CANR
WORK TITLE: Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greeley Polar Expedition
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.buddylevy.com/
CITY: Moscow
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: CANR 330
http://books.simonandschuster.com/Geronimo/Mike-Leach/9781476734934
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born February 2, 1960, in New Orleans, LA; married, 1987; wife’s name Camie Ann; children: Logan, Hunter.
EDUCATION:University of Idaho, B.A., 1986, M.A., 1988.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, television presenter, and academic. University of Idaho, Moscow, instructor, 1988-93; Washington State University, Pullman, 1991—, began as clinical assistant professor, became clinical associate professor, then clinical professor. Host for the History Channel, 2010-12; has appeared on national radio programs.
WRITINGS
Contributor to anthologies, including The Gift of Birds: True Encounters with Avian Spirits, Traveler’s Tales, 1999; and Chicken Soup for the Chiropractic Soul, HCI, 2003. Columnist for Hooked on the Outdoors, and MountainZone.com; contributor to periodicals and websites, including Big Sky Journal, Canoe & Kayak, Trail Runner, Adventure Sports, Backpacker, OutPost, Discover, Poets & Writers, TV Guide, VIA, High Desert Journal, River Teeth, Utne Reader, and Field & Stream.
Conquistador has been optioned by Overbrook Entertainment for production as a television series.
SIDELIGHTS
Buddy Levy is an American writer and academic. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1960, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Idaho. Levy has covered many sports events for various magazines and websites, and he has taught at the University of Idaho and Washington State University.
In American Legend: The Real-Life Adventures of David Crockett, Levy chronicles the life of the Tennessean who was born in 1786 and died defending the Alamo in 1836. He notes that the folk hero was a three-time congressman, a potential presidential candidate, and a soldier in the War of 1812. Crockett came from humble beginnings and spent much of his life on a small farm, where his wife died during childbirth. Levy comments that Crockett’s popular 1834 autobiography “prefigures by some fifty years the literary genre of ‘realism,’ with nothing remotely like it” until Mark Twain published his Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. A Publishers Weekly contributor reported that Levy covers the familiar aspects of Crockett’s life, but he also includes more “in the way of background and complexity, and is willing to expose some of Crockett’s deficiencies without making judgments.”
In 2008 Levy published Conquistador: Hernán Cortés, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs. Levy sets the popular record straight on how the Spanish conquistadors were able to conquer the mighty Aztec Empire. Contrary to the belief that Hernán Cortés, aided by a small group of soldiers and superior European technology, destroyed the Aztec population, Levy shows how it was the Spanish who were almost defeated. This drawn-out campaign, Levy argues, turned in favor of the Spanish after they were able to make amphibious attacks against the Aztec and gained the support of rival tribes who had been oppressed by the Aztec. Levy compiles his information from both Aztec and Spanish records, showing the range of diplomatic and militaristic campaigns employed. Levy pays particular attention to the personal characteristics of the leaders of each camp.
Arthur Herman, writing in the Wall Street Journal, observed that “Levy offers a fascinating account of the first and most decisive” encounter between Montezuma and Cortés. Herman also noted that “Levy has an eye for vivid detail and manages to build a compelling narrative out of this almost unbelievable story of missionary zeal, greed, cruelty and courage. By avoiding the kind of ideological posturing that usually distorts re-tellings of the conquest of the New World, Mr. Levy rightly focuses his reader’s attention on the story’s antagonists.” A contributor writing on Cadre Comments stated: “I appreciate the author’s readable style and modest length, but some key points suffer from his relative brevity. A related issue is the relative lack of discussion of dissenting views or scholarly disputes.” The contributor also commented that “the author’s focus on Cortés’s hypocrisy (thus personalizing responsibility for the Spanish Inquisition and Reconquest) is especially interesting given the author’s more nuanced understanding of ritual human sacrifice on what is likely the largest scale in human history.”
Booklist contributor Jay Freeman observed that “this is a superb work of popular history, ideal for general readers.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews commented that the book “conveys with ghastly power the relentlessness of [the conquistadors], the tragedy of [the Aztec leader], the brutality of battle and the utter bewilderment of one culture in the face of the other.” Stephen H. Peters, reviewing the book in Library Journal, remarked that “this well-written book is a good starting point for those seeking to understand the conquest of Mexico.”
