The fall season of the National Writers Series opens in Traverse City tonight with best-selling historian Hampton Sides, who will talk about his newest book, In the Kingdom of Ice.
The book is about a failed attempt to sail to the North Pole in the late 1870s and 1880s by a crew of U.S. Navy sailors.
“It is an amazing story of comradeship, of leadership, of men sticking together through thick and thin to try to make it to safety," Sides says.
He spoke with IPR's David Cassleman about the story, which Hampton Sides says was well-known in the United States at the time – but has since been largely forgotten.
This is the author's first appearance on the stage of the National Writers Series at the City Opera House in Traverse City.
Sides is also known for his book Ghost Soldiers, about the rescue of prisoners of war in the Philippines during World War II.
He says he's excited to visit the National Writers Series.
“It’s on the national radar screen," Sides says. "It’s truly become one of those things that writers all over the country know about and want to participate in, so it’s an honor to be invited.”