Mystery on Everest, by Audrey Salkeld

Audrey Salkeld presents a photobiography of George Leigh Mallory in Mystery on Everest. Salkeld repeatedly delivers on both facts and style in her many contributions to the Everest literature, in books such as People in High Places or Last Climb (which makes nice grown-up companion to the present volume), and Mystery on Everest keeps with the trend. She gives facts and photos that rarely seen elsewhere, including his naming Pumori ("honored daughter") after his daughter, Clare, and a picture of his taking a class of students climbing in Snowdonia. Salkeld gives a measured view of his life, choosing not to dwell on his walking off into the mist, or her own participation in the search for Mallory. She simplifies a lot of information, but not overly so, such as the much-discussed East Rongbuk Glacier issue of 1921 or his complicated professional life. Salkeld makes Mallory seem quite a bit more human than other biographers writing for young audiences. The book was published in 2000 and contains a brief foreword by Conrad Anker, who found Mallory in 1999. Also, Broughton Coburn wrote a companion volume in this National Geographic photobiography series about Edmund Hillary, Triumph on Everest.

This post is a revision and expansion of an earlier entry, which can be found here.