Product Description

American Brad Washburn had an impact on his protÉgÉs and imitators as profound as that of any other adventurer in the twentieth century. Unquestionably regarded as the greatest mountaineer in Alaskan history and as one of the finest mountain photographers of all time, Washburn transformed American attitudes toward wilderness and revolutionized the art of mountaineering and exploration in the great ranges. In The Last of His Kind, National Geographic Adventure contributing editor David Roberts goes beyond conventional biography to reveal the essence of this man through the prism of his extraordinary exploits from New England to Chamonix, the Himalaya to the Yukon.

Washburn's remarkable achievements—including nine first ascents of North American peaks—would stamp him not only as one of a kind, but as one of a kind they don't make anymore. Born June 7, 1910, to a Boston Brahmin family whose roots trace back to the Mayflower, this highly intelligent, impatient, and stubborn iconoclast published books, made a monumental first ascent in the French Alps that would become a touchstone in mountaineering history, and lectured on his adventures—including an address to the National Geographic Society—while still in his teens. In 1935, at the age of twenty-four, while others were turning their attention to the Himalaya, the Harvard-educated Washburn led a three-month journey across what was then the largest remaining unexplored territory in North America—the 6,400 square miles of glaciers and mountains in the frozen heart of Alaska's Saint Elias Range.

In addition to his prowess as a mountaineer and photographer, Washburn was also a renowned surveyor and cartographer, producing maps of little-known terrain—the Grand Canyon, Mt. McKinley, and Mt. Everest—that surpassed those that came before, and several of which remain the standard. He was also a scientist who would take a regional natural-history museum and transform it into one of the outstanding teaching institutions of its kind in the world.

Roberts introduces the family, teachers, friends, colleagues, and rivals who would play important roles in this legendary man's experiences, and re-creates his enthralling journeys to some of the most remote and beautifully wild places on earth. An exciting narrative of mountain climbing in the twentieth century, The Last of His Kind brings into focus Washburn's deeds in the context of the history of mountaineering, and provides a fascinating look at an amazing culture and the influential icon who shaped it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59881 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-01
• Released on: 2009-06-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 1.20" h x 6.40" w x 9.45" l, 1.21 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780061560941
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
Before his 30th birthday, Bradford Washburn was already a legendary mountaineer, completing four major first ascents on his way to becoming the greatest mountaineer in Alaskan history. Soon after, Washburn took over the creaky New England Museum of Natural History, which by his retirement in 1980, had become the renowned Boston Museum of Science. Washburn (1910–2007) was also an innovative cartographer as well as a self-taught photographer whose aerial shots garnered major acclaim. A longtime friend of Washburn and a former mountaineer, Roberts (No Shortcuts to the Top) is an ideal candidate for writing Washburn's biography, but the book lacks the depth of compelling biographies. Roberts's decision to extensively profile Washburn's various expeditions (and those of others) offers no insight on the man, while contributing to the book's glacial pace. Roberts obviously has nothing but admiration for Washburn and his accomplishments, but that inhibits opportunities to examine the dark side of Washburn's personal life—his responsibility for a fatal plane crash in 1938; son Ted's inappropriate behavior with high school students that divided the family—which are almost glossed over. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Dennis Drabelle Part of the reason that David Roberts's biography of mountain climber Bradford Washburn is titled "The Last of His Kind" is that so often Washburn was the first of his kind: He achieved nine first ascents of peaks in North America alone, taking striking photographs along the way; some of these shots reduce great masses of rock or ice to abstract designs. He was also a cartographer and a curator: "At the age of only twenty-eight," Roberts writes, "he took over the moribund New England Museum of Natural History and transformed it during the next several decades into Boston's Museum of Science, one of the outstanding teaching institutions of its kind in the world." Roberts can count himself as one of Washburn's pupils. When Washburn got wind of an expedition that Roberts and some Harvard buddies planned to Mount McKinley in the summer of 1963, he invited the group to his Cambridge house and conducted a show-and-tell with his own photographs. After pointing out a route that had never been climbed, he told them: "You fellows are up to it. Besides, you damned well better grab it before someone else does." As Roberts notes dryly of their success, "When Brad Washburn orders you to do something, you do it." Washburn died in January 2007, at the age of 96.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Customer Reviews

Leaves the Reader With More Questions than Answers
I did not like this book. While it portends to be a biography of the great adventurer and climber, Bradford Washburn, it contains more information about other climbers and the history and politics of the climbing world, than it contains information about Washburn. I have read other books by Roberts that I liked, especially On the Ridge Between Life and Death: A Climbing Life Reexamined so I was disappointed that this book does not come up to that caliber. I was also chagrined that Mr. Roberts seems so interested in climbers' pedigrees. If a climber went to a particular ivy league school or came from old money, Mr. Roberts is sure to let the reader know. If the climber is just a regular Joe, all we get is his name.

