Best of
Adventure

1955

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe / The Magician's Nephew


C.S. Lewis - 1955
    The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe: Four English schoolchildren find their way through the back of a wardrobe into the magic land of Narnia and assist its ruler, the golden lion Aslan, in defeating the White Witch who has cursed the land with eternal winter.

Run Silent Run Deep


Edward L. Beach - 1955
    Set in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the tension-filled story focuses on an American submarine captain given orders to destroy Japanese shipping in the Pacific. At first his missions go well, but when he takes on an infamous Japanese destroyer, nicknamed Bungo Pete, a terrifying game of cat and mouse begins. From the training of the crew right through to the breathtaking climax, this tale is absolutely riveting, and will have fans of military writers such as Tom Clancy cheering.Edward L. Beach graduated from the U.S. Navy's submarine school just two weeks after Pearl Harbor, and fought in the Pacific for the rest of the war. Run Silent, Run Deep was his first novel and became an immediate bestseller.

Carbonel: The King of the Cats


Barbara Sleigh - 1955
    for the first time in over 30 years.Rosemary's plan to clean houses during her summer break and surprise her mother with the money hits a snag when an old lady at the market talks her into buying a second-rate broom and a cat she can't even afford to keep. But appearances can be deceiving. Some old ladies are witches, some brooms can fly, and some ordinary-looking cats are Princes of the Royal Blood. Rosemary's cat ("You may call me Carbonel. That is my name.") soon enlists her help in an adventure to free him from a hideous spell and return him to his rightful throne. But along the way Rosemary and her friend John must do some clever sleuthing, work a little magic of their own, and—not least— put up with the demands of a very haughty cat.

Something Of Value


Robert Ruark - 1955
    It is a powerful, gripping, and sometimes shocking novel that presents an enlightening glimpse into the lives of all sections of the population in Colonial Kenya fifty years ago.

To Tame a Land


Louis L'Amour - 1955
    Taken in by a mysterious stranger with a taste for books and an instinct for survival, Rye is schooled in the hard lessons of life in the West. But after killing a man, he is forced to leave his new home. He rides lonely mountain passes and works on dusty cattle drives until he finds a job breaking horses. Then he meets Liza Hetrick, and in her eyes he sees his future. After establishing himself as marshal of Alta, he returns, only to discover that Liza has been kidnapped. Tracking her to Robbers’ Roost, Rye is forced to face the man who taught him all he knows about books, guns, and friendship. Two old friends—one woman: Who will walk away?From the Paperback edition.

Tiger of the Snows: The Autobiography of Tenzing of Everest


Tenzing Norgay - 1955
    The autobiography of Tenzing of Everest

High Adventure: The True Story of the First Ascent of Everest


Edmund Hillary - 1955
    Gnawing at reason and enslaving minds, it has killed many and defeated countless others. But in 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay stared into its dark eye and did not waver. On May 29, they pushed spent bodies and aching lungs past the achievable to pursue the impossible. At a terminal altitude of 29,028 feet, they stood triumphant atop the highest peak in the world. With nimble words and a straightforward style, New Zealand mountaineering legend Hillary recollects the bravery and frustration, the agony and glory that marked his Everest odyssey. From the 1951 expedition that led to the discovery of the Southern Route, through the grueling Himalayan training of 1952, and on to the successful 1953 expedition led by Colonel John Hunt, Hillary conveys in precise language the mountain's unforgiving conditions. In explicit detail he recalls an Everest where chaotic icefalls force costly detours, unstable snow ledges promise to avalanche at the slightest misstep, and brutal weather shifts from pulse-stopping cold to fiendish heat in mere minutes. In defiance of these torturous conditions, Hillary remains enthusiastic and never hesitates in his quest for the summit. Despite the enormity of his and Norgay's achievement, he regards himself, Norgay, and the other members of his expedition as hardworking men, not heroes. And while he never would have reached the top without practiced skill and technical competence, his thrilling memoir speaks first to his admiration of the human drive to explore, to understand, to risk, and to conquer.

Horatio Hornblower Goes to Sea


C.S. Forester - 1955
    Midshipman Hornblower, Lieutenant Hornblower.

HMS Ulysses


Alistair MacLean - 1955
    Now reissued in a new cover style.The story of men who rose to heroism, and then to something greater, HMS Ulysses takes its place alongside The Caine Mutiny and The Cruel Sea as one of the classic novels of the navy at war.It is the compelling story of Convoy FR77 to Murmansk – a voyage that pushes men to the limits of human endurance, crippled by enemy attack and the bitter cold of the Arctic.

