A great story of Arctic exploration told against the backdrop of Europe in the 1920s and 30s. After a successful transpolar flight in a previous airship with none other than Roald Amundsen as expedition leader, Umberto Nobile and his all-Italian team lifted off from Ny Alesund in 1928 with plans to make a landing at the North Pole. They crashed on the return voyage, precipitating an international search and rescue. Despite their acrimonious relationship, Amundsen set out to search for his Italian colleague, never to be seen again. Wilbur Cross, a journalist, draws on his own research and interviews in this intriguing account of a minor chapter in the history of Arctic exploration. Those who have traveled to Spitsbergen will be especially interested in the book. Cross tracked down and interviewed the aging survivors of the crash, including Nobile himself who died in Rome in 1978. See also ARC68, By Airship to the North Pole, An Archaeology of Human Exploration.  (ARC84, $24.95)