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Review of Footsteps on the ice: the Antarctic diaries of
Stuart D. Paine, Second Byrd Expedition, edited and with an
introduction by M. L. Paine (2007). Columbia, MO: University
of Missouri Press. 368 pp. ISBN 978-0-8262-1741-7.

If the reader is looking for another rehashing of one of
the adventures of the “Heroic Era” of Antarctic explora-
tion, or another reshaping of the same old material about
the three or four explorers from that period who get all
the attention, M.L. Paine’s Footsteps on the ice: the Antarctic
diaries of Stuart D. Paine, Second Byrd Expedition is not the
book for you. But if you are a serious Antarctic buff who
wants to learn something new, and really get inside one
of the early expeditions of the 20th century, Paine’s
volume will be a compelling read.

Frankly, few Antarctic diaries should be published.
While sifting through the archives looking at the musings
of some of the fellows who went south before the Inter-
national Geophysical Year in 1957–58, a researcher
occasionally comes to the point of asking him- or herself,
“These people were in the midst of a unique and exciting
expedition. What didn’t they tell us about it?” No such
response will greet this narrative, because Paine demon-
strates two things one wants in a diarist—a keen eye for
detail and a willingness to offend someone else by writing
frankly. Paine has no axe to grind, but he is honest
enough to let you know that not everyone overwinters
with the same social grace.

Paine offers readers insight into an expedition that took
place in the 1930s, a period less studied than others,
about which comparatively few versions have appeared
besides the official one given by the original leader. In
Paine’s account, we see Byrd more accurately, without
the filter of the well-oiled publicity machine. Paine tells
us what Byrd’s account omitted: ongoing problems with
leadership, alcohol abuse, lazy and unmotivated people,
and how—and this happens even in a good expedition—
people had days when they wished they had not bothered
to come. Alcoholism was a serious problem en route
south (so Byrd could not have been unaware of it), and
even more so when the expedition got to the ice. Various
attempts to find and destroy all alcohol failed to eliminate
the problem; indeed, at one point, men opened the com-
passes and drank the alcohol out of them.

Leadership problems were made worse when Byrd left
for his solo overwinter, but existed even when he was
present. Paine—whose writing leaves the reader to
deduce that he was no complainer—faulted the overall
lack of organization and purpose of the scientific pro-
gramme. That everything on the expedition was designed
to make Byrd look good was not in doubt. Paine provides
a wonderful insight into the issue of Byrd’s decision to
overwinter alone, indicating the difficulties it created, its
lack of real scientific merit and at times an underlying
tone that this effort was more stunt that science. Even
before the accusation that Byrd had faked the North Pole
flight was proven by Raimund E. Goerler’s excellent book
on the subject, sceptics made the pointed suggestion that,
knowing he had faked the North Pole flight, Byrd had to
prove he was brave, or daring, or that he could accom-
plish something on his own.

The brilliance of Paine’s diary is that it is so daily: so full
of the minutiae that really puts the reader in the hut with

Correspondence
T.H. Baughman, Department of History and Geography, University of

Central Oklahoma, Edmond, OK 73034, USA. E-mail: tbaughman@

ucok.edu

Polar Research 27 2008 87–88 © 2008 The Author 87



Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s men, as they muddle through
a winter with the leader off at a forward base on his own.
Narratives by expedition leaders tend to gloss over the
petty problems of every day life—the way someone
chews his food at dinner or leaves his mess all over the
common table. By not doing so, Paine presents a more
realistic idea of life on a 1930s expedition. Paine details
the deep frustration, the annoyance with the foibles of
others and the questioning of leadership that occur on
most such endeavours.

Stuart Paine’s diary peels away the decades and our
current notion of today’s Antarctica—replete with tourist
ships and recreated expeditions, wherein the dogs can be
airlifted out if necessary—to a time when leaving for
Antarctica meant being away from one’s family for the
better part of two or three years, and sharing what can be
a stress-ridden existence with 55 other men. The narra-
tive conveys how a young and impressionable Paine was
able to capture some of the magic of the Antarctic. One
senses that, like so many others who went south in their
early years, Paine never quite shook off the hold it had
over him. He left Antarctica, but part of the southern
polar region never left him. Moreover, Paine—without
being vindictive—conveys the tensions inherent in close-
quarter living. By openly discussing such problems, Paine
gives the general reader an impression of what expedition
life was like.

M.L. Paine has done an excellent job with her prepa-
ration of the annotations—they are sharp, concise and

virtually always on the mark. Much difficult paring must
have taken place to produce such a fine result. Creating a
book as a work of love, out of devotion to a father, does
not always lead to a fine, serious book, meriting the
attention of others. Ms Paine has accomplished two goals:
a worthy scholarly work contributing to the history of
Antarctica and a fitting memorial for her father.

Paine’s story is what it is—a daily account, occasionally,
but not often, tedious—and ought to reach a wider
audience beyond serious scholars or those who are them-
selves overwintering at an isolated base. Some of the
40 000 tourists who will transit the Convergence this
Antarctic summer ought to buy this book and read it.
Paine’s story is the real Antarctic of scientific research in
the old days, every bit as important to understand and
appreciate as any of the “Heroic Era” tales. Paine takes
you back to Antarctica, back to a magical place–one that
many people in the past have found spiritually moving.
Readers of this book will remember why many of us are
still moved, still drawn to the ice, either literally each
season or just in a chance moment here and there, in our
minds.

Reference

Goerler R.E. 1998. To the pole: the diary and notebook of Richard
E. Byrd. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press.

Book review

Polar Research 27 2008 87–88 © 2008 The Author88