Levy published River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana’s Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery down the Amazon in 2011. The account covers the sixteenth-century expedition of Spanish conquistador Francisco Orellana along the Amazon River in search of El Dorado. In his race against conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro, Orellana and his men became the first Europeans to navigate the entire length of the large river and to encounter the numerous tribes of the Amazon basin.
Writing on the A.V. Club website, Rowan Kaiser observed that “Levy is clearly fascinated by Orellana, and does his best to humanize the conquistador.” Kaiser also pointed out that “Levy successfully conveys the Amazon’s power and majesty, while shedding light on the futility of humanity’s attempt to tame it.” In a review for the Wall Street Journal, Gerard Helferich stated: “Focused on adventure more than reflection, Mr. Levy rushes along almost as resolutely as Orellana himself without lingering over the moral ambiguities of his hero’s predicament.” Writing in the Portland Oregonian, Katie Schneider exclaimed: “The dramatic title says it all.” Calling River of Darkness “a treasure hunt of history” in BookPage, John T. Slania called the account “a worthwhile read because of such swashbuckling adventure,” adding that “Levy is a gifted writer who makes it all the more enjoyable; his narrative flows as smoothly and rapidly as the Amazon River.” Writing in the Washington Times, Stephen Goode lauded that “Levy tells Orellana’s riveting story with the ease of someone who has mastered the material and loves the story he’s telling.”
Levy teaches English at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. In 2012, the university hired the controversial Mike Leach as its head football coach. When Levy pitched the idea of a book about legendary Apache warrior Geronimo to his agent, the agent pointed out that another of his clients, Leach, shared a fascination with the topic. In this way Levy and Leach came to collaborate in writing Geronimo: Leadership Strategies of an American Warrior. The book examines the outrage perpetrated against Geronimo’s family by Mexican authorities. It details the events surrounding the war between Mexico and the United States when territory was ceded to the United States and the Apaches, who lived on the land, were not invited to the negotiations. It chronicles Geronimo’s early military efforts against the Mexican and American military, along with his final campaign, when he and a small band of followers evaded thousands of American troops. Throughout, the text is glossed with “Lessons” about leadership in boldface type.
Reviewers were troubled by some aspects of Geronimo. In a review for Booklist, Jay Freeman called the book a “useful but rather frustratingly inconsistent profile of the legendary Apache warrior,” concluding that “in their efforts to inflate Geronimo into an example of great leadership, they gloss over his glaring personal shortcomings and failures.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor called the book’s research “derivative” and concluded: “Though the idea behind it is intriguing, the book threatens to topple from the unwieldy mix of conversational U.S. history, biography and self-help.”
Levy collaborated with Erik Weihenmayer to write the 2017 book No Barriers: A Blind Man’s Journey to Kayak the Grand Canyon. In this volume, Weihenmayer describes his challenging journey. He also discusses major events in his life, including going blind from retinoschisis at thirteen years old and the process of adopting a boy from Nepal as an adult. Weihenmayer tells of the challenges he faced while kayaking the Grand Canyon and details previous expeditions he has taken, including climbing Mt. Everest. At the end of the book, he and Levy present a Pledge of No Barriers, which they encourage readers to take.
“The only thing readers will be amazed by is that Weihenmayer’s accomplishments manage to be boring,” remarked a Publishers Weekly critic. Other reviews were more favorable. Nate Disser, a contributor to the Summit Daily website, described No Barriers as “a fascinating collection of outdoor stories.” Referring to Weihenmayer, Disser stated: “He isn’t afraid to tackle the victories and defeats with a trademark mix of good humor and occasional ego. He might be blind, but he’s still human to the core, and the book is better for it.” Booklist reviewer Brenda Barrera commented: “More than a story about a blind man … this volume provides a powerful testament to the human spirit.” A critic in Kirkus Reviews called the book “an exhilarating adventure story of arduous mountain climbing and whitewater kayaking” and “a wonderful tribute to the greatness of the human spirit.”
