Buddy Levy

Washington State University (WSU) is a remarkable place, over the years educating hundreds of thousands, conducting innovative research in a wide variety of disciplines, and earning numerous intercollegiate athletics titles. Originally named The Agricultural College, Experiment Station and School of Science of the State of Washington, the school first opened on a wintry 1892 morning with six professors. Today, the institution has more than 2,600 faculty positions and annually awards over 7,000 degrees on multiple campuses--now exceeding 260,000 total since its first graduating class of seven.In Leading the Crimson and Gray, multiple authors chronicle the lives and legacies of those who served in one of WSU's most visible roles--president. These executives were responsible for raising funds, shaping strategic visions, addressing faculty and student concerns, attending to fiscal issues, and interacting with lawmakers and business leaders. There were early bitter battles over the Pullman location and curriculum. Other eras brought student unrest and social upheaval, wars, protests, and severe economic depression and recession.Their accomplishments were substantial. Early presidents launched the college, expanded the academic program beyond agriculture and science, established general education requirements, and took key steps toward eventual university status. Later presidents supported athletic achievement, strengthened enrollment, obtained legislative support for a capital construction bond referendum, increased research grants and contracts, completed major construction projects, effectively faced massive state allocation cuts, and won bipartisan state legislative backing for a new medical school. Combined, George W. Lilley, John W. Heston, Enoch A. Bryan, Ernest O. Holland, Wilson M. Compton, C. Clement French, W. Glenn Terrell, Samuel H. Smith, V. Lane Rawlins, and Elson S. Floyd left a legacy that makes the Cougar Nation proud.

Washington State University (WSU) is a remarkable place, over the years educating hundreds of thousands, conducting innovative research in a wide variety of disciplines, and earning numerous intercollegiate athletics titles. Originally named The Agricultural College, Experiment Station and School of Science of the State of Washington, the school first opened on a wintry 1892 morning with six professors. Today, the institution has more than 2,600 faculty positions and annually awards over 7,000 degrees on multiple campuses--now exceeding 260,000 total since its first graduating class of seven.In Leading the Crimson and Gray, multiple authors chronicle the lives and legacies of those who served in one of WSU's most visible roles--president. These executives were responsible for raising funds, shaping strategic visions, addressing faculty and student concerns, attending to fiscal issues, and interacting with lawmakers and business leaders. There were early bitter battles over the Pullman location and curriculum. Other eras brought student unrest and social upheaval, wars, protests, and severe economic depression and recession.Their accomplishments were substantial. Early presidents launched the college, expanded the academic program beyond agriculture and science, established general education requirements, and took key steps toward eventual university status. Later presidents supported athletic achievement, strengthened enrollment, obtained legislative support for a capital construction bond referendum, increased research grants and contracts, completed major construction projects, effectively faced massive state allocation cuts, and won bipartisan state legislative backing for a new medical school. Combined, George W. Lilley, John W. Heston, Enoch A. Bryan, Ernest O. Holland, Wilson M. Compton, C. Clement French, W. Glenn Terrell, Samuel H. Smith, V. Lane Rawlins, and Elson S. Floyd left a legacy that makes the Cougar Nation proud.

Two-time National Outdoor Book Award-winning author Buddy Levy's thrilling narrative of polar exploration via airship―and the men who sacrificed everything to make history. Arctic explorer and American visionary Walter Wellman pioneered both polar and trans-Atlantic airship aviation, making history's first attempts at each. Yet, Wellman has been cast as a self-promoting egomaniac known mostly for his catastrophic failures. Instead he was a courageous innovator who pushed the boundaries of polar exploration and paved the way for the ultimate conquest of the North Pole--which would be achieved not by dogsled or airplane, but by airship. In 1908-09, American explorers Dr. Frederick Cook and Robert Perry, in separate expeditions, both claimed they'd reached the North Pole first, but their claims were seriously questioned. There was enough doubt that Norwegian explorer extraordinaire Roald Amundsen--who'd made history and a name for himself by being the first to sail through the Northwest Passage and the first man to the South Pole--attempted to fly to the North Pole by airship. He would go in the Norge, designed by Italian aeronautical engineer Umberto Nobile. The 350-foot Norge flew over the North Pole on May 12, 1926, and Amundsen was able to accurately record and verify their exact location. However, Nobile felt slighted by Amundsen. Two years later, Nobile returned, this time in the Italia, backed by Prime Minister Benito Mussolini. This was an Italian enterprise, and Nobile intended to win back the global accolades and reputation he believed Amundsen had stripped from him. The journey ended in disaster, death, and accusations of cannibalism, launching one of the greatest rescue operations the world had ever seen. Realm of Ice and Sky is the riveting tale of the men who first flew the most technologically advanced airships of their time to the top of the world, risking and even giving their lives for science, country, and polar immortality.

