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THE MOUNTAINEERS BOOKS
NONFICTION ADVENTURE $22.95 U.S.
Every culture, in every era, ha adventure myths—
the golden hero willing tow? U irough fire elevates
us all beyond our fears and li n . But more often
than commonly recognized, there are darker reasons
for dangerous pursuits. When do mountains, poles,
and oceans become merely an incidental stage for a
troubled psychodrama? Where, truly, falls the line
between adventure and madness? Psychologist Geoff
Powter looks into the lives of eleven adventurers he
calls The Burdened, The Bent, and The Lost, presenting
previously unpublished information provided by
witnesses, friends, and family.
Polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott has been
called a “willing martyr” ready to die for the mystical
deliverance of adventure.
Upon return from his great western explorations,
Meriwether Lewis was convinced that he had failed
the objectives set by his mentor and father figure,
Thomas Jefferson—and died by his own hand.
Jean Batten, an early aviator whose clothes and
makeup were always more perfect than her flying
technique, was groomed by her mother from an
early age to seek fame in the skies—her charming
public image belying her ruthless ways with sponsors
and suitors.
Maurice Wilson’s brilliant plan for climbing Everest
included deliberately crashing his plane as high as
possible on the mountain.
Two generations of one family—prominent
conservationist Guy Waterman and, before him, his
climber/explorer sons Bill Waterman and Johnny
Waterman-—each succumbed to his own demons in
the wilderness.
continued on back flap
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Strange /
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Dangerous Dreams
Strange
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Dangerous Dreams
GEOFF POWTER
EENA
BETW
THE MOUNTAINEERS BOOKS
For Mr. T. and Ms. C.
THE MOUNTAINEERS BOOKS
is the nonprofit publishing arm of The Mountaineers Club, an organization
founded in 1906 and dedicated to the exploration, preservation, and
enjoyment of outdoor and wilderness areas.
1001 SW Klickitat Way, Suite 201, Seattle, WA 98134
© 2006 by Geoff Powter
All rights reserved
First edition, 2006
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical, or
other means, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Acquiring Editor: Cassandra Conyers
Developmental Editor: Don Graydon
Project Editor: Mary Metz
Copy Editor: Carol Poole
Cover Design: Ani Rucki
Book Design and Layout: MayumiThompson
Cartographer: Moore Creative Design and Idermien Schuttenbeld
Cover photograph: Aleister Crowley, master of magick (Courtesy Ordo Templii Orientis).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Powter, Geoff, 1957-
Strange and dangerous dreams : the fine line between adventure and madness / [Geoff
Powter], -- 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-89886-987-0
1. Explorers--Biography. 2. Mountaineers--Biography. I.Title.
G200.P68 2006
910.92'2—dc22
2006000676
o Printed on recycled paper
Preface 6
Acknowledgments 9
Introduction 11
CHAPTER 1 MERIWETHER LEWIS Our Melancholy Hero 21
CHAPTER 2 ROBERT FALCON SCOTT A Struggle for Existence 41
CHAPTER 3 SOLOMON ANDREE We Cannot Fail 55
chapter 4 DONALD CROWHURST The KewardWas Madness 71
CHAPTER 5 JOHN FRANKLIN The Man Who Shouldn’t Have Been There 91
CHAPTER 6 JEAN BAT TEN A Terrible Beauty 111
CHAPTER 7 ALEISTER CROWLEY The Wickedest Man m the World 131
part
CHAPTER 8 CLAUDIO CORTI Only a Madman Would Try Such a Thing 157
chapter 9 MAURICE WILSON An Elaborate Suicide 1 75
CHAPTER 10 EARL DENMAN The Romantic Heart 199
chapter li GUY WATERMAN, JOHNNY WATERMAN,
BILL WATERMAN Walking into Darkness 215
Epilogue 233
Notes on Sources 235
Index 241
It has been said that books find their writer just as often as writers find
their subjects, and this was certainly the case with this book. From the
time I first encountered adventure writing as a young boy, stories like
the ones that follow have called to me. While I was absolutely in awe of
the apparently invulnerable superstars of exploration and adventure,
I have always been more intrigued by less perfect explorers who bat¬
tled through difficult journeys. Too often, the grand heroes, with their
steel will and unbounded endurance felt intangible, and even improb¬
able, while the more unsettled characters in adventure literature, with
their fragilities and troubled motivations, seemed far more real and
sympathetic.
Long before I actually sat down to write this book, several trails in
my life wound their way toward it. Along one, I turned the love of adven¬
ture tales into a life of my own adventuring, canoeing, and then climbing,
giving me an even deeper interest in the thorny lives of the characters I
had discovered. My own experiences with risk, and especially with the
demands of expedition life, left me with a thousand questions about the
motivations, and sanity, behind their patently aberrant stories.
I also developed a growing fascination with the difficult lives of sev¬
eral adventurers I met personally. I first thought it an odd contrast that
such people lived lives of apparently glorious depth, accomplishment,
and reputation, yet battled confusions, demons, and self-doubt to a de¬
gree that I rarely saw in the world outside adventure. I have since come
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