This new Norton Critical Edition recounts the 1527 36 expedition of Cabeza de Vaca, the first Spanish explorer to cross North America.

In 1910 Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen set sail for Antarctica, each from his own starting point, and the epic race for the South Pole was on. December 2011 marks the centenary of the conclusion to the last great race of terrestrial discovery. This title presents each man's full account of the race to the South Pole in their own words.

In the 1380s and 90s, Nicolo and Antonio Zen journeyed from Venice up the North Atlantic, encountering warrior princes, fighting savage natives and, just possibly, reaching the New World a full century before Columbus. This title tells the story of their adventure travelled throughout Europe.

In 1845 Captain Sir John Franklin led a large, well equipped expedition to complete the conquest of the Canadian Arctic, to find the fabled North West Passage connecting the North Atlantic to the North Pacific. This story of the Arctic discovers Franklin: a character far more complex, and more truly heroic, than previous histories have allowed.

Ernest Shackleton led two Antarctic expeditions, and died shortly after the beginning of the third. His expedition ship Endurance was trapped, then crushed in the ice, before his party could be landed, leaving his men in a hopeless situation. For months Shackleton held his party together before taking to boats and bringing everyone to safety.

Shackleton tells the story of his last expedition (1914-1917) when his ship, the Endurance, was crushed by pack ice.

This is the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton's first polar expedition, part of his never-ending quest to reach the South Pole. In 1906 he came within 97 miles of his goal, but bad weather and the necessity of reaching his ship before it had to flee the advancing ice pack forced him to turn back.