The Extraordinary Life of Godwin-Austen<\/p>\n
`Probably the greatest mountaineer of his day,` claimed Kenneth Mason in his
\ndefinitive mountaineering history, Abode of Snow. Haversham Godwin-Austen
\n(1834-1923), from an ancient and interesting Surrey aristocratic family with
\nroyal connections, not only found the first way to the `savage mountain`, K2,
\nbut went on to be the first serious explorer of the Karakoram, Ladakh, Western
\nTibet, Bhutan, Northern Burma and Assam. He broke the Asiatic high-altitude
\nmountaineering record three times, using a `garden hatchet` as an ice-axe, saw
\nhis assistant killed by headhunters and socialised with everyone from his
\n`coolies` to the Maharajah of Kashmir. Back in England, he became one of the
\nUK`s greatest Natural Historians, a Darwinist collector among collectors of
\ngeological and ornithological specimens. His collection of freshwater molluscs
\nforms the basis of all modern science in the subject. And he became one of the
\nUK`s greatest surveyors, covering over 22,000 square miles of new territory,
\nincluding 23 new glaciers and at least two dozen first ascents of peaks over
\n5000m.<\/p>\n
Remarkably, he also found time to paint a vast portfolio of watercolours,
\nincluding the first close sighting of K2, described by the British Library as
\na `national treasure`. (Several of these watercolours are illustrated in this
\nbook.) His personal life was equally interesting: three marriages – to an
\nAfghan landowner`s daughter, an English socialite, then a civil servant`s
\ndaughter 23 years younger than himself – was complicated by religious
\nconversions from Anglicanism to Islam then to Buddhism. His strong character
\nas a scholar at great London institutions such as the Natural History Museum
\nis still the stuff of legend, while his bankruptcy in later life required the
\nselling of the `family pile`, the magnificent, royally-furnished Shalford
\nPark.<\/p>\n
And thanks to a youthful indiscretion in Kashmir, he harboured a dark secret
\nwhich came back to haunt him near the end of his long and colourful life. This
\nis the first and authorised biography of an outstanding man. Godwin-Austen`s
\nprivate papers are being made public for the first time. They prove that he
\nwas one of the UK`s greatest explorers, on a par with Sir Richard Burton, and
\nsurpassing the explorations of David Livingstone, Captain Cook or Captain
\nScott. For mountaineers, scientists, students of biography and historians of
\nthe Raj and the Great Game, this biography offers new and and original
\nmaterial – a `must` for the explorer`s bookshelf.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Extraordinary Life of Godwin-Austen `Probably the greatest mountaineer of his day,` claimed Kenneth Mason in his definitive mountaineering history, Abode of Snow. Haversham Godwin-Austen (1834-1923), from an ancient and interesting Surrey aristocratic family with royal connections, not only found the first way to the `savage mountain`, K2, but went on to be the first […]\n","protected":false},"featured_media":37876,"template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[21542],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-152263","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-sachbuecher-dokumentationen","7":"pa_autor-moorehead","8":"pa_erscheinungsjahr-21568","9":"pa_region-asien","10":"pa_sprache-en","12":"first","13":"instock","14":"taxable","15":"shipping-taxable","16":"purchasable","17":"product-type-simple"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pizbube.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/152263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pizbube.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pizbube.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pizbube.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pizbube.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pizbube.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=152263"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pizbube.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=152263"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pizbube.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=152263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}