Arctic explorer and American visionary Walter Wellman pioneered both polar and trans-Atlantic airship aviation, making history’s first attempts at each. Wellman has been cast as a self-promoting egomaniac known mostly for his failures. Instead he was a courageous innovator who pushed the boundaries of polar exploration and paved the way for the ultimate conquest of the North Pole by airship. American explorer Dr. Frederick Cook was the first to claim he made it to the North Pole in 1908. A year later, so did American Robert Peary, but both Cook’s and Peary’s claims had been seriously questioned. There was enough doubt that Norwegian explorer extraordinaire Roald Amundsen picked up where Walter Wellman left off, attempting to fly to the North Pole by airship. He would go in the Norge, designed by Italian aeronautical engineer Umberto Nobile. The 350-foot Norge flew over the North Pole on May 12, 1926. However, the engineer Nobile felt slighted by Amundsen. Two years later, Nobile returned, this time in the Italia, backed by Prime Minister Benito Mussolini. Nobile intended to win back the global accolades and reputation he believed Amundsen had stripped from him. The journey ended in disaster, launching one of the greatest rescue operations the world had ever seen. Realm of Ice and Sky is the riveting tale of the men who first flew the most advanced technological airships of their time to the top of the world, risking and even giving their lives for science, country, and polar immortality.

In the summer of 1913, the wooden-hulled brigantine Karluk departed Canada for the Arctic Ocean. At the helm was Captain Bob Bartlett, considered the world’s greatest living ice navigator. The expedition’s visionary leader was a flamboyant impresario named Vilhjalmur Stefansson hungry for fame. Just six weeks after the Karluk departed, giant ice floes closed in around her. As the ship became icebound, Stefansson disembarked with five companions and struck out on what he claimed was a 10-day caribou hunting trip. Most on board would never see him again. Twenty-two men and an Inuit woman with two small daughters now stood on a mile-square ice floe, their ship and their original leader gone. Under Bartlett’s leadership they built make-shift shelters, surviving the freezing darkness of Polar night. Captain Bartlett now made a difficult and courageous decision. He would take one of the young Inuit hunters and attempt a 1000-mile journey to save the shipwrecked survivors. It was their only hope. Set against the backdrop of the Titanic disaster and World War I, filled with heroism, tragedy, and scientific discovery, Empire of Ice and Stone tells the story of two men and two distinctively different brands of leadership: one selfless, one self-serving, and how they would forever be bound by one of the most audacious and disastrous expeditions in polar history, considered the last great voyage of The Heroic Age of Discovery.

In the summer of 1913, the wooden-hulled brigantine Karluk departed Canada for the Arctic Ocean. At the helm was Captain Bob Bartlett, considered the world’s greatest living ice navigator. The expedition’s visionary leader was a flamboyant impresario named Vilhjalmur Stefansson hungry for fame. Just six weeks after the Karluk departed, giant ice floes closed in around her. As the ship became icebound, Stefansson disembarked with five companions and struck out on what he claimed was a 10-day caribou hunting trip. Most on board would never see him again. Twenty-two men and an Inuit woman with two small daughters now stood on a mile-square ice floe, their ship and their original leader gone. Under Bartlett’s leadership they built make-shift shelters, surviving the freezing darkness of Polar night. Captain Bartlett now made a difficult and courageous decision. He would take one of the young Inuit hunters and attempt a 1000-mile journey to save the shipwrecked survivors. It was their only hope. Set against the backdrop of the Titanic disaster and World War I, filled with heroism, tragedy, and scientific discovery, Empire of Ice and Stone tells the story of two men and two distinctively different brands of leadership: one selfless, one self-serving, and how they would forever be bound by one of the most audacious and disastrous expeditions in polar history, considered the last great voyage of The Heroic Age of Discovery.

With a new introduction, the acclaimed author of Conquistador and Labyrinth of Ice charts one of history’s greatest adventures of discovery, a legendary 16th-century explorer’s death-defying navigation of the Amazon, river of darkness and pathway to gold—the first complete exploration of the world’s largest river by a European.In 1541, the brutal Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro and his well-born lieutenant Francisco Orellana set off in search of La Canela, South America’s rumored Land of Cinnamon, and the fabled El Dorado, “the golden man.” Driving an enormous retinue of mercenaries, enslaved natives, horses, hunting dogs, and other animals across the Andes, they watched their proud expedition begin to disintegrate even before they descended into the nightmarish jungle, following the course of a powerful river. Hopelessly lost in the swampy labyrinth, their numbers diminishing daily through disease, starvation, and Indian attacks, Pizarro and Orellana made a fateful decision to separate. While Pizarro eventually returned home barefoot and in rags, Orellana and fifty-seven men, in a few fragile craft, continued downriver into the unknown reaches of the mighty Amazon, serenaded by native war drums and the eerie cries of exotic predators. Theirs would be the greater glory. Interweaving eyewitness accounts of the quest with newly uncovered details, Buddy Levy reconstructs the seminal journey that has electrified adventurers ever since, as Orellana became the first European to navigate and explore the entire length of the world’s largest river. Levy gives a long-overdue account of the native populations—some peaceful and welcoming, offering sustenance and life-saving guidance, others ferociously hostile, subjecting the invaders to gauntlets of unremitting attack and intimations of terrifying rituals. And here is the Amazon itself, a powerful presence whose every twist and turn held the promise of new wonders both natural and man-made, as well as the ever-present risk of death—a river that would hold Orellana in its irresistible embrace to the end of his life. Overflowing with violence and beauty, nobility and tragedy, River of Darkness is both a riveting history and a breathtaking adventure that will sweep readers along on an epic voyage unlike any other.