In 2019 Levy published Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition. The account recalls the Greely Expedition, also known as the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, which took place between 1881 and 1884 in the extreme Arctic North. Led by Lt. Adolphus Greely, the expedition combined two dozen scientists and explorers in an attempt to venture as far north as had ever been documented at that time. Levy draws on books, journals, and articles to piece together the successes and failures of the expedition, of which its members were rumored to have resorted to cannibalism in the final days before they were rescued. The expedition was additionally tasked with setting up several research stations to collect data and also to look for any survivors of the USS Jeannette expedition from two years prior. Levy attempts to recreate the drama of the expedition, particularly as they decided to retreat southward after waiting for two years for supply ships to aid their mission.
A contributor to Publishers Weekly observed that “Levy meticulously documents the expedition’s scientific achievements.” The same reviewer described the book as being “an intense historical adventure with modern-day relevance for the climate change debate.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor claimed that “Levy does a remarkable job of keeping things lively despite the crush of detail.” The Kirkus Reviews critic called Labyrinth of Ice “a graphic tale of horrific deprivation that is sure to be the benchmark account.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, December 15, 2005, George Cohen, review of American Legend: The Real-Life Adventures of David Crockett, p. 15; June 1, 2008, Jay Freeman, review of Conquistador: Hernán Cortés, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs, p. 25; April 15, 2014, Jay Freeman, review of Geronimo: Leadership Strategies of an American Warrior, p. 12; December 1, 2016, Brenda Barrera, review of No Barriers, p. 10.
Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2008, review of Conquistador; December 15, 2010, review of River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana’s Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery down the Amazon; May 6, 2014, review of Geronimo; December 15, 2016, review of No Barriers; October 1, 2019, review of Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greeley Polar Expedition.
Library Journal, May 15, 2008, Stephen H. Peters, review of Conquistador, p. 113.
Oregonian (Portland, OR), July 9, 2011, Katie Schneider, review of River of Darkness.
Publishers Weekly, November 28, 2005, review of American Legend, p. 35; January 10, 2011, review of River of Darkness, p. 41; September 12, 2016, review of No Barriers, p. 43; October 14, 2019, review of Labyrinth of Ice, p. 61.
Roundup, October 1, 2007, review of American Legend, p. 24.
States News Service, December 19, 2012, “Warrior Geronimo Inspires WSU Book Collaboration.”
Wall Street Journal, July 10, 2008, Arthur Herman, review of Conquistador, p. A13; February 22, 2011, Gerard Helferich, review of River of Darkness.
Washington Post Book World, December 17, 2006, Rachel Hartigan Shea, review of American Legend, p. 11.
Washington Times, May 16, 2011, Stephen Goode, review of River of Darkness.
ONLINE
A.V. Club, http://www.avclub.com/ (March 17, 2011), Rowan Kaiser, review of River of Darkness.
BookPage, http://www.bookpage.com/ (August 13, 2011), John T. Slania, review of River of Darkness.
Buddy Levy, http://www.buddylevy.com (November 20, 2019).
Cadre Comments, http://christiancadre.blogspot.com/ (January 6, 2009), review of Conquistador.
CougCenter, http://www.cougcenter.com/ (June 9, 2014), Andrew Crookston, “Buddy Levy on Writing Geronimo with Mike Leach.”
Current Intelligence, http://www.currentintelligence.com/ (December 9, 2010), John Matthew Barlow, author interview.
GoodReads, http://www.goodreads.com/ (August 13, 2011), author profile.
History.com, http://www.history.com/ (October 27, 2014), author profile.
inland360.com, https://inland360.com/ (June 20, 2018), Jennifer K. Bauer, “Moscow Author Buddy Levy on Turning His Book into a TV Series.”
Northwest Public Broadcasting, https://www.nwpb.org/ (January 23, 2019), Sara Quenzer, “Buddy Levy: The Man, the Myth, the Writer.”
Red Room, http://www.redroom.com/ (February 11, 2009), author profile.
Summit Daily (Summit County, CO), http://www.summitdaily.com/ (April 20, 2017), Nate Disser, review of No Barriers.
University of Idaho, English Department, http://www.uidaho.edu/ (October 27, 2014), author profile.
Washington State University, English Dept., https://english.wsu.edu/ (November 20, 2019), author profile.