Our Vanishing Landscape


Eric Sloane - 1955
    Leading us along rustic winding roads bordering fields and farmhouses, Eric Sloane captures our imaginations as he offers us a guided tour that evokes the America of pioneer times.This fascinating narrative describes networks of canals, corduroy roads, and turnpikes; tollgates, waterwheels, and icehouses; country inns and churches; ingenious and colorful road signs; and massive snow-rollers that packed snow into hard surfaces for great sleds. Here also are engrossing accounts of toll-road owners, sign painters, circus folk, and other entertainers of the period.Brimming with anecdotes about people and the times, this delightful, warmly written book remains a genuine and permanent contribution to the field of Americana.

As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Escape from a Siberian Labour Camp and His 3-Year Trek to Freedom


Josef Martin Bauer - 1955
    It has been translated into fifteen languages, sold more than 12 million copies, and is the basis for an award-winning German entry at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. Recounting an incredible real-life adventure, it tracks the destiny of German soldier Clemens Forrell who, in the aftermath of WWII, was sentenced to twenty-five years of forced labor in a lead mine in the barren eastern reaches of Siberia.Subjected to the brutality of the camp and the climate, Forrell dreamed continuously of escape—and then daringly effected it. From East Cape across the vast trackless wastes of Siberia, for thousands of miles and three years, with fear as his most intimate companion, Forrell fled treachery and endured some of the most inhospitable conditions on earth. In a long series of taped interviews with esteemed German author Josef M. Bauer, Forrell unfolded his remarkable story of survival. Bauer not only reconstructs Forrell's arduous journey to the Iranian frontier and freedom; he also poignantly evokes the emotional content of Forrell's brave quest—emerging as an affecting portrait of a man who strove and triumphed against all odds.

The Magician's Nephew


C.S. Lewis - 1955
    Their lives burst into adventure when Digory's Uncle Andrew, who thinks he is a magician, sends them hurtling to...somewhere else. They find their way to Narnia, newborn from the Lion's song, and encounter the evil sorceress Jadis before they finally return home.

The Young Adventurers At Holiday House


Enid Blyton - 1955
    

Two Against the Ice: A Classic Arctic Survival Story and a Remarkable Account of Companionship in the Face of Adversity


Ejnar Mikkelsen - 1955
    First published in Danish in 1955, it has never before been published in North America.Ejnar Mikkelsen was a man devoted to Arctic exploration. In 1910 he decided to search for the diaries of the ill-fated Mylius-Erichsen expedition, which had set out to prove that Robert Peary’s outline of the East Greenland coast was a myth, erroneous and presumably self-serving. Iver Iversen was a mechanic who joined Mikkelsen in Iceland when the expedition’s boat needed repair. Several months later, Mikkelsen and Iversen embarked on a journey during which they would suffer virtually every travail in the Arctic repertoire: implacable cold, scurvy, starvation, frostbite, snow blindness, plunges into icy seawater, Sisyphean sledging conditions, Vitamin A poisoning, debilitated dogs, apocalyptic storms, gaping crevasses, and assorted mortifications of the flesh. Mikkelsen’s diary was eaten by a bear. Three years of this, coupled with seemingly no hope of rescue, would drive most crazy, yet the two retained both their sanity and their humor. Indeed, what may have saved them was their refusal to become as desolate as their surroundings.“A classic of Arctic survival and a remarkable account of companionship in the face of adversity. ” -- From The Foreword

The Last Wilderness


Murray Morgan - 1955
    First published in 1955, this book tells the lively and entertaining story of the Olympic Peninsula, "the fist of land thrust north between Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean, a wilderness area of six thousand square miles, as large as the state of Massachusetts, more rugged than the Rockies, its lowlands blanketed by a cool jungle of fir and pine and cedar, its peaks bearing hundreds of miles of living ice that gave rise to swift rivers alive with giant salmon; the first land in the Pacific Northwest to be reported by explorers, the last to be mapped--the last wilderness." Murray Morgan has recorded the epic adventures of the pioneers of this remote region in this rousing and humor-filled saga, one that should capture the imagination of Americans everywhere.

The Wise Man from the West


Vincent Cronin - 1955
    If he approached the Emperor with a Bible in one hand, in the other he carried much of the accumulated technological and philosophical wisdom of the late Renaissance Europe, and thus found favour among the Mandarins, the men of learning who enjoyed high status at the Imperial Court. He learned Chinese the better to discuss with them the problems in science and technology, as also questions of religion and the hereafter. But his progress was not unopposed, for the Wise Man from the West came to be seen as an unsettling element in a too-settled society. Ricci died in 1610, disappointed in his ambition to convert the Emperor, and with him the whole of China, to Christianity. But the seed was sown and the crop, even after almost a century of atheistic communism, continues to grow in present-day China.This story of the first fully documented contact between West and East offers a fascinating insight into the history of ideas during one of the most fertile eras in European and Chinese history. Vincent Cronin has built up a reputation with his scholarly, elegantly written works of history and biography, as one of the finest popular historians of his generation. This early book proves his gift as an acutely observant and sensitive historian.