The book is filled with minutiae about Bradford Washburn, giving the reader bits and pieces about his life without any feel for him as a person. I know that he was a climber, adventurer, photographer, cartographer, public speaker and museum director. I know that he was determined and stubborn. I know that he was married for many years to Barbara Washburn and that they had three children. Other than that, I can't say as I came away from this book knowing any more than that about him. I wanted to know what he was like as a person. What made him tick. What was his personality like. He does seem self-centered but Roberts never goes into that.

Roberts describes him as the premier climber of Alaska and the Yukon. Having lived in Alaska for over 40 years I can attest to Bradford Washburn being an icon.

If the book was edited so that it focused solely on Bradford Washburn, it would be much better and about 150 pages shorter. I think more work should have been done into the personality of Washburn. Why was he so awkward around women? What was his stubbornness all about? What drew him to Alaska? What was his family life like as a child? What was his family life like as a man? These are all questions that a good biography should answer. None of these are satisfactorily examined in this book.

A lively narrative embedded in a book with some odd authorial choices
In this biography, Roberts tells us the story of Brad Washburn's youth and career as a leading mountaineer in Alaska. This fact alone makes it an odd biography - - Washburn defined his main accomplishment as the Boston Museum of Science, and Roberts only touches on those decades of his subject's life. Moreover, Roberts believes that Washburn's main accomplishments came in the fields of mountain photography and cartography. Inexplicably, this biography talks about these photos and maps, but it doesn't include any of them. Roberts lovingly describes Washburn's Denali and Everest maps, and many of his photographs, but we never see any of them.

In addition to those strange choices of focus, the main narrative is regularly distracted by stories about mountaineers who are not Washburn. Even if Washburn was not included on an expedition, or if he declined to go along, we might nonetheless get a story about it if the expedition included some of his friends. Many of these stories concern the Andes or Himalaya, where Washburn did not climb. It's difficult to understand what this material is doing in this book other than providing Roberts an opportunity to use (or reuse) some material.

Finally, the last two chapters relate a series of anecdotes, mostly about people around Washburn (including the author). Roberts claims Washburn as a mentor but the contacts that he reports do not seem deep, or personal enough to warrant such a claim. Interestingly, Roberts' relationship with Washburn's wife Barbara are reported in much more detail and make a more convincing case for a mentor-protégé relationship.

So, there are a lot of authorial choices here that struck me as odd. But if we look just at the Washburn narrative that Roberts gives us, it's a lively and interesting read. After a while, accounts of successful mountain climbs can get tedious, and the narrative eventually has to struggle with that fact. Until then, however, it's a good read for your own adventures. In fact, I read it in a tent in the Rockies, which was appropriate enough.

An American Original...
"The Last of His Kind", by Dave Roberts, promises to be a good read. Its subject, Brad Washburn, was a precocious, highly successful American mountaineer who specialized in first ascents in the wilds of Alaska in the first half of the 20th Century, while pioneering aerial outdoor photography and while directing what became the Boston Museum of Science. The author is himself a highly competent and experienced mountaineer, and a practiced writer, who had a long friendship with Washburn.

Roberts' approach is chronological, walking the reader quickly up through Washburn's New England youth, his initial hiking experiences in New Hampshire's White Mountains, and his introduction as a teenager to mountaineering in the Alps, before plunging into a series of expeditions in the wilds of Alaska. An older Washburn enjoyed a long twilight as a senior mentor of the American mountaineering community.

Washburn, like his contemporary Eric Shipton, specialized in exploring blank spots on the map. For this reviewer, the best portions of the book are the hair-raising narratives of Washburn's traverses of the Wrangel-St. Elias, Chugach, and Alaska ranges, days to weeks away from outside assistance. Washburn's adventures on Mount McKinley (Denali to Alaska residents) are a highlight of this biography.

This book is less than fully satisfying as a biography. Roberts omits footnotes and, less forgivably, maps and pictures. The narrative has many breathless, sometimes gossipy anecdotes; Roberts cannot resist exploring sidetrails of mountaineering history that have little to do with Washburn's life. Oddly, Roberts seems reluctant to provide much insight into Washburn himself. For example, he wonders aloud why Washburn was never invited on any of the Himalayian expeditions of his day. A reader familiar with the climbing fraternity might guess that Washburn was incapable of working for anyone but himself; Roberts does not answer his own question.

"The Last of His Kind" is highly recommended to fans of mountaineering and of Alaska adventure; the average reader may find the narrative and the subject harder to appreciate.