When investigative reporter Nellie Bly approached her editor in 1889, he was not excited about the idea at all. But, in the end, she did travel around the world.

On her adventure, she met Jules Verne – whose story had inspired her – and many, many others. The result is this book.

The endeavor became an international story almost overnight, and Nellie, whose real name was Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, became a celebrity herself.

Her travel around the world in a record-setting 72 days is the most remembered of her feats today, but she was a pioneer in several other fields, too. For instance, Bly practically invented investigative journalism, when she lived undercover in a mental institution and uncovered horrible conditions to the public.

Around the World in Seventy-Two Days is not only a testament to the will of an extraordinary person, who became a role model for girls around the world. It is also very well written and entertaining indeed.

Download Around the World in Seventy Two Days as PDF for free here:

Nellie-bly-Around-the-World-in-Seventy-Two-Days-pdf

“I counted a dozen horsemen with bifurcated guns thrown over their shoulders. Islam, Parpi, Lobsang and I took a stand on the crest of a small hill eight feet high, back of which the other men and the caravan had cover. We were eight against twelve, three guns against a dozen. But ours were the better weapons. We threw off our fur coats. The men from East Turkestan were in fearful anguish, and as for myself I found the situation far from reassuring. The Tanguts could readily secure reinforcements from the nearby valleys and annihilate us, or in any event fleece us of everything even to the bare skin of our bodies. On the surface I indicated no apprehension, but calmly lit my pipe.”

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 A Conquest of Tibet

From the book:

“I have never found a man so generous and hospitable that he would not receive a present, nor one so liberal with his money that he would dislike a reward if he could get one. Friends should rejoice each others’ hearts with gifts of weapons and raiment, that is clear from one’s own experience. That friendship lasts longest—if there is a chance of its being a success—in which friends both give and receive gifts. A man ought to be a friend to his friend and repay gift with gift. People should meet smiles with smiles and lies with treachery.”

Download The Gift here (136 pages/6MB):

 The Gift

Finally, the delegation reached their destination and met the great Kublai Khan himself. The journey was never meant to last more than a few years, but extended into a 25-year long adventure, where Marco became a trusted advisor and servant to the Khan.

Marco Polo was the first Westerner to visit the far East. He described in detail the intricate workings of mighty China and traveled far and wide as a trusted envoy of the Khan. Amongst many other places, he visited and described Burma, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

The Travels of Marco Polo the Venetian tells the complete story of Marco Polos life, his meeting with the eastern cultures – and how he succeeded in returning home at last.

Download the free e-book here in full length (477 pages/31MB) :

The Travels of Marco Polo

The long travel was expensive and left Hedin in a difficult financial situation. After his return to Europe, he held 111 lectures in 91 German cities as well as 19 lectures in other countries. He met Adolf Hitler in Berlin before his lecture there on 14 April 1935.

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 Riddles of the Gobi Desert

Climber and WW1-veteran George Mallory coined the iconic explanation, and Mount Everest, the Reconnaissance is the epic recount of the 1921-expedition where he participated along with A. F. R. Wollaston and Charles Howard-Bury.

Sadly, Mallory died on an Everest-expedition three years later, but he might – or might not – have been the first on top of Everest. That is a fascinating story in itself, which you can read much more about in this really great story in National Geographic.

The goal of the 1921 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition was to explore how it might be possible to get to the vicinity of Mount Everest and to discover possible routes for ascending the mountain.

The mission was a success, as it secured valuable knowledge for future expeditions. For instance, by determining that a good route might be to approach the East Rongbuk glacier via the Rongbuk glacier and then follow the North Col route to the summit.

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Mount Everest, the Reconnaissance, 1921

In Innermost Asia: Travel & Sport In The Pamirs, the author Ralph Patteson Cobbold got his tiger after a few attempts. Although he does complains that there were not quite enough of them to ensure really great fun.

Asone of the very first Europeans, Cobbold traversed great distances in Central Asia in the late 19.th century when traveling was quite dangerous and sometimes potentially life-threatening.

And although Cobbold sometimes does come across as a bit arrogant, he goes to great lengths to be as fair in his description of locals – and local authorities – as an Englishman from the late part of the Victorian age can expect to be. He also gives an accurate description of the landscape, its people and of his strenuous journey – and even gets a bit involved in the power struggle between Russians, the Chinese, and local lords.

Furthermore, the book is richly illustrated with detailed maps and many photographs.

Click below to download Innermost Asia Travel & Sport In The Pamirs as free PDF (388 pages / 22 MB):

Innermost Asia

He was also an adventurer by heart, who spent his youth participating in conflicts in India, Sudan, Afghanistan and South Africa. He escaped captivity from a Boer prison camp – and accounted for his many adventures in numerous articles.

Based on the wartime experiences of his youth, Churchill even suggested that it would be a pretty great idea if he could watch the first waves of the amphibious assault of D-Day from the warship HMS Belfast. The generals and admirals declined the PMs request – politely but with no room for misunderstanding what so ever..

Being a storyteller by heart, Sir Winston was also a prolific writer. He was even awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 “for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.”

Churchill authored a great many books. He genuinely enjoyed the process of writing (most of the time, at least). More importantly, however, the generous fees helped finance a lifestyle which, even at the worst of times, could never be considered anything less than stately.

Many of his books are strictly speaking quite a bit longer and more detailed than necessary. Not so with “My Early Life,” which you can read by clicking on the link below. It is relatively short and tells the story of Churchill’s childhood and youth. It also collects a lot of his most memorable experiences from The Second Boer War, Sudan and India.

My Early Life is generally considered one of Churchill’s best books – and it is undoubtedly one of his most amusing and entertaining works!

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 My Early Life – A Roving Commission

“The Burmese men are remarkably indolent; the women, however, are industrious, but it is because the men compel them to do all the household work, at least the heaviest and most irksome part of it, and they will even sit about a place where their wives arc at work, chatting and smoking, or else stretched upon the ground at full length asleep. If you give the native sufficient rice and ngapee to keep him just above the starving point, he will not work for Rs. 2 per diem; but take these articles of diet away, and he will cheer­fully work for eight annas (25 cts.) However, like their neighbours the Chinese, they make excellent carpenters and blacksmiths. Marriage among the Burmese is a most peculiar institution, and the ‘ mar­riage knot ’ is very easily undone. If two persons are tired of each other’s society, they dissolve partnership in the following simple and touching but conclusive manner: They respectively light two candles, and shut­ting up their hut, sit down and wait quietly until they are burned up. The one whose candle burns out first, gets up at once and leaves the house (and for ever), taking nothing but the clothes he or she may have on at the time; all else then becomes the property of the other.”

Download The Land of the White Elephant here (406 pages/19.5MB):

The Land of the White Elephant

It is difficult to imagine a machinery by which the government of India might be transferred, even partially, to the hands of the Indian people. If that is impossible, and the Congress has not discovered a manner in which it might be introduced, we are thrown back upon the personal government of the Viceroy, advised by his Council and controlled by the India Office.

Download the free PDF e-book here (228 pages/3.5MB):

Impressions of Indian Travel