A Polar Affair: Antarctica's Forgotten Hero and the Secret Love Lives of Penguins

by Lloyd Spencer Davis

Overview

A captivating blend of true adventure and natural history by one of today’s leading penguin experts and Antarctic explorers.

George Murray Levick was the physician on Robert Falcon Scott’s tragic Antarctic expedition of 1910. Marooned for an Antarctic winter, Levick passed the time by becoming the first man to study penguins up close. His findings were so shocking to Victorian morals that they were quickly suppressed and seemingly lost to history.

A century later, Lloyd Spencer Davis rediscovers Levick and his findings during the course of his own scientific adventures in Antarctica. Levick’s long-suppressed manuscript reveals not only an incredible survival story, but one that will change our understanding of an entire species.

A Polar Affair reveals the last untold tale from the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. It is perhaps the greatest of all of those stories—but why was it hidden to begin with? The ever-fascinating and charming penguin holds the key. Moving deftly between both Levick’s and Davis’s explorations, observations, and comparisons in biology over the course of a century, A Polar Affair reveals cutting-edge findings about ornithology, in which the sex lives of penguins are the jumping-off point for major new insights into the underpinnings of evolutionary biology itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643131252
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	09/24/2019
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Lloyd Spencer Davis received the PEN (NZ) Best First Book Award for Nonfiction for Penguin: A Season in the Life of the Adelie Penguin. He is the author of Looking For Darwin, which won the CLL Writer's Award, New Zealand's most significant nonfiction award. Lloyd has been a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, an Anzac Fellowship, and a Prince and Princess of Wales Science Award.

Table of Contents

Prologue vii

Part 1 The Lure of Antarctica 1

Homosexuality 3

1 Victorian Values 5

2 Terra Austraus 15

3 The Three Norwegians 27

Part 2 All Roads Lead To Cape Adare 43

Divorce 45

4 First Observations 47

5 Boyhood Dreams 59

6 Lost Opportunities 73

7 Courtship 88

8 Deception 100

9 The Eastern Party 112

Part 3 Cape Adare 127

Infidelity 129

10 The Northern Party 131

11 The Worst Journey 142

12 The Reluctant Penguin Biologist 153

13 The Race Begins 165

14 Competition 176

15 Timing 186

Part 4 After Cape Adare 199

Rape 201

16 Hooligans 203

17 Weather 218

18 Dogs 230

19 Winter 243

20 Return Journey 255

Part 5 After Antarctica 273

Prostitution 275

21 The Depravities Of Men 277

22 After The War 296

23 The Pole At Last 308

Further Reading Key References 327

Acknowledgments 331

Endnotes 333

Index 349

Editorial Reviews

07/29/2019

Biologist Davis (Professor Penguin) combines history and science seamlessly in this enthralling look at pioneering scientist George Murray Levick (1876–1956) and his discoveries about the diversity of animal sexuality. Davis, who had—he thought—discovered male homosexuality among penguins in 1996, realized 15 years later that his observation was not new. In 1914, Levick, a survivor of Robert Scott’s ill-fated 1910–1912 Antarctica expedition, had written a manuscript that initially reported the same, and a slew of other taboo behaviors among the birds. But the scandal this would have caused led to Levick’s book, Antarctic Penguins: A Study of Their Social Habits, the first ever about penguins, being expurgated of the offending passages. Davis tracked down a rare copy of Levick’s notes in the British Natural History Museum, and was inspired to learn more about his undeservedly obscure predecessor. The end result is an entertaining look at Levick’s life, including his time on the Scott expedition, and his later-in-life roles in teaching wilderness survival skills to private school students and, during WWII, British commandos. Davis injects his own research findings into the narrative, producing a biography/popular science book that will appeal equally to polar expedition buffs and zoology enthusiasts. Agent: Russell Galen, Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"In A Polar Affair, an interesting blend of polar history and natural history, a penguin biologist weaves his own story with that of George Murray Levick, Capt. Robert Falcon Scott’s top penguin man. In these pages, one sees human knowledge inching forward. Gripping. The reader marvels at what the human spirit can endure."

Wall Street Journal

"A rip-roaring read on research at the edge."

Nature

"An expansive and entertaining historical tour through events of the great age of polar exploration, this work successfully unites the quest for scientific knowledge with personal curiosity. Davis does not disappoint. Thoroughly researched and replete with many splendid photographs, this is an engaging work of unusual merit. Enthralling."

Choice

"Fascinating. How does Levick’s work alter our canonical stories of polar exploration? And are penguins really so different from human beings? Insightful and bawdy. Davis offers an absorbing history of his own Antarctic fieldwork and a glimpse into the private lives of Levick and several important polar explorers of the era. A timely illumination of a mysterious and vital ecosystem."

The New York Times Book Review

"A gonzo-journalistic retelling of the Antarctic expeditions of the early twentieth century. The climax of what might otherwise have been routine field work is a harrowing trek...intercut with evolutionary insights Davis gleaned from his own observations. A welcome look behind the scenes, representing Levick as a brilliant explorer and a keen observer of nature."

Natural History Magazine

"An engaging detective story, Davis’ search for the truth also enfolds the social history of the Victorian era, changing theories in the fields of evolution and animal behavior, the human side of scientific research, and tales of Antarctica."

Booklist

"Victorian morals, the sex lives of penguins and Antarctic exploration combine in this unusual natural history and travelogue."

Shelf Awareness

"Davis serves it all up with wit and a wry, irrepressible sense of humor, while imparting everything there is to know about penguins."

BookPage (starred)

"Striking and audacious."

The Globe and Mail (Praise for Lloyd Spencer Davis)

The spirit and soul of the penguin is entwined with the factual information in this first-person account so that it is rather like reading a novel or an autobiography.

American Bookseller

"An engaging detective story, Davis’ search for the truth also enfolds the social history of the Victorian era, changing theories in the fields of evolution and animal behavior, the human side of scientific research, and tales of Antarctica."

Booklist

"In A Polar Affair, an interesting blend of polar history and natural history, a penguin biologist weaves his own story with that of George Murray Levick, Capt. Robert Falcon Scott’s top penguin man. In these pages, one sees human knowledge inching forward. Gripping. The reader marvels at what the human spirit can endure."

Wall Street Journal

The spirit and soul of the penguin is entwined with the factual information in this first-person account so that it is rather like reading a novel or an autobiography.

American Bokoseller

"A tremendous resource."

Vaughan Turekian

"The spirit and soul of the penguin is entwined with the factual information in this first-person account so that it is rather like reading a novel or an autobiography."

"Pick of the Lists" (Praise for Lloyd Spencer Davi American Bookseller

"A rip-roaring read on research at the edge."

Nature Lib