Polar fleece, titanium, and GPS have forever changed the face of exploration. Today an explorer can make a phone call from the top of Mount Everest and geo-locate himself in the thickest rain forest or the widest desert. Yet despite these advances, few modern adventures get close to the charm and romance of dispatches from the Society's earliest explorers. In those bygone days, the pages of National Geographic were as close as most people could get to high adventure and faraway lands—and here's a chance to recapture them.
Introduced by brief essays that provide context and perspective, these engaging, engrossing selections speak for themselves—and trace the National Geographic Society's growth as it explored the unknown and brought it to readers eager for knowledge of ''the world and all that is in it.''
