A bibliography of recommended
Mountaineering Biographies or Biographical Writings

Georges Bettembourg ( ? - 1983 ) and Michael Brame The White Death

Seattle: Reymond, 1981. 310pp, illus., 26cm.
Bettembourg's exploits on Broad Peak, Kanchenjunga, Kusum Kanguru, Everest and Nuptse.

Walter Bonatti On the Heights

London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1964. 248pp, 16 Black and white plates, 22.5cm.
Autobiographical writings of the great Italian mountaineer, translated by Lovett F. Edwards.

Walter Bonatti The Great Days

London: Gollancz, 1974. 189pp, 32 plates, 22.5cm.
Second volume of autobiographical writings, translated by Geoffrey Sutton.

Chris Bonington Mountaineer

London: Diadem Books, 1989. 192pp, illus. throughout mainly in colour, 32cm.
A photographic autobiography describing 'thirty years of climbing on the world's great peaks'. A beautifully produced book using many of Chris's own photographs but with outstanding contributions from his climbing partners also.

Joe Brown The Hard Years

London: Gollancz, 1967. 256pp, 33 plates, illus., 23cm. Many reprints. Penguin paperback edition, 1975.
The acclaimed autobiography of the great Manchester born rock-climber and mountaineer. There are chapters on his early rock climbs, including those with Don Whillans, ice climbs on Ben Nevis, and mountaineering in the Alps and Himalayas. One chapter describes the first ascent of Kangchenjunga.

Hermann Buhl Nanga Parbat Pilgrimage

London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1956. 360pp, 17 plates incl. a portrait of Buhl, 23cm.
One of the classic mountaineering autobiographies.

Riccardo Cassin 50 Years of Alpinism

London: Diadem, 1981. 207pp, 90 black and white plates, maps and diagrams, 22.5cm
Autobiography of the great Italian mountaineer most famous, perhaps, for the first ascents of the North East Face of the Piz Badile in 1937 and the Walker Spur of the Grandes Jorasses in 1938. Translated by Renato Sottile.

Hunter Davies Wainwright - The Biography

London: Michael Joseph, 1995. xi, 356pp, illus., 37 black and white photographs, 24.4cm.
A biography of Alfred Wainwright, the creator of, among many other books, the Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells.

Rene Desmaison Total Alpinism

London: Granada, 1982. (vi), 202pp, 24 black and white photographs, 24cm.
Autobiographical writings of the celebrated and sometimes controversial French alpinist. This English volume is a combination of two earlier French titles : 'La Montagne a Mains Nues' 1971 and '342 Heures dans les Grandes Jorasses' 1973 published by Flammarion. Translated by Jane Taylor.

Kurt Diemberger Summits and Secrets

London: Allen and Unwin, 1971, 344pp plus 56pp of plates, illus., maps, 24cm.
Autobiographical writings of the great Austrian mountaineer including chapters on the first ascent of Broad Peak and his ascent of the Eiger north wall. Beautifully written with, I suspect, very little lost in the translation by Hugh Merrick.

Kurt Diemberger The Endless Knot

London: GraftonBooks, 1991, viii, 308pp, illus., maps, plates in colour and black and white, 25cm.
More autobiographical writings in which the author tells of his growing obsession with K2. Translated from the German by Audrey Salkeld.

Kurt Diemberger Spirits of the Air

London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1994, 304pp, illus., maps, plates in colour and black and white, 24cm.
A third volume of autobiographical writings. Translated from the German by Audrey Salkeld.

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George Ingle Finch ( 1888 - 1969 ) The Making of a Mountaineer

London: Arrowsmith, 1924, 340pp, 56 plates, illus., 26cm.
Autobiography of a member of the 1922 Everest expedition.

Also: Arrowsmith, 1988, facsimile edition of the original publication.
Photos (including some never published before) printed from Finch's original glass negatives, a foreword by Lord Hunt, and a biographical memoir by Finch's son-in-law and fellow mountaineer Scott Russell.

Giusto Gervasutti (1909 - 1946) Gervasutti's Climbs

London: Hart-Davis, 1957. 201pp, 15 plates, illus., 22cm.
Translated from 'Scalate nelle Alpi' by Nea Morin and Janet Adam Smith.

Dennis Gray (1935) Rope Boy

London: Gollancz, 1970. 320pp, 27 plates, 4 maps, 22.5cm.
The first volume of autobiography of the Leeds mountaineer who climbed with, among others, Joe Brown and Don Whillans. There are exciting descriptions of his exploits in Britain, the Alps, the Himalayas, North and South America.

Alan Hankinson (1926) Geoffrey Winthrop Young

London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1995. xi, 365pp, 39 black and white plates incl. portraits, 24.5cm.
A frank biography of the poet, educator and pioneer alpinist.

