The Crossing of Antarctica; The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1955-58 [from the Steve Fossett collection] by Fuchs, Sir Vivian and Sir Edmund Hillary - 1958

London: Cassell & Company LTD, 1958. First Edition. Near Fine/Fine. [9x6in]; xv, [2] maps, 337 pp. [1] , 33 plated of 93 color and black/white images, 9 maps, appendices and index; Light blue-gray cloth covers with silver lettering on spine, Antarctic map on front and rear end papers; Panoramic pictorial dust jacket of Antarctic landscape with black lettering on front cover, black lettering on spine; Minimal shelf wear top and bottom edges, foxing spots on all text block edges, bookplate of Steve Fossett on front end paper; Minimal shelf wear to dust jacket edges and corners. [Conrad p. 394, Spence 491]. Vivian Fuchs (1908-1999) and Sir Edmund Hillary (1919-2008) led the Trans-Antarctic expedition 1955-1958. They were successful in accomplishing Shackleton's failed Trans-Antarctic expedition in 1914. However, they did it with modern mechanized SnowCats, radio communications and resupply airdrops. This expedition was one of many that part of the International Geophysical Year research projects (July 1, 1957 to December 31, 1958). Over 70 countries and organizations sent teams primarily to the Antarctic, Arctic and other remote areas in the world to coordinate collection of scientific data and discovery. During this 1957, the United States established the Scott-Amundsen South Pole base as a permanent station and the Soviet Union launched the first orbiting satellite.Steve Fossett (1944-2007) was a successful commodities trader and an adventurer that set world records in balloons, sailboats, gliders and unique powered aircraft. His 2,000 + book collection included significant and authoritative accounts of aeronautics, polar, Asia, Australasia, circumnavigation's, mountaineering and others. In 2007, Fossett disappeared on a solo flight in a light aircraft over the eastern Sierra Mountains along the California and Nevada border. The wreckage was found by hikers a year later along the rugged Mt. Ritter range in the Ansel Adams Wilderness in Madera County, about 10 miles east of Yosemite National Park.