SIGNED by the author as "E.P. Hillary." Also includes a Certificate of Authenticity issued by the Easton Press in 2003 that is Signed by E.P. Hillary, June Mulgrew (Mrs. Edmund Hillary) and Roy Pfeil, the publisher.
Hillary writes "This is the story of my life, condensing 79 years of vigorous activity into a few hundred pages. My views may not always coincide with the stories of my companions, but this is the way I clearly saw things at the time."
Ed Hillary sitting on his deck in Auckland New Zealand in August 2007.
He is holding the actual ice ax that he used on Mount Everest.
Hillary was always generous about autographing books for us, and in turn we made sizable contributions to the Sir Edmund Hillary Himalayan Trust. Hillary devoted his life, and the fame that his climb brought him, to helping the Sherpa people who live at the base of Mount Everest. As porters and guides, Sherpas make it possible for outside climbers to reach the summit of Himalayan peaks, without carrying multiple loads up the peak themselves.
This is Ed Hillary’s first book. It is a record of his climbing experiences through the first ascent of Mount Everest where Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit. This is a good book. Hillary’s excitement, energy, and drive for mountaineering are apparent here. The passages relating his first encounter, and then climbs, with Eric Shipton are delightful.