Song of the Voyageur


Beverly Butler - 1955
    It is a tale of growing up there and falling in love with a voyageur who travels the rivers.

Minnow on the Say


Philippa Pearce - 1955
    With summer stretching endlessly before him, it seems too good to be true.Soon there is another boy--Adam, the Minnow's rightful owner. Adam wants his boat back...but something else, too: a trustworthy friend to help him find the long lost ancestral jewels that could save his family from financial disaster Can two boys find what history has kept an untouchable secret for hundreds of years? Or will they lose the race against time and against another treasure seeker lurking at the river's edge.

The Tontine Part 2 Of 2


Thomas B. Costain - 1955
    The drama touches royalty and millionaires, actresses and sailors, planters and portrait painters. It ranges from London to the Caribbean, driven by a world in high gear, a world powered by greed. But time flies by. Three survivors wait each other out. Then two, and at last, only one. . .a winner with everything but a future.

The Forest of Boland Light Railway


B.B. - 1955
    invented the steam engine long before James Watt. The Forest of Boland Light Railway was the gnome's pride and joy, making a pleasure trip of their journey to and from the gold mines. They were happier than ever before ...until a villainous attack by the leprechauns led by the wicked Shera Beg

Danny Orlis and the Strange Forest Fires


Bernard Palmer - 1955
    As Danny leads them in exploring the islands, they come across a forest fire that is just starting. They are able to get it put out, but there doesn't seem to be a good explanation for why it started in the first place. A strange accident, being followed and another fire's starting add to the mystery. Will they arrive in time to save the man who started the fires and who is now in danger?

The Last Cannibals


Jens Bjerre - 1955
    This remarkable book is the first ever written by the famous young Danish explorer, Jens Bjerre. It is alive with his own enthusiasm for the little known places and peoples of the world, from the aborigines of Australia to the cannibals of New Guinea. Bjerre lived among these peoples, exploring their innermost beliefs, observing their strange sex lives, photographing a variety of fantastic ceremonies and rites. His first visit was to an aborigine reserve in the desert of central Australia. There he became a member of the tribe, moving with them on their nomadic wanderings, sharing in a kind of life that has not varied for thousands of years from the complicated system of tribal marriage to the gruesome ritual of circumcision. Then a helicopter jump from one Stone Age to another, to New Guinea, where hundreds of thousands of people have never heard of white men and it will be many a year before the last cannibal has finished his favorite meal. Here Bjerre divided his time between the Kukukuku, a warlike tribe, the Morombo and more civilized Kumans, and the island paradise of Manam. Bjerre was quickly at home with the Kukukuku cannibals, finding in them an attractive, spontaneous sense of humor. (His explanation of their cannibalism is completely practical.) Among the Kumans, he made a special study of the courting habits, in which the women carefully select and propose to their intended mates. And his visit to Manam was an idyll. Mr. Bjerre writes with such fresh vigor that it is easy to lose sight of the fact that The Last Cannibals is both an original anthropological study and the best kind of travel book: accurate, provocative, highly readable, and magnificently illustrated.

White Falcon


Elliott Arnold - 1955
    A frontier boy becomes the courageous leader of the Chippewa Indians and plays an important part in the struggle for control of the fur trade in the Northwest.

The Tontine Part 1 Of 2


Thomas B. Costain - 1955
    The drama touches royalty and millionaires, actresses and sailors, planters and portrait painters. It ranges from London to the Caribbean, driven by a world in high gear, a world powered by greed. But time flies by. Three survivors wait each other out. Then two, and at last, only one. . .a winner with everything but a future.

Mirage in the Arctic: The Astounding 1907 Mikkelsen Expedition


Ejnar Mikkelsen - 1955
    A classic Arctic tale of a harrowing 2,500-mile journey of discovery.

Hannibal Of Carthage


Mary Dolan - 1955
    He wrote a record of the march across the Alps, but his account is lost. It served, however, as a main source for Polybius the Greek, who wrote about the Hannibalic war some forty-eight years after Cannae. And later still, almost two hundred years after that battle, Titus Livy wrote a history of the same events, using Polybius as a source. Livy differs from Polybius. And Polybius, before him, disagreed with Sosylos, for so he told us. "The reader is pursuing here more than a brilliant general, more than a gallant soldier. he is pursuing a much rarer incarnation--a true patriot. This book is offered as a tribute to the courage of that patriot. it was without the taint, so seldom absent, of a personal ambition."

A Cure for Serpents


Alberto Denti di Pirajno - 1955
    The autobiography of the Duke of Pirajno, who worked for eighteen years as a doctor in Libya, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somaliland.