Shadow of the Matterhorn

The Life of Edward Whymper

Richly illustrated with Whymper’s engravings and previously unpublished
photographs, this biography – the first for 70 years – uses new material from
the archives around the world, and from Whymper’s family, to give a fuller
picture of this artisan from London, who had such an impact on the story of
mountaineering.

A new assessment of Whymper’s achievements comes with previously unknown
details about his remarkable family, and his short-lived marriage.
Whymper’s diaries and notebooks are used here for the first time to show his
dry, self-deprecating sense of humour and his unusual perceptiveness about the
Greenlanders and the people he met in Ecuador.