The years 1800-1940 were the heyday of the independent explorer-free-spirited, mostlyEuropean adventurers who took incredible risks in pursuit of discovery and fame.

Some lit outfor the mysterious city of Timbuktu, others the source of the Nile River, or the elusiveNorthwest Passage over Canada, or the fabled lost cities of Latin America, or the North or SouthPoles-quests that obsessed nineteenth-century explorers and hardly matter today. They werea special breed of traveller: courageous and determined, gluttons for punishment, frequentlyself-financed, and often horrendously misinformed and ill-prepared. While a lucky few returnedhome in glory, far more starved or froze or succumbed to cannibalism or died of malaria ordysentery or at the hands of angry locals or wild beasts or were simply never heard from again.

In equal parts eye-opening, shocking, and hilarious, Out There is a totally original account oftheir extraordinary exploits.