Heinrich Harrer (1912) The White Spider

London: Hart-davis, 1959, v, 240pp, 41 plates, illus., 24cm. Several reprints and revised editions.
A dramatic history of the early attempts on the north wall of the Eiger.

Dougal Haston (1940 - 1977) In High Places

London: Cassell,1974. (8), 168pp, 16 plates, illus., 23cm.
Autobiographical writings of one of the leading British climbers of his day.

Anderl Heckmair (1906) My Life as a Mountaineer

London: Gollancz, 1975. 224pp, 16 plates, illus., 22cm.
Memoirs of the famous Bavarian mountaineer who was a member of the team which made the first ascent of the North Wall of the Eiger in 1938.

Edmund Hillary (1919) Nothing Venture, Nothing Win

London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1975. 319pp, 17 colour photographs, 42 black and white,17 maps and diagrams, 24cm.
Sir Edmund Hillary's account of his life up to the age of 56.

John Hunt (1910 - 1999) Life is Meeting

London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1978. 286pp, 16 plates, illus., 24cm.
Autobiographical writings by the leader of the first successful Everest expedition.

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Christian Klucker ( 1853 - 1928 ) Adventures of an Alpine guide

London: Murray, 1932. xiv, 329pp, 16 plates, illus., 23cm.
Memoirs of a great guide who climbed with Norman-Neruda and made many new ascents in the Alps including the first traverse of the Peuterey Arete on Mont Blanc.

Julius Kugy ( 1858 - 1944 ) Alpine Pilgrimage

London: Murray, 1934. xxii, 374pp, 21 plates, illus., folding map, 23cm.
Kugy was an Austrian climber who became a legend, especially in the Julian Alps of Slovenia.

Jerzy Kukuczka (? - 1989) My Vertical World

London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1992. x, 189pp, 8 colour plates, illus. 24cm.
The climbing exploits of the great Polish mountaineer, who was killed on the south face of Lhotse soon after becoming the second man to climb all 14 eight-thousand metre summits. Translated from the Polish by Andrew Wielochowski.

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Pierre Mazeaud Naked Before the Mountain

London: Gollancz, 1974, 256pp, 24 plates, illus, 23cm.
Exciting memoirs of the French mountaineer and politician.

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Tom Patey One Man's Mountains

London: Gollancz, 1971. 287pp, 23 plates, illus., 23cm. Many reprints.
Adventures and verse of the great Scottish hard man and humourist.

Bill Peascod Journey After Dawn

Milnthorpe, Cumbria: Cicerone Press, 1985. x, 173pp, 31 black and white photographs, 24cm.
Autobiography of the Lakeland climber/artist who, in the 40's, pioneered many of today's classic Lake District rock climbs.

Jim Perrin Menlove - The Life of John Menlove Edwards

London: Gollancz, 1985. 347pp, 43 black and white photographs, 23.5cm.
Frank biography of the writer, poet and great pre-war climber who died tragically in 1958.

Paul Pritchard The Totem Pole

London: Constable, 1999. xiii, 208pp, 11 black and white photographs, 22cm.
The moving account of Paul's battle to recover from a serious climbing accident.

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Eric Roberts Welzenbach's Climbs

Reading: West Col, 1980. 271pp, 36 black and white illustrations, 22cm.
A biographical study and the collected writings of Willo Welzenbach.

Joe Simpson This Game of Ghosts

London: Jonathan Cape, 1993. 320pp, 62 black and white photographs, 24cm.
More hair-raising adventures of the author of 'Touching the Void'.

Joe Simpson Storms of Silence

London: Jonathan Cape, 1996. 304pp, 44 black and white, 13 colour photographs, 24cm.
Biographical writings.

Tenzing of Everest Tiger of the Snows

New York: Putnam, 1955. xvi, 294pp, 19 plates, illus., 22cm.
The autobiography of Tenzing Norgay written in collaboration with James Ramsey Ullman.

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A.Wainwright Memoirs of a Fellwanderer

London: Michael Joseph, 1993. xiv, 210pp, illus., black and white photographs, sketches, maps, 24cm.
Autobiographical writings of the famous Lakeland guidebook writer. The book includes a Wainwright bibliography up to 1992.

Don Whillans Portrait of a Mountaineer

London: Heinemann, 1971. x, 266pp, 16 plates, illus., 23cm. (Penguin paperback edition, 1973.)
Don Whillans and Alick Ormerod have produced a wonderful biography which vividly portrays the atmosphere of the early days of British hard rock-climbing and Don's major contribution to first ascents in the Alps, the Andes and the Himalayas.

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