Buddy Levy
Biography:
Buddy Levy is in his 26th year of teaching courses at Washington State University.
Levy’s areas of interest and expertise include narrative history, memoir, travel and adventure writing, nature writing, journalism, editing and publishing, and biography.
From 2010-2012 Levy was a cast member of the HISTORY channel television series Brad Meltzer’s DECODED, which ran for two seasons (25 hour-long episodes) and is currently airing on H2 (History 2).
Recent Publications:
As a writer Levy is the author of Geronimo: Leadership Lessons of An American Warrior (co-authored with Mike Leach, Simon & Schuster, May 2014); River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana’s Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery Down the Amazon (Bantam Dell, 2011). His other books includeConquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs (Bantam Dell, 2008), which was a finalist for the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award, 2009, and nominated for the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award, 2009, and the PEN Center USA Award 2009; American Legend: The Real-Life Adventures of David Crockett (Putnam, 2005, Berkley Books, 2006); and Echoes On Rimrock: In Pursuit of the Chukar Partridge (Pruett, 1998). His books have been published in six languages.
As a freelance journalist he has covered adventure sports and lifestyle/travel subjects around the world, including numerous Eco-Challenges and other adventure expeditions in Argentina, Borneo, Europe, Greenland, Morocco, and the Philippines. His magazine articles and essays have appeared in Alaska Airlines Magazine, Backpacker, Big Sky Journal, Canoe & Kayak, Couloir, Discover, Hemispheres, High Desert Journal, Horizon Air Magazine, Poets & Writers, River Teeth, SKI, Sun Valley Magazine, Trail Runner, TV Guide, VIA, Utne Reader, and Writer’s Digest. He is clinical associate professor of English at Washington State University, and lives in northern Idaho as an empty nester with his wife Camie and their black labs Dugan and CJ.
Contact
Avery Hall 365
335-7476
buddy@buddylevy.com
Buddy Levy’s website
B
Buddy Levy is a writer, educator, public speaker and entertainer. He is a co-star of the hit television series Brad Meltzer's DECODED on HISTORY.
As a writer Levy is the author of, with Erik Weihenmayer, NO BARRIERS: A Blind Man's Journey to Kayak the Grand Canyon (Thomas Dunne Books, 2017); Geronimo: Leadership Strategies of an American Warrior (co-written with Mike Leach--Simon & Schuster, May 6, 2014); River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana's Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery Down the Amazon (Bantam Dell, 2011). His other books include Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs (Bantam Dell, 2008), which was a finalist for the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award, 2009, and nominated for the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award, 2009, and the PEN Center USA Award 2009; American Legend: The Real-Life Adventures of David Crockett (Putnam, 2005, Berkley Books, 2006); and Echoes On Rimrock: In Pursuit of the Chukar Partridge (Pruett, 1998). His books have been published in six languages.
As a freelance journalist he has covered adventure sports and lifestyle/travel subjects around the world, including several Eco-Challenges and other adventure expeditions in Argentina, Borneo, Europe, Greenland, Morocco, and the Philippines. His magazine articles and essays have appeared in Alaska Airlines Magazine, Backpacker, Big Sky Journal, Couloir, Discover, Hemispheres, High Desert Journal, Poets & Writers, River Teeth, Ski, Trail Runner, Utne Reader, TV Guide, and VIA. His books have been well reviewed in The A.V. Club, The Wall Street Journal, Kirkus Reviews, The Washington Times, Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal. He is Clinical Professor of English at Washington State University, and lives in northern Idaho with his wife Camie, and his black Labs Dugan and CJ.
BUDDY LEVY is the author of No Barriers: A Blind Man’s Journey to Kayak the Grand Canyon, GERONIMO: Leadership Strategies of An American Warrior, and River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana’s Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery Down the Amazon. His books have been published in seven languages. He lives in Idaho.
Buddy Levy: The Man, The Myth, The Writer
By: Murrow News - Sara Quenzer
January 23, 2019
His office curtains are shut tight to fend off the many distractions of Moscow, Idaho’s historic district. The shelves are packed with books and dozens of completed journals. Masks from Peru hang from the walls, while a rock from Morocco and a fish knick-knack from Borneo sit on subtle display: tangible memories from a life of adventure.
