Matty McNair of NorthWinds emailed us January 26, 2002 to announce the fact that Paul Landry has reached the South Pole! But no dogs - they are not allowed in Antarctica ever since Robert Scott used his men as dogs and worked them to death while Amundsen used canine dogs and easily reached 90 degrees South. So Paul used skis in true masochistic British tradition. What an amazing athlete! We love the NorthWinds people; did you see Matt's movie "Glory & Honor"? Wonder where all those arctic huskies came from that pulled Matt's sledge? That's right! From the folks at NorthWinds. Those were Paul Landry's dogs.

"...20 "ordinary women" were chosen ...5 teams of 4 women joined Matty on the polar ice for 15 days before passing the baton to the next relay team. Matty was on the ice for a total of 82 days, skiing and pulling a pulk over 416 nautical miles of drifting polar ice.

Matty McNair is the expedition leader with NorthWinds who led, with assistant Denise Martin, the first all women's expedition to the North Pole. Matty wrote an excellent book about this, On Thin Ice, that we will review in the near future. Her beautiful photographs detail the intricate ice crystals that grow like flowers in varieties differing by their salinity. She gives vivid descriptions of the sights and sounds on the Arctic Ocean - ice pressure ridges forming that sound "like a train crash in the distance". She loads the rifle with anxiety when polar bear tracks are spotted because their single file team is vulnerable in the white out conditions. Yes, you can be eaten by bears while skiing to the Pole! The team faces a disaster when several members fall in the ocean and the expedition is separated by open water. Hypothermia sets in...well you have to read it! I won't tell you... PS Buy direct - not available at Amazon.com

Landry and Crowley are famous for their April, 2000 dog sledge trip to the North Pole. They were the first people to do this in the same time as Henson & Peary in 1909 (well, within 4 days, but heck - Matt & Peary had 22 extra men helping them do it). Why was this so very special? Armchair critics had said that it was impossible. Really. As dumb as that sounds, it is true; for 90 years people with nothing better to do than try to shoot down the achievements of others claimed that Matt could not have traveled so fast to the Pole with dog sledges. Now these people have been proved wrong. But hey, are any of those people who shot down Matt apologizing? Nope.

What does all this prove? It proves that people who sit in libraries looking for "truth", or little English runts who try to be big shots need to know that the spirit of the Arctic is alive and powerful. But she is fickle and only gives her powers to the good guys such as Henson & Peary, Matty & Denise, and Crowley &  Landry...get it? She turns her spiritual back on the rest - the bitter snowmobilers, a British stuntman who brought his bathtub, or masochistic man-haulers.

Then tell us now, oh you great experts of "Truth", that Matt Henson was a liar and could not have reached the Pole. Show us again your "proof" that Henson and Peary traveled "impossibly fast". Impossible? Henson and Peary liars? Looks like the book authors and research librarians are the liars. Or else idiots. Take your pick. Maybe they are both?

 Impossible? No, it was not. I say "Thank God for NorthWinds!" Arf! Arf!

Bradley

Standing Ovation for Dr. Counter
Hold the phone! Harvard's Dr. Counter comes out swinging. Enough of this racism from librarian Bryce! You have GOT TO READ pages 230 - 235 to see the proof for yourself. It takes brilliant scholarship to totally discredit someone who pretends to be a real scholar as the junior college librarian has to the book world. The fact-by-fact presentation Counter presents here will impress anyone. This new information about biased "Cook & Peary" author Bryce will be fully explored in a future review. In my opinion, this is one librarian is now permanently on the "hot seat". 

Purchasing this new version can be justified just to read the new chapter in which Counter explains the developments since 1988 when the first version was released. Learn how Counter succeeded in having a US Naval ship named for Henson as well as the Hubbard Medal award to grandniece Audrey Mebane. Go Harvard!

Editorial Reviews: New York Times Book Review 
"A poignant and gripping book." 

Book Description 
Upon hearing rumors that the men who discovered the North Pole had fathered sons while on their expedition, S. Allen Counter arranged to visit the remote villages where Robert Peary, the credited discoverer, and Matthew Henson, the black man whose contributions to the expedition are widely ignored, stayed during their travels. This book recounts the astonishing story of Counter's trips to Greenland and the relationships he develops with the Eskimo ancestors of the two men. At the same time, new evidence about Peary's journey to the Pole is examined, and it comes to light that Henson, was the true hero. 

About the Author 
S. Allen Counter is a neuroscientist at Harvard and the founder of the Harvard Foundation, an organization devoted to intercultural and race relations. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

Apparently in an effort to stay in the book world spotlight Bryce took these public domain (anyone may print them) works and put his name on them with his "bully pulpit" remarks. He even reprinted what has to be the most disgusting polar book of them all - Fred Cook's 1913 vile slander against Peary titled "My Attainment of The Pole".  What will Bryce do next? Reprint the works of Adolph Hitler? Perhaps a 1,000 page biography of serial killer-cannibal Jeffery Dahmer?