Strange and Dangerous Dreams: The Fine Line Between Adventure and Madness

Powter explores the darker psychological drama behind the exploits of eleven adventurers, famous and lesser-known, using previously unpublished information provided by witnesses, friends, and family. The stories of the troubled adventurers are divided into three categories (The Burdened, The Bent, and The Lost), and include Robert Falcon Scott, Meriwether Lewis, Maurice Wilson, Claudio Corti, Earl Denman, Jean Batten, Solomon Andrée, Donald Crowhurst, Aleister Crowley, John Franklin, and Guy, Johnny, and Bill Waterman. In each of these stories, darkness of some kind - ambition, ego, a thirst for redemption, the need to please others - carried these people in a perilous direction. In the end, understanding these utterly human stories helps us understand ourselves. Banff Mountain Book Festival 2006 Special Jury Mention.