D.C., 2000, 1st edition. 64 pp, many photos. Large format hardcover with dust jacket. New.
Discusses the life of British mountain climber, George Mallory, the discovery of his body seventy-five years after his death, and the debate over whether Mallory was the first person to reach the top of Mount Everest.
Grades 5-8. From National Geographic's Photobiography series, this large-format book presents the life of English mountain climber George Mallory (1886-1924). Educated at Cambridge, Mallory served in World War I, then settled down to raise a family, but his love of climbing led him to join the expeditions to Mount Everest in 1921, 1922, and 1924. Asked why he wanted to climb Everest, he made the famous reply, 'Because it's there.'
He died in an Everest climbing accident in 1924. No one knows whether he reached the summit. Well designed with many black-and-white photos, including period pictures of Mallory and his contemporaries as well as recent shots of the mountain, this handsome book features a generous use of white space and fairly large type. Salkeld, a member of the team that found Mallory's body in 1999, clearly explains the challenges that Mallory must have faced on Mount Everest. An accessible book on a figure little known to young people.
