Under the leadership of Dr. Vivian Fuchs, the British Commonwealth-sponsored Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1957-58 completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica, via the South Pole. It was a pioneering and hazardous journey, and not without controversial elements. Author Jon Stephenson was a geologist on that expedition. In this book, Stephenson gives his account of the Expedition, its planning, and its aftermath. Stephenson also supplies a history of Antarctic exploration since James Cook's voyage of 1775, an account of other Antarctic exploration and scientific study contemporaneous with the Trans-Antarctic Expedition, and an overview of subsequent expeditions. Stephenson's remarkable photographs, which were exhibited in Sydney in September 2007 during a 50th anniversary commemoration of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition, are an additional feature of the book.