2002, 1st edition. 240 pp, many photos. This is the Washburn book we have all been waiting for, the complete story of his life and many adventures; Everest, McKinley, Amelia Earhart, Mt Kennedy, the Yukon and St Elias Range, more. Large hardcover. SIGNED BY BRAD WASHBURN.
From Publishers Weekly A nationally known mountain climber at the age of 15, Washburn moved from an academic career at Harvard to become the director of Boston's Museum of Science, but he is probably best known for his nature photography, which was directly influenced by Ansel Adams. A longtime associate of National Geographic, which initially published much of his work, Washburn is a pioneer of aerial surveying and photography, developing technology that is still in use. The book details his techniques and includes informative historical and biographical text by journalist Smith and long sections in Washburn's own words (including the story of Barbara Washburn, who nonchalantly takes a job as his first secretary at the Museum of Science and then spends the next half-century as Brad's full-fledged partner in adventure and exploration).
But the stars of the show are the 100 b&w photos and maps: aside from boyhood and personal photos, there are stunning glaciers, striking deserts-any earth formation that looks spectacular from a mountaintop is here. Yet the biographical material here is dominant enough that readers will have to care about mountaineering and aerial photographic history as lived by Washburn.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
By the age of 20, Brad Washburn was a mountain-climbing wunderkind who had published four books about mountaineering. Most would consider this accomplishment enough for a lifetime, but for Washburn it was only a beginning.While a student at Harvard, he studied the pioneering field of aerial surveying and photography. Throughout his life, he would combine this skill with his passion for climbing to make aerial photographs and maps of the world’s major landforms, from Mount McKinley in Alaska to Everest. Washburn’s improvements to aerial surveying technology resulted in maps of such accuracy and definition that they are still used by climbers today. At age 78, Washburn mad yet another expedition, this time to the Himalaya, leading a scientific team that would determine Everest’s true height. Two constants gave ballast to Washburn’s life of adventure—his wife and partner-in-adventure, Barbara, and his career as director and visionary behind Boston’s Museum of Science—one of the finest educational institutions in the country.Filled with exciting and entertaining anecdotes—including his prescient refusal of Amelia Earhart’s offer to have him co-pilot her now famous last flight—and with Washburn’s breathtaking photography and maps, On High is the first book to reveal, in his own words, the extraordinary life and work of Brad Washburn.