In this room, Buddy Levy writes.
“I’m a bit of a marathon writer,” Levy said. “Once I start writing I do these hellacious bursts sometimes of 12 to 14 hours a day, which I don’t recommend for health and wellness.”
Levy, 58, is a freelance writer, a TV personality, and an English professor at Washington State University with 31 years of teaching experience. He has travelled the world and writes narrative history books and articles in the realm of travel and adventure journalism. His articles have been published everywhere from “Alaska Airlines Magazine” to “Discover,” and among his seven books are: “No Barriers: A Blind Man’s Journey to Kayak the Grand Canyon,” a book about blind adventurer Erik Weihenmayer, and “Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs,” which is in preliminary development to become a television series.
Levy was one of the four hosts on “Decoded,” a historical mystery solving show that aired on the History Channel from 2010 to 2012. He recently appeared as a talking head in, “The Men Who Built America: FRONTIERSMEN,” which was executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio on the History Channel. His next book, due for release next year, is “Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition.”
Despite these accomplishments, Levy flies relatively under the radar at WSU. Except, of course, in the English department.
“He was a celebrity in our own department and students loved having someone in class they’d seen in other venues,” said fellow English professor Bryan Fry, 41.
Though “Decoded” was cancelled in 2012 and street recognitions have lessened, Levy’s reputation with English students has remained.
“There’s always something new every day, and you know that you should cherish the time because it’s gonna go by in like five minutes,” said Brandon Parkinson, a senior and English major.
Parkinson and his classmates in “English 451: Advanced Creative Writing” know to drag their desks into a circle before Levy arrives. They pull out their laptops and chat while they wait, and when he walks in, they’re prepared to encourage some tangents and interesting anecdotes before workshopping each other’s fictional stories.
Students are not limited to interaction with Levy inside of class. In collaboration with other English professors such as Fry, Levy is always willing to help a student in whom he sees potential.
“Mentorship is pretty fulfilling to me,” Levy said.
Said Fry: “When we find someone who has the fire in the belly, we have often tried to help that student collectively to see how to help get them moving forward.”
When Levy was first starting out himself, he knew he wanted to be a writer. He grew up in Sun Valley, Idaho, five minutes from Ketchum, Idaho, where Ernest Hemingway committed suicide. His first babysitter was Ernest’s granddaughter, Margaux Hemingway, and Ernest’s eldest son, Jack Hemingway, wrote the foreword in Levy’s first book, “Echoes on Rimrock: In Pursuit of the Chukar Partridge.” In Levy’s office, there’s an old picture of him and his brother with the Sun Valley ski team in 1972. Levy had a pen in his front right pants pocket.
“See, I was already a writer,” Levy said. He still keeps a pen in the same place.
Levy was 14 when his first fictional short story, “Opening Day for Danny,” was published in “The Wood River Journal.”
What really started Levy’s career was his interest in a sport called adventure-racing, which is all about surviving in the wilderness. Levy recognized a friend on the adventure-racing show “Eco-Challenge” and got in touch. When the friend recommended Levy visit Morocco with him and his Idaho adventure racing team, Levy made a pitch to the Discovery Channel. They approved it, and they told him if he could get himself to Morocco then he could spend time with the racers and write a story.
“I took a risk and bought a plane ticket,” Levy said. “The plane ticket was more than I got paid for the article, but it was one of those bets you make on yourself.”
The trip resulted in seven more years of content based on adventure-racing. This further resulted in some near-death experiences including riding in a helicopter during a windstorm and almost crashing into a mountain. Levy also learned a lot about networking.
Levy traveled to Greenland to cover a story for the magazines “Adventure Journal” and “Canoe & Kayak,” about Erik Weihenmayer – a blind adventurer who had summited Mount Everest. Levy does not feel he has written his magnum opus.
“In my case it’s more the relationship-building,” Levy said. “One story on Erik morphed into four or five more plus a book.”
Levy built another relationship with a more widely known WSU celebrity: the 57-year-old coach of the WSU football team, Mike Leach. Levy and Leach talked over the phone about possibly writing a book together months before Leach was hired at WSU, and he had no idea Levy was a fellow staff member until Levy visited him in his office.
