Endurance. More than just a book.

After reading an article on great leaders throughout history, I sat and contemplated the fact that the accomplishments of so many great men have been overshadowed by the passage of time. My interest in this idea led me to Alfred Lansing's Endurance, a book that tells a story that truly lives up to its name. A story about one of the greatest leaders of all time, tasked by God with the impossible ordeal of bringing him and his 27 men 1,146 miles across the Antarctic after their ship was crushed by pack ice. Ernest Shackleton's trek during the 1914 Trans-Antarctic Expedition is a remarkable tale of perseverance and resilience. The men and their willpower alone pushed the boundaries of what a human being can endure.

The tale is told from the culmination of diary entries that most of the men recorded during the time, along with thorough interviews conducted by Alfred Lansing with all the survivors from the perilous journey. The element of accuracy alone had me extremely immersed and empathetic with the characters as I turned each page. I'm not knocking the fiction genre at all, but stories that people have actually gone through add a different level of resonation and immersion that I don't think is possible when fictionalizing. I have not had a book that I struggled to put down like this one in a while.

Unlike those great leaders losing the uphill battle against the passage of time, Ernest Shackleton' and The Endurance's story had the opposite effect on author Alfred Lansing. With all the hard work and effort that was applied to telling the story of these great men, it did not gain the widespread acclaim Alfred Lansing had hoped for when it was first released in 1959. Barbara Lansing, Alfred's wife, mentioned that she wished he was able to see it become the classic and bestseller it was. It wasn't until 1975 that the compelling story got the recognition it deserved.

by Brandon C. Leo