Experience in the polar explorer’s own words, Ernest Shackleton’s thrilling yet ill-fated expedition on the ship Endurance, the wreck of which was discovered off the coast of Antarctica in March 2022.

In 1914, Ernest Shackleton announced an ambitious plan to lead the first trek across Antarctica via the South Pole. The expedition would prove fraught with adventure—and peril.

This handsome, breathtakingly illustrated edition, first published in 2016, is presented in paperback to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the original publication in 1919 and features:

• The remarkable tale of the treacherous expedition, told in Shackleton’s own words
• Images by expedition photographer Frank Hurley
• Modern color photography of the fauna and vistas the men encountered
• Long-lost photos taken by the expedition’s Ross Sea Party that were discovered in 2013

The expedition’s story begins on the eve of World War I, when the ship Endurance departed England with Shackleton and his team of six men. The plan was to travel 1,800 miles across the icy continent from the Atlantic side, while a second team aboard the Aurora, would reach Antarctica’s Pacific side and lay out supply depots for the advancing team. As the Endurance approached the continent, however, it became hopelessly locked in an ice floe, beginning a series of harrowing travails.

Over a century later and despite extreme conditions, the wreck of the Endurance was found in the Weddell Sea by a mission dubbed Endurance22, launched by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust and led by polar geographer Dr. John Shears. Though the discovery of the Endurance is not covered in this edition, Shackleton’s account of the expedition and the photography within are a prerequisite for understanding the full story behind this famed shipwreck.

Today considered an adventure survival classic, South is the true story of a thrilling polar expedition. Never before has Shackleton’s lively prose been so extensively and stunningly illustrated.

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was born in Ireland in 1874 and raised mostly in London. He led three expeditions to the Antarctic. He died of a heart attack in 1922 while setting out on his fourth expedition.

Frank Hurley (1885–1962) was a native Australian who served as a photographer on several Antarctic expeditions with Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton. He also worked as a war photographer with the Australian military forces during both World Wars. He was the official photographer on Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition and was known for his pioneering use of the early Paget color photography process.