Authors Roundtable at The Explorers Club: Trekking with Erling Kagge & J.R. Harris

• Books & Literature

In 1993, Norwegian explorer Erling Kagge spent fifty days walking solo across Antarctica, becoming the first person to reach the South Pole alone, accompanied only by a radio whose batteries he had removed before setting out. In his book SILENCE: In the Age of Noise, Kagge explores the silence around us, the silence within us, and the silence we must create. By recounting his own experiences and discussing the observations of poets, artists, and explorers, Kagge shows us why silence is essential to sanity and happiness—and how it can open doors to wonder and gratitude.

Explorer, lawyer, art collector, publisher, and author, ERLING KAGGE is the first person to have completed the Three Poles Challenge on foot—the North Pole, the South Pole, and the summit of Mount Everest. He has written six previous books on exploration, philosophy, and art collecting, and runs Kagge Forlag, a publishing company based in Oslo, where he lives.

J. Robert “J. R.” Harris reveals how a kid growing up in a NYC housing project became an intrepid backpacker and explorer. He takes you on some of his journeys, most of them solo, across four continents, covering a time span from 1966 to 2012. His tales of travel, enhanced by visual images, will reveal more than just where he went and what he did; they also reveal an introspective personality, and cover a range of emotions including curiosity, fear, being alone, and adjusting to a wilderness lifestyle.

His book, Way Out There: Adventures of a Wilderness Trekker is an account of J.R.’s extraordinary exploits while backpacking in some of the world’s most tantalizing places–largely alone and unsupported. His stories are by turns funny, tragic, and uplifting, and are all told in his down-to-earth, friendly storytelling style. For J.R. it all began in 1966 when, as a young New Yorker, he impulsively drives his VW Beetle across the country to the very end of the northernmost road in Alaska, searching for an answer to a simple question: What is it like to be way out there? How this happened, who he met, and what he encountered along the way became the foundation for a lifelong attraction to trekking and adventure travel. Subsequent chapters chronologically explore some of his many journeys, revealing an enduring wanderlust honed by his emerging maturity and outdoor skills.

Harris is founder and president of JRH Marketing Services. Established in 1975, it is the oldest and most experienced African American-owned marketing research and consulting company in the U.S. He was elected into the Market Research Hall of Fame in 2016. As a social scientist and wilderness trekker, he is particularly fond of meeting indigenous people in remote places and learning firsthand about their customs and lifestyles. J.R. is the author of “Big Heart on Baffin Island,” a chapter in the book, They Lived to Tell the Tale: True Stories of Modern Adventure from the Legendary Explorers Club. He has been a member of the Explorers Club since 1993.

Both Explorers will present for 30 minutes, followed by a live Q&A session with guests. The Roundtables at The Explorers Club is a new series of events premiering with Erling Kagge & J.R. Harris. There will be more of these events to come in the near future, on various exploration topics.