National Outdoor Book Awards Winner Winner of the BANFF Adventure Travel Award"A thrilling and harrowing story. If it's a cliche to say I couldn't put this book down, well, too bad: I couldn't put this book down." --Jess Walter, bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins "Polar exploration is utter madness. It is the insistence of life where life shouldn't exist. And so, Labyrinth of Ice shows you exactly what happens when the unstoppable meets the unmovable. Buddy Levy outdoes himself here. The details and story are magnificent." --Brad Meltzer, bestselling author of The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington Based on the author's exhaustive research, the incredible true story of the Greely Expedition, one of the most harrowing adventures in the annals of polar exploration. In July 1881, Lt. A.W. Greely and his crew of 24 scientists and explorers were bound for the last region unmarked on global maps. Their goal: Farthest North. What would follow was one of the most extraordinary and terrible voyages ever made. Greely and his men confronted every possible challenge--vicious wolves, sub-zero temperatures, and months of total darkness--as they set about exploring one of the most remote, unrelenting environments on the planet. In May 1882, they broke the 300-year-old record, and returned to camp to eagerly await the resupply ship scheduled to return at the end of the year. Only nothing came. 250 miles south, a wall of ice prevented any rescue from reaching them. Provisions thinned and a second winter descended. Back home, Greely's wife worked tirelessly against government resistance to rally a rescue mission. Months passed, and Greely made a drastic choice: he and his men loaded the remaining provisions and tools onto their five small boats, and pushed off into the treacherous waters. After just two weeks, dangerous floes surrounded them. Now new dangers awaited: insanity, threats of mutiny, and cannibalism. As food dwindled and the men weakened, Greely's expedition clung desperately to life. Labyrinth of Ice tells the true story of the heroic lives and deaths of these voyagers hell-bent on fame and fortune--at any cost--and how their journey changed the world.

Erik Weihenmayer has a long history of turning obstacles into adventures. Born with a rare condition that blinded him as a teenager, he never let his diagnosis hold him back from a full life. As an athlete, explorer, speaker and activist, he has opened the eyes of people around the world to what's possible. In 2001, he became the first blind man to climb Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. In 2005, he co-founded his nonprofit organisation, No Barriers, to empower others to overcome adversity and achieve their biggest goals. This special edition of No Barriers introduces kids to the incredible true story of Erik's most terrifying journey: solo kayaking the thunderous whitewater of the Grand Canyon. Erik and his friends form a courageous crew to do battle with some of the harshest elements nature has to offer. Along the course of Erik's journey, he meets other trailblazers: adventurers, scientists, artists, and activists who show Erik the way forward and teach him the meaning of NO BARRIERS - “What’s Within You is Stronger Than What’s in Your Way.”

Erik Weihenmayer is the first and only blind person to summit Mount Everest. When the mountain was finally behind him, his expedition leader slapped him on the back and said something that would affect the course of Erik's life: "Don't make Everest the greatest thing you ever do." No Barriers is Erik's response to that challenge. It is the moving story of his journey since descending Mount Everest: from leading expeditions around the world with blind Tibetan teenagers to helping injured soldiers climb their way home from war, from adopting a son from Nepal to facing the most terrifying reach of his life: to solo kayak the thunderous whitewater of the Grand Canyon.

"In the hands of Mike Leach and Buddy Levy, the story of this brilliant Apache leader comes into sharp focus, both in their narrative of his life and in spirited commentaries on its meaning" (S.C. Gwynne, author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Empire of the Summer Moon). Playing cowboys and Indians as a boy, legendary college football coach Mike Leach always chose to be the Indian--the underdog whose success turned on being a tough, resourceful, ingenious fighter. And the greatest Indian military leader of all was Geronimo, the Apache warrior whose name is so symbolic of courage that World War II paratroopers shouted it as they leaped from airplanes into battle. Told in the style of Robert Greene's The 48 Laws of Power, Leach's compelling and inspiring book examines Geronimo's leadership approach and the timeless strategies, decisions, and personal qualities that made him a success. Raised in an unforgiving landscape, Geronimo and his band faced enemies better armed, better equipped, and more numerous than they were. But somehow they won victories against all odds, beguiling the United States and Mexican governments and earning the respect and awe of those generals committed to hunting him down. While some believed that Geronimo had supernatural powers, much of his genius can be ascribed to old-fashioned values such as relentless training and preparation, leveraging resources, finding ways to turn defeats into victories, and being faster and more nimble than his enemy. The tactics of Geronimo would be studied and copied by the US military for generations. Pain, pride, humility, family--many things shaped Geronimo's life. In this "compelling book that humanizes a man many misunderstood" (New York Times bestselling author Brian Kilmeade), Mike Leach illustrates how we too can use the forces and circumstances of our own lives to build true leadership today.