“It was one of the biggest coincidences of my life,” Leach said.
They then began collaborating on “Geronimo: Leadership Strategies of an American Warrior.” They often worked together in Cafe Moro and Leach said he would work with Levy again though there isn’t anything planned right now.
“He’s a very steady, stable guy – hilarious, has a ton of interests and hobbies,” Leach said. “It’s one of those things where we never have enough time together.”
The same man who shuts himself in an office in Moscow for hours on end, who has students clap at the end of each peer workshop, who many members of the WSU community wouldn’t know by name or face, has also climbed a cliff with a blind adventurer, slept in hammocks between jungle trees and screeching howler monkeys, and followed the same route the conquistadors took to stand in the Paso de Cortés and look over the valley of Mexico just as they did.
“There’s a largeness to those stories and so there’s a largeness to Buddy,” Fry said.
profile, WSU
Author’s Note:
Sara Quenzer is a junior journalism and creative writing major in Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. She is also managing editor of WSU’s student literary journal, LandEscapes.
Moscow author Buddy Levy on turning his book into a TV series
Posted By: Jennifer K Bauer
Posted date: June 20, 2018
Moscow author Buddy Levy holds an anaconda snake skin during his travels to research history.
(Photo courtesy Buddy Levy)
Moscow author Buddy Levy has travelled the world to find the truth behind legends like David Crockett and King Montezuma.
Fans of his books often think they’d make great movies or series, and over the years Hollywood has shown some interest. Now one project appears to be taking off. Levy’s 2007 book tracing the fall of the Aztec empire, “Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs,” has been optioned to become a limited series by Overbrook Entertainment.
“Caleeb Pinkett of Overbrook called me about a year ago,” Levy said in a phone interview this week. “He’d just read the book and he was fired up. … We had a great discussion about the book and what it would look like, potentially, as a television project. I was really struck by his enthusiasm and the depth of his understanding of history,” Levy said.
Pinkett is the president of Overbrook, a production company owned by his brother-in-law, actor and producer Will Smith.
Simultaneously, Levy was contacted by Don Handfield, who co-produced “The Founder,” starring Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc. Handfield is also co-creator and producer of the History Channel drama series “Knightfall.”
The three met last November and are now working together to make the book into a series. The first step will be to sell the idea to a major distributor like Netflix, Amazon or a similar company, said Levy, who retained creative control in the project and is writing speculative scripts to show to interested parties.
“When I wrote it, I kind of conceived it cinematically. There’s always the dream of how this thing would look on screen,” he said. “To do it right, this is such a magnificent story, down to the wardrobe of the Aztecs and conquistadors.”
Another important step is to recruit major talent to play the central characters, Cortez and Montezuma.
“There’s also a great role for a woman,” Levy said.
This is Malinche, a Mayan slave in her teens given to Cortez in a trade. She spoke several languages and became his interpreter.
Levy said there has been a lot of interest in the book over the years, but he believes the time is ripe for this epic tale to come to screens. The surge in streaming services has increased demand for engaging content. The success of streaming TV has also changed the way major actors feel about starring on television. There’s no longer a stigma against it, he said.
Levy teaches English at Washington State University. He’s finishing a new book, “Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition,” about a disastrous 1881 American trek to the North Pole to set up the most northern international polar weather station. The story has scientific implications that carry into the present day.
Hollywood has shown interest in other books he’s written, Levy said. Among them is “River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana’s Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery Down the Amazon.”
He also thinks his biography “American Legend: The Real-Life Adventures of David Crockett” would be an update on the 1955 Walt Disney film starring Fess Parker.
“Another go-round of that would be much truer to the real life story of the man,” said Levy, who was featured this spring in two episodes of the History channel show “The Men Who Built America: Frontiersmen” that told Crockett’s story.
Buddy Levy
Author, Journalist, and Entertainer
Contact Buddy
Buddy Levy is the author of seven books and his work has been featured or reviewed in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Kirkus Book Reviews, Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal. He has also appeared frequently on national radio—including The Dennis Prager Show, NPR, and Rudy Maxa’s World. He was the co-star, for 25 episodes from 2010-2012, on HISTORY Channel’s hit docuseries Brad Meltzer’s DECODED, which aired to an average of 1.7 million weekly viewers and is still airing as reruns today.
