From the admired adventure writer Lynne Cox, author of the best-selling Swimming to Antarctica (“thrilling”—Oliver Sacks) and Grayson (“moving and memorable”—John Grogan), a biography of one of the greatest of all polar explorers, Roald Amundsen.Cox writes about his explorations—he was the first to sail through Canada’s Northwest Passage; then to the Antarctic and the capture of the South Pole, arriving there a month before Scott. She writes about what allowed Amundsen to succeed where others failed: his methodical preparation, his willingness to take calculated risks, his first-rate crew and sled dogs.Cox writes that she had read of Amundsen as a girl and was inspired to follow her dreams of open-water swimming. She realized she was swimming in his wake, and eventually began to swim in waters off Antarctica and then Greenland (without a wet suit!), first as a challenge to her own abilities and then as a way to understand the explorer’s life.An inspiring adventure story of bold, wondrous dreams.