‘Icebound’ author to Andrea Pitzer to chat online Feb. 3
Author Andrea Pitzer will join a live, online conversation about her new book “Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World” at 5 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 3, hosted by the Lewes Public Library and Browseabout Books.
“Icebound” recounts Dutch polar explorer William Barents’ three harrowing Arctic expeditions, the last of which resulted in a relentlessly challenging year-long fight for survival. Pitzer combines a gripping tale of survival with a sweeping history of the great Age of Exploration – a time of hope, adventure and seemingly unlimited geographic frontiers. At the story’s center is William Barents, one of the 16th century’s greatest navigators, whose larger-than-life ambitions and obsessive quest to chart a path through the deepest, most remote regions of the Arctic ended in both tragedy and glory.
During the Zoom-based conversation, Pitzer will share her experience traveling to the Arctic to re-create Barents’ journey, including trekking to the remains of the cabin he and his men built for shelter. She also will discuss how she became an expert in navigating using astrolabes, building shelters with few resources, learning about the effects of scurvy on the human body, and countless other fascinating subjects.
Pitzer is a journalist whose writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Review of Books, Outside, the Daily Beast, Vox and Slate, among other publications. She is the author of the critically acclaimed books, “One Long Night” and “The Secret History of Vladimir Nabokov.”
Registration is required at the Lewes Public Library website, lewes.lib.de.us, or tinyurl.com/zoomwithauthors.
Participants are encouraged to support the authors by purchasing a copy of the book from local independent bookstore Browseabout Books. Each copy will be signed. Orders may be placed online at browseaboutbooks.com, by calling the store at 302-226-2665, or in person at 133 Rehoboth Ave., Rehoboth Beach.
