The quest for the North Pole has long been one of the great adventure stories in the history of exploration. It has all the best ingredients - danger, heroic courage, tragedy and triumph, sensationalism, the quest for glory, fame and wealth, unsolved mystery, astounding incompetence, deep hatreds and a feud so bitter that it still simmers eighty years after the event. Nowadays tourists pay to be taken to the North Pole by icebreaker, but a century ago brave men vied with each other to get there first. Their stories form the subject of this book - a quest that has for long been one of the great adventure stories in the history of exploration. The book includes chapters on Nansen, Peary, Franklin, De Long and Nordenskjold.