In 1897, at the height of the heroic age of Arctic exploration, the visionary Swedish explorer S. A. Andrée made a revolutionary attempt to discover the North Pole by flying over it in a hydrogen balloon. Thirty-three years later, his expedition diaries and papers would be discovered on the ice. Alec Wilkinson uses the explorer’s papers and contemporary sources to tell the full story of this ambitious voyage, while also showing how the late 19th century’s spirit of exploration and scientific discovery drove over 1,000 explorers to the unforgiving Arctic landscape. Suspenseful and haunting, Wilkinson captures Andrée’s remarkable adventure and illuminates the detail, beauty, and devastating conditions of traveling and dwelling on the ice.

In this grand and astonishing tale, Alec Wilkinson brings us the story of S. A. Andrée, the visionary Swedish aeronaut who, in 1897, during the great age of Arctic endeavor, left to discover the North Pole by flying to it in a hydrogen balloon. Called by a British military officer “the most original and remarkable attempt ever made in Arctic exploration,” Andrée’s expedition was followed by nearly the entire world, and it made him an international legend. The Ice Balloon begins in the late nineteenth century, when nations, compelled by vanity, commerce, and science, competed with one another for the greatest discoveries, and newspapers covered every journey. Wilkinson describes how in Andrée several contemporary themes intersected. He was the first modern explorer—the first to depart for the Arctic unencumbered by notions of the Romantic age, and the first to be equipped with the newest technologies. No explorer had ever left with more uncertainty regarding his fate, since none had ever flown over the horizon and into the forbidding region of ice. In addition to portraying the period, The Ice Balloon gives us a brief history of the exploration of the northern polar regions, both myth and fact, including detailed versions of the two record-setting expeditions just prior to Andrée’s—one led by U.S. Army lieutenant Adolphus Greely from Ellesmere Island; the other by Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian explorer who initially sought to reach the pole by embedding his ship in the pack ice and drifting toward it with the current. Woven throughout is Andrée’s own history, and how he came by his brave and singular idea. We also get to know Andrée’s family, the woman who loves him, and the two men who accompany him—Nils Strindberg, a cousin of the famous playwright, with a tender love affair of his own, and Knut Fraenkel, a willing and hearty young man. Andrée’s flight and the journey, based on the expedition’s diaries and photographs, dramatically recovered thirty-three years after the balloon came down, along with Wilkinson’s research, provide a book filled with suspense and adventure, a haunting story of high ambition and courage, made tangible with the detail, beauty, and devastating conditions of traveling and dwelling in “the realm of Death,” as one Arctic explorer put it.

Visitors to the Arctic enter places that have been traditionally imagined as otherworldly. This strangeness fascinated audiences in nineteenth-century Britain when the idea of the heroic explorer voyaging through unmapped zones reached its zenith. The Spectral Arctic re-thinks our understanding of Arctic exploration by paying attention to the importance of dreams and ghosts in the quest for the Northwest Passage. The narratives of Arctic exploration that we are all familiar with today are just the tip of the iceberg: they disguise a great mass of mysterious and dimly lit stories beneath the surface. In contrast to oft-told tales of heroism and disaster, this book reveals the hidden stories of dreaming and haunted explorers, of frozen mummies, of rescue balloons, visits to Inuit shamans, and of the entranced female clairvoyants who travelled to the Arctic in search of John Franklin’s lost expedition. Through new readings of archival documents, exploration narratives, and fictional texts, these spectral stories reflect the complex ways that men and women actually thought about the far North in the past. This revisionist historical account allows us to make sense of current cultural and political concerns in the Canadian Arctic about the location of Franklin’s ships.

ABOUT THE BOOK “Except for the bottom of the sea or the center of the earth, the North Pole, at the end of the nineteenth century, was the world's last mysterious destination.” The Ice Balloon: S.A. Andrée and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration retells the attempt by Swedish explorer S.A. Andrée to reach the north pole by hydrogen balloon. Writer Alec Wilkinson recounts the whole story of Andrée’s venture from its first conception to the final recovery of its lost artifacts, and intersperses his tale with other events in the history of Arctic exploration. Wilkinson draws on previous accounts of Arctic exploration as well as original documents from various expeditions to reconstruct an era of scientific discovery. The book includes photographs taken by contemporaries of Andrée, including some that were shot on Andrée’s expedition and lost for decades when the undeveloped film was frozen in the ice along with the members of the party. MEET THE AUTHOR Nicole has been writing since she could make letters with a pencil, and has been making a living at it for more than ten years. She has gone back to school too many times, studying archaeology, folklore, writing and visual art. She writes fiction under several pen names, and also does printmaking, book arts, and photography. Nicole is an avid amateur natural historian with a particular fascination for things that fly, whether it's birds, bats or insects. EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK In 1893, a Norwegian named Fridtjof Nansen set off to strand his purpose-built ship, the Fram, in the Arctic ice with the hope it could drift to the north pole along with the ice. There were thirteen men on the crew, who lived in relative comfort compared to other Arctic explorers. Nansen had planned carefully and the Fram was well-insulated and warm. He was not content to simply wait and set off with another crew member to attempt to reach the pole by dogsled. But his haste proved to work against him as they had to turn back. It was not until 1896 that they encountered other explorers, and were able to make their way back to their ship. This was the same time at which Andrée was planning his first attempt to launch his balloon. In the summer of 1896 Andrée and his two crew members, meteorologist Nils Eckholm and photographer Nils Strindberg, along with a large crew of people to help build a temporary balloon shed and prepare for the journey, arrived in Spitsbergen. By the end of the summer the attempt was abandoned due to a lack of favorable winds for the balloon. Buy a copy to keep reading!

