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Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage,
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Eddie Horton
Because the author understood that a 'single' account of the disastrous voyage would be biased. - Especially the leader's own account. - Also, Lansing wanted the reader to know the crew as intimately as the leader. - He spent years investigating, interviewing, researching... He also noted that members of the crew kept very good journals themselves. - He noted that there would be contradicting accounts and that he had to insert his own opinion at times to resolve some of those... Bottom line is the fact that there were 28 souls involved in this fateful, harrowing and epic journey and they all had a story.
Alexander McAuliffe
According to the author of the introduction to my edition of Endurance (Nathaniel Philbrick), Shackleton's account was ghost-written and is full of more flowery Edwardian language than survival skill and leadership on display here.
Isaac
Haven't read Shackleton's account, but in short, the journey was about much more than just Shackleton.
In fact the expedition was at several points split into various sub groups, so even Shackleton's account would necessarily rely on second hand information for what happened at the moments he was necessarily not present.
Endurance is an excellent read and is built upon the journals and first person accounts of the expedition.
All that being said, I wouldn't discourage you from reading Shackleton's account, if you are so inclined. If you do, please report back on your thoughts, especially if you read both.
In fact the expedition was at several points split into various sub groups, so even Shackleton's account would necessarily rely on second hand information for what happened at the moments he was necessarily not present.
Endurance is an excellent read and is built upon the journals and first person accounts of the expedition.
All that being said, I wouldn't discourage you from reading Shackleton's account, if you are so inclined. If you do, please report back on your thoughts, especially if you read both.
Conrad
Having not read Shackleton's, I can't properly answer this. But it's based not only on that book and a previous Shackleton bio but on many other first-person accounts, including diaries and extensive interviews with the surviving members of the expedition.
Irwin Fletcher
I've never read Shackleton's book but I hear it's not the greatest. I think it's similar to reading a book about space travel. You could read a memoir of an Apollo astronaut but more often than not they're not the greatest authors, even with a co-author. They were trained for a life of test flying, engineering, exploration, etc. Even if they're the ultimate authority on the subject they don't always know how to tell a story or even express themselves. There are exceptions though, Michael Collins wrote a great book. Here we get an author with access to most of the surviving crew and their journals, doing the research work and putting together a very well-rounded account that tells everybody's story. Not just the more senior members (as I hear of the Shackleton account) or from one man's point of view. Here you don't just get Shackleton's thoughts but what the crew thought of him, for better or worse, at various times.
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