The anthropologist, National Geographic’s Explorer-in-Residence, and bestselling author Wade Davis discusses his new book, Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest (Knopf, 2011), with Joseph Planta.

Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis. (Knopf, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Into the Silence

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

Wade Davis joins me now. He has written an astonishingly absorbing book, Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest. It is a remarkable book about the generation of explorers who set out to conquer Mount Everest just after the First World War. For many, the British especially, getting to the top of Everest had been an obsession going back to the latter part of the 19th century. George Mallory, the most conspicuous of the adventurers is the one most recalled as his death on the mountain in 1924 on his third expedition, has been the source of legend and speculation even after his body was recovered in 1999. In this gripping book, Wade Davis not only explores Mallory’s life and times, but also the others on the expedition who were almost all veterans of the War. They’d seen the horrors of the conflict, yet they undertook this adventure to forget that which they had seen, and also as a sort of grand imperial gesture for the fading empire. These were people shaped by a World War, in a world that was soon to be reshaped by another. Wade Davis is the bestselling author of more than 12 books including The Wayfinders, One River, and The Serpent and the Rainbow. He is an anthropologist, and is National Geographic’s Explorer-in-Residence. He divides his time between northern British Columbia and Washington, D.C., and joins me from Toronto this day. The book is published by Knopf. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Wade Davis; Good morning, Mr. Davis.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (26.5MB)

Subscribe: RSS