A fascinating
1938 book by
Admiral Richard E. Byrd describing his five months alone in
1934 at a weather station in
Antarctica within five degrees of the
South Pole, the first
inland station ever occupied on Antarctica. The original plan for that station had been to have three men there, but when plans fell through, Byrd chose to stay by himself rather than give up the scientific observations that could be made for the first time.
"What I had not counted on was discovering how close a man could come to dying and still not die, or want to die." A saga of both the mental and physical problems he came up against (like nearly dying from carbon monoxide poisoning).