All the Land

Book excerpt: Now in paperback, a biography of the German scientist who came up with the idea of continental drift, telling of how he ended up journeying to Greenland in the winter of 1930--and died there. How, in 1930, did Alfred Wegener, the son of a minister from Berlin, find himself in the most isolated spot on earth, attempting to survive an unthinkably cold winter in the middle of Greenland? In All the Land, Jo Lendle sets out to chronicle Wegener's extraordinary journey from his childhood in Germany to the most unforgiving corner of the planet. As Lendle shows, Wegener's life was anything but ordinary. Surrounded by children at the orphanage his parents ran, Wegener was driven by his scientific spirit in search not only of answers to big questions but of solitude. Though Wegener's life ended in tragedy during his long winter in Greenland, he left us with a scientific legacy: the theory of continental drift, mocked by his peers and only recognized decades after his death. Lendle gives us the story of this great adventurer, of the experiences that shaped him, resulting in a tale that is both thrilling and tender.