The acclaimed novel of love, ambition, and Arctic adventure “told with fin de siecle elegance”—with an introduction by Philip Pullman (Kirkus Reviews). It is July 1897, at the northernmost reach of the inhabited world. Swedish inventor Gustav Crispin is determined to become the first person to set foot on the North Pole, and return, borne by hot air balloon. Making the expedition with two companions—an American journalist and a young, French-speaking adventurer—all three climb into the small wicker gondola and cuts the ropes. But as Gustav pursues his history-making ambition, and their flimsy balloon is battered by Arctic winds, his mind returns again and again to his fraught romance with the beautiful Luisa. Nominated for the National Book Award in 1977, The Balloonist was hailed by Mary Renault as a “tour de force.” The story of Gustav Crispin is “chilling and comic by turn . . . An unusual mixture of Arctic adventure and Parisian love story with philosophic overtones” (Kirkus Reviews).

In 1897 S.A. Andree set off in a balloon to discover the North Pole, one of the last unmapped places on Earth. The world watched as he ascended above the Arctic. Then he vanished, the first person to disappear into the air."

11 July, 1897. Three men set out in a hydrogen balloon bound for the North Pole. They never return. Two days into their journey they make a crash landing then disappear into a white nightmare. 33 years later. The men's bodies are found, perfectly preserved under the snow and ice. They had enough food, clothing and ammunition to survive. Why did they die? 66 years later. Bea Uusma is at a party. Bored, she pulls a books off the shelf. It is about the expedition. For the next fifteen years, Bea will think of nothing else... Can she solve the mystery of The Expedition?

A compelling novel of discovery, loves lost and a deception that spanned a lifetime ... inspired by true events. 1897 - As explorers and scientists scramble to conquer the North Pole, Nils Strindberg, with fellow adventurers S. A. Andree and Knut Fraenkel, takes up the challenge. Setting flight in a hydrogen balloon, Nils leaves his fiancée Anna and his brother Erik behind in Stockholm anxiously waiting his return. 1930 - When the men's remains are discovered on the frozen island of Kvitøya, the news makes headlines around the world. Brash young journalist Knut Stubbendorff is sent to report from the site and uncovers, among the debris, journals filled with love letters to Anna, wanting to know more about the man who left his love to embark on a journey that was doomed from the start, Stubbendorff is determined to find her ... but Anna doesn't want to be found. In a search that uncovers lost loves, deceit and long-buried secrets, Stubbendorff discovers a story that has stayed hidden for decades and the people who have been concealing it.

“Don’t worry,” said Princess Leora’s father just before he left for the tournament. “If anything goes wrong, release a bunch of balloons from the castle tower. Wherever I am, I will see them and come home right away.” Now, something is wrong—very wrong. Princess Leora’s grumpy uncle, the Archduke, wants to be king, and the very first thing he does is pop every balloon in the kingdom. Princess Leora is afraid, but she doesn't give up. If she can find just one whole balloon, the kingdom will be saved!

The author of Citadel Press's hugely successful Captain Visual's Big Book of Balloon Art presents a comprehensive companion volume of new sculptures (from New Years hats to jack o'-lanterns) that suit holidays, festivals, and just plain fun days throughout the year. Captain Visual's Big Book of Holiday Balloon Art has been designed to both stand alone and serve as a followup to the good Captain's first book Oversized (8 1/2 x 11) and comprehensive (over 100 designs), this book includes a free balloon starter kit The Captain's exclusive tri-view diagrams make this the easiest-to-follow how-to book on the market. Now balloon twisters can brilliantly color their world and entertain others, regardless of the day or the occasion Captain Visual's Big Book of Holiday Balloon Art is a fun, informative book for any sculptor, whether novice or professional.