3 Reasons to Read Endurance in 2022

The first edition artwork for Endurance

While we’re wrapping up The Big Read: Frankenstein, I’ve been prepping for The Big Read: Endurance, which will begin in just two weeks. Below are a few reasons to read this mid-century classic here in 2022. Reading will begin on November 5 and continue through December 17. We’ll then take a two-week break before starting in on Lonesome Dove.

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When Endurance was first published in 1959, it wasn’t an instant classic, or even a bestseller for that matter. Even though Alfred Lansing’s debut book received good reviews and earned a Book of the Month selection, Endurance actually went out of print pretty quickly and wasn’t rediscovered until decades later. 

In 1986, an intrepid publisher named Kent Carroll remembered the book that he loved as a child, bought the rights, and republished Endurance. It quickly found a new audience and remains in print to this day, selling many thousands of copies each year. Given Ernest Shackleton’s excellent reputation as a leader and the business and management craze within publishing in the 80s and 90s, it’s no surprise that the book found another life.

Here’s a few reasons why the book has endured this time around and why you should give it a read yourself: 

1. Endurance set the stage for every outdoor adventure and survival book that came after it. 

There were plenty of adventure books published before 1959, but few had the narrative power of Endurance. The format and declarative style Lansing used in describing Shackleton’s exploits would be copied by authors and adventurers for decades to come and his lasting influence is easy to find within this niche of non-fiction books.     

2. This expedition’s story stands out in a genre flush with incredible stories. 

I’ve read a lot of survival and adventure books in the last 10+ years. At times, it can feel like they’re a dime a dozen. Every superlative-laden title promises a more extreme story than anything you’ve read before. While it’s remarkable what people can live through, my hot take for the genre is that not every survival story requires a memoir. There are only a few that truly stand out from the pack for their sheer jaw-dropping unbelievability. Endurance is one of them.  

3. Lansing’s focus on the psychology of resilience offers lessons for everyone. 

One of the things about Endurance that really stood out was how well Alfred Lansing probed the interior thoughts and feelings of the men on the expedition (who, Lansing notes, were very ordinary men and not “supermen”). Science has shown again and again that survival and resilience are almost entirely a matter of psychology rather than physiology. Lansing’s scrupulous study of an antarctic expedition gone wrong has surprisingly relevant takeaways for life in the 2020s.   

Though the writing is straightforward, what’s interesting about reading this book in a group is how personal the takeaways can be. Everyone has different experiences with stress and hardship — both physically and emotionally — and brings a unique perspective to any discussion in that realm.

I can’t wait to get started in a couple weeks!

Have questions? Comment or email me back!

-Jeremy