - 1953
    It is the chronicle of a six months collecting trip to the West African colony of British Cameroon - now Cameroon - (Dec 1947 - Aug 1948) - that Durrell made with the highly regarded aviculturist and ornithologist John Yealland.Their reasons for going on the trip were twofold: "to collect and bring back alive some of the fascinating animals, birds, and reptiles that inhabit the region," and secondly, for both men to realise a long cherished dream to see Africa.Its combination of comic exaggeration and environmental accuracy, portrayed in Durrell's light, clever prose, made it a great success. It launched Durrell's career as a writer of both non-fiction and fiction, which in turn financed his work as a zookeeper and conservationist.The Bafut Beagles and A Zoo in My Luggage are sequels of sorts, telling of his later returns to the region.

Exploration Fawcett


Percy Harrison Fawcett - 1953
    For 10 years, he had wandered the forests and death-filled rivers in search of a "lost" cities; convinced he knew the location of one, he headed off for the last time--never to be heard from again. The thrilling story of what occurred during that time has now been compiled by his son from manuscripts, letters, and logbooks. What happened to him after remains a mystery. "...should be read by everyone."--Daily Telegraph.

Vagrant Viking: My Life and Adventures


Peter Freuchen - 1953
    He was the first man to cross the central glacier alone--eskimos didn't feel the need--yet the kindliness of his style makes you feel that you could have attempted the feat yourself. Maybe you could, now, with the help of his insights... and a few years in Thule with an eskimo wife. But his insights would be no less necessary after such experience. Humans learn best from stories told by their loved ones, these stories will be useful to those who brave the arctic and you will love Peter Freuchen like a grandfather after reading this book.

Hunting the Hard Way


Howard Hill - 1953
    Howard Hill brings to life all of these images with exciting stories about the thrill of the hunt, oneness with nature, and the adventure of the great outdoors. Hunting the Hard Way, considered by many to be the most sought-after archery title, is now back in print and full of the thrilling escapades of a bow and arrow purist.

Lost Trails, Lost Cities


Percy Harrison Fawcett - 1953
    In this chronicle, the Colonel detailed his adventures in Mato Grosso, South America, as he searched for the ruins of an ancient lost city ("I call it 'Z' for the sake of convenience," he wrote) between 1906 and 1925. Though his journal ended with his strange disappearance sometime after 29 May 1925, his story continued long after.

Drovers Road


Joyce West - 1953
    Besides her young, bachelor uncle there are her three orphaned cousins—Eve, Hugh and Merry—and their Great-Aunt Belle. Taken in by Dunsany years before, after her parents’ divorce, Gay now scarcely remembers any other life. There are lessons at the local school, taught by pretty, sensible Susan Leigh, regular chores, plenty of riding and jumping, pranks with Merry, unlikely pets—and abundant potential for unexpected adventures. Then, everything starts to change. With boarding school suddenly looming on the horizon, Gay and Merry—besides hating the idea—also begin to realize the expense they are to their uncle. Are they the burden standing in the way of Uncle Dunsany’s marriage? Additional unsettling possibilities are added when Gay learns that her father is returning to New Zealand after an absence of many years. Will this mean leaving Drovers Road forever? In a story filled with unforgettable characters (human and otherwise), horse shows and hunts, careless actions and scary consequences, happy (and not-so-happy) romances, young Gabrielle learns something about love and trust through the shared ups and downs of a very human, but also very caring family and extended community.

Wilderness Journey


William O. Steele - 1953
    He was small for his age and couldn't shoot a rifle. He couldn't even chop down a tree or skin a deer. But none of this seemed to bother Chapman Green, the Long Hunter with whom Flan was to make the dangerous journey over the Wilderness Trail from the Holston River settlement to the French Salt Lick. As the days came and went, Flan came to realize that size wasn't everything. Quick wit and endurance counted for a lot in the wilderness. Slowly his self-reliance grew and, with it, his skill in the woods, and when hostile Indians attacked the group of settlers with whom they were then traveling, Flan was able to give warning and carry out the Long Hunter's instructions. By the time Flan reached a French Salt Lick, he'd learned that it didn't matter so much whether a boy grew up to be a lawyer or a Long Hunter; what did matter was knowing you could make a few mistakes and still win out if you did your best. Like Mr. Steele's earlier book, The Buffalo Knife, this is an authentic, exciting, and well-told story of frontier life in 1782, which will hold young readers' interest to the end.

Swords of Anjou


Mario Andrew Pei - 1953
    Here are drama and suspense, treachery and heroism, gory battle and broad humor, love pure and impure, against the background of feudal France and Moorish Spain.The two poles between which lies most of the action are the treachery of Ganelon that sends Roland and his twenty thousand vassals to their death, on the field at Rencevals, and the trial by combat that pits Thierry as the emperor Charlemagne's champion against the redoubtable Pinabel, champion of the traitor.

Treasury of Railroad Folklore: The Stories, Tall Tales, Traditions, Ballads and Songs of the American Railroad Man


B.A. Botkin - 1953
    

Coming Down the Seine


Robert Gibbings - 1953
    Looking at writers and painters as well as historic figures who have left their mark on the Seine, Gibbings presents an affectionate picture of this great river and the people who live and work on its banks.

Sarfarosh


Gunvantray Acharya - 1953
    To accomplish his life goal, he had left home and had become a pirate. He would attack ships transporting slaves from one country to another, release them and rehabilitate them. His attacks were so swift that Arabs compared it to a falcon’s attacks. They called him shakra-al-bahar, which later became popular as Sakkarbar.

Madame Buccaneer


Gardner F. Fox - 1953
    Their magic seamanship and gallant swords had cut a bloody swath across the deeps of the Spanish Main. Lizzie, the English beauty, alone was a tempestuous prize for the man who could catch and tame her. At their backs fought the galleon crew, a grim-faced cutthroat assembly, for whom kill and pillage were the laws of the sea and gold and jewels their rightful reward. The Golden Whip His heart hammered a wild tune as his eyes slid from yellow gold to pale silver, and then to the brilliance of giant diamonds. “It fair turns a man's head,' Martin Chandos whispered. “A captain's share for you, Martin Chandos' Redscar shouted. "It was you who gave this to us. Now, what do you say to being a buccaneer captain?” Lizzie's eyes lit with violet fire. “Yes, Martin Yes' she cried. Martin Chandos still stared at the treasure, the sea wind playing in his long brown hair. A roar rose from the crew, and they crowded around him, dirty and bloody, begrimed with gunpowder and spray. Their laughter was a hot and arousing thing, and the smell of the salt air was in his nostrils, and gold and silver and jewels lay at his feet. He swung on them and spread his hands. “Now, damn you, I'll be your captain, if that's your wish. But at sea, my word is law. Obey me, and I'll make every unwashed man jack of you rich beyond his dreams”