"This is a giant book of true, eye-witness stories by the world's greatest explorers. pioneers and adventurers. Collected in this volume for the first time anywhere are the classic and gripping accounts of men like Lindbergh, Edmund Hillary, Thor Heyerdahl, Jim Corbett, men who conquered mountains, fought wild animals, killed whales, battled head-hunters, braved Arctic blizzards--forty-seven extraordinary selections that contain all kinds of danger and excitement. From all time and all over the world, here is an unrivaled roster of famous names and famous exploits, packed with tension, suspense, and action. To every reader Man against Nature offers endless hours of magnificent drama and thrilling entertainment."--Jacket.

Adventure--the unending challenge / Maurice Herzog -- Introduction / Charles Neider -- Earthquake at San Francisco / Frank W. Aitken and Edward Hilton -- Strange death of Louis Slotin / Stewart Alsop and Ralph E. Lapp -- Voyage to the South Pole / Roald Amundsen -- The just vengeance of heaven / Anonymous -- Forty-five seconds inside a tornado / Ira J. Baden, as told to Robert H. Parham -- Descent into perpetual night / William Beebe -- The plague / Giovanni Boccaccio -- Head hunters of New Guinea / Sidney Spencer Broomfield -- Alone / Richard E. Byrd -- Lost in the Sahara / Donald R.G. Cameron -- The Great Lisbon Earthquake / Samuel Chase -- The Champawat man-eater / Jim Corbett -- The silent world / J.Y. Cousteau, with Frederic Dumas -- Indians! / George A. Custer -- Rounding the Horn / Richard Henry Dana -- Battle with a whale / William M. Davies -- On the bottom / Edward Ellsberg -- Lost in the Canadian wilderness / John Grant -- The Great Chicago Fire / Samuel S. Greeley -- Bailing out at supersonic speed / Arthur Ray Hawkins, as told to Wesley Price -- Death in the afternoon / Ernest Hemingway -- Bridging the Hellespont / Herodotus -- Kon-Tiki / Thor Heyerdahl -- To the summit of Everest / Sir Edmund Hillary -- Man against bronco / Emerson Hough -- The tidal wave / Louis V. Housel -- Hunting the African buffalo / J.A. Hunter -- Masai spearmen / J.A. Hunter -- We jump into fire / Starr Jenkins -- Rocket shoot at White Sands / Jonathan Norton Leonard -- New York to Paris / Charles A. Lindbergh -- Attempts on the Eigerwand / C.F. Meade -- The buffalo chase / Francis Parkman -- The North Pole conquered / Robert E. Peary -- The eruption of Vesuvius / Pliny the Younger -- On the edge of the primeval forest / Albert Schweitzer -- The last march / Robert Falcon Scott -- The open boat / Sir Ernest Shackleton -- Craters of fire / Haroum Tazieff -- The Johnstown Flood / Peter J. Toner -- Ten thousand miles in the saddle / A.F. Tschiffely -- Buzzing death / Tursa -- Annapurna / James Ramsey Ullman -- A waterspout in the Pacific / James J. Wait -- Success at Kitty Hawk / Orville Wright.