The Entire Earth and Sky—Views on Antarctica

When Leslie Carol Roberts went to Antarctica for the first time with Greenpeace, she was hoping to save the world. In the twenty years since then, she has shifted to the no less difficult task of saving Antarctica itself, compiling memoirs and stories, learning the biology and geography of the icy land, and documenting her own journey. Roberts describes in detail the town of Lyttelton, New Zealand—the Cape Canaveral for so many great Antarctic expeditions—prior to the devastating 2011 earthquake in which it was the epicenter.

The Entire Earth and Sky weaves the tragic and heroic tales of nineteenth-century exploration, interviews with scientists, and the author’s personal observations into a remarkable collage that evokes the beauty and the complexity, the perils and the rewards of a lifelong engagement with the earth’s last wilderness.

Leslie Carol Roberts received her MFA from the University of Iowa and was a Fulbright Fellow at Gateway Antarctica New Zealand. She now teaches in the Graduate Design Program at the California College of the Arts, San Francisco. She has written hundreds of articles and essays for publications, including the Bellevue Literary Review, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Sydney Morning Herald.