Barber, Noel — The White Desert

Hodder and Stoughton viii, 205, 1 map, b/w photos. . HB. 8vo orig. cloth. Some light marginal foxing. Vg in worn d/w (in removable protective sleeve).. Noel Barber (1909-1988) was a British foreign correspondent and later novelist who was embedded with the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1955-1958, one of the great postwar polar expeditions. It was the first successful overland crossing of Antarctica via the South Pole. The expedition was led by Vivian Fuchs, with major support from Edmund Hillary, who was already famous for the first ascent of Everest in 1953. The book is both a history of the expedition and a personal travel narrative. Barber described the personalities, hardships and rivalries between Fuchs and Hillary..