How Polar Explorer Ernest Shackleton Became an International Celebrity / Edward J. Larson

"The fascinating thing about Mr. Shackleton’s report,” the New York Evening Globe commented one day after its publication on March 24, 1909, “is the story of the struggle rather than the results of the struggle. All of us feel loftier in our inner stature as we read how men like ourselves pushed on until the last biscuit was gone.” At the dawn of the 20th century, after the rise of industrialized technologies that promised to make all results possible and before the Great War that made even the most self-sacrificing human struggle seem meaningless while, at the same time, tarnishing technology’s gleam, the Globe’s comment captured the essence of heroism as extraordinary efforts by ordinary people.

Ernest Shackleton had an advance contract with a leading newspaper for an exclusive first report on his expedition—income from the contract helped to finance his efforts. For newspapers—then at the height of the publishing wars that marked the era in journalism—disasters, battles, and harrowing expeditions sold best. Publishers paid top dollar for exclusive accounts. On March 22, the Nimrod stopped for a day at Steward Island, just south of New Zealand, where a special telegraph operator waited to dispatch Shackleton’s report to London’s Daily Mail. ... [mehr] https://lithub.com/how-polar-explorer-ernest-shackleton-became-an-international-celebrity/