As a book writer Levy is the author of the National Bestseller No Barriers: A Blind Man’s Journey to Kayak the Grand Canyon (with Erik Weihenmayer; Thomas Dunne Books, February, 2017); GERONIMO: The Life and Times of An American Warrior (co-authoring with Coach Mike Leach, Simon & Schuster, 2014) and River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana’s Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery Down the Amazon (Bantam Dell, 2011). His other books include the critically acclaimed and Amazon #1 Bestseller Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs (Bantam Dell, 2008), which is currently in development for a television series in collaboration with Don Handfield (Knightfall, The Founder) of MOTOR; American Legend: The Real-Life Adventures of David Crockett (Putnam, 2005, Berkley Books, 2006); and Echoes On Rimrock: In Pursuit of the Chukar Partridge (Pruett, 1998). His books have been published in six languages.
As a freelance journalist he has covered adventure sports and lifestyle/travel subjects around the world, including working with TV impresario Mark Burnett on numerous Eco-Challenges, and other adventure expeditions in Argentina, Borneo, Europe, Greenland, Morocco, and the Philippines. His magazine articles and essays have appeared in Alaska Beyond Airlines Magazine, Backpacker, Big Sky Journal, Couloir, Discover, Hemispheres, Horizon Air Magazine, High Desert Journal, Narrative, Poets & Writers, River Teeth, Ski, Sun Valley Magazine, Trail Runner, Utne Reader, TV Guide, and VIA.
His interests are wide-ranging: discovery and adventure, the mountain men, arctic exploration travail, clashes of empires and civilizations, and riveting human stories of survival. He is clinical professor of English at Washington State University, and lives in northern Idaho. He is currently writing Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition (St. Martins, 2019).
CONTACT INFO:
Buddy Levy
208.301.0168
buddy@buddylevy.com
Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greeley Polar Expedition
Buddy Levy. St. Martin's, $29.99 (400p) ISBN 978-1-250-18219-7
Levy (River of Darkness) recounts the story of the 1881-1884 Lady Franklin Bay Expedition in this evocative, deeply researched account. Led by Lt. Adolphus W. Greeley, the U.S. Army Signal Corps expedition sought to establish a research station in the Canadian Arctic; collect "magnetic, astronomical, and meteorological data"; search for the lost crew of the USS Jeannette; and reach "farthest north," the highest northern latitude achieved by explorers. Greeley and his men built Fort Conger on the northeast coast of Ellesmere Island and survived wolf attacks, temperatures approaching -100 [degrees]F, and "months of total darkness." Relief ships, hindered by bad weather and ice floes, failed to reach the fort, however, and in August 1883 the group set out on a 200-mile journey south from Fort Conger to Cape Sabine, where Greeley was under orders to take his men if two consecutive resupply efforts failed. But only a small cache of emergency rations had been left by the relief ships, and 18 members of the 25-man crew died before rescuers arrived in June 1884. Levy meticulously documents the expedition's scientific achievements and praises Greeley's leadership skills. He also gives credit to Greeley's wife, Henrietta, for lobbying President Chester A. Arthur and other U.S. government officials to keep up rescue efforts. The result is an intense historical adventure with modern-day relevance for the climate change debate. Agent: Scott Waxman, Waxman Literary. (Dec.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greeley Polar Expedition." Publishers Weekly, 14 Oct. 2019, p. 61+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A603319030/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=d4d4d6e4. Accessed 10 Nov. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A603319030
Levy, Buddy LABYRINTH OF ICE St. Martin's (Adult Nonfiction) $29.99 12, 3 ISBN: 978-1-250-18219-7
A blow-by-blow account of the Greely Expedition to the northernmost polar regions from 1881 to 1884.
In the lore of Arctic exploration, the Greely Expedition, aka the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, holds a special place. Named after its commanding officer, Lt. Adolphus Greely, the expedition, comprised of 24 scientists and explorers, achieved the distinction of making a documented foray to the farthest north, but it also carried accusations of cannibalism during its last days afield before rescue. In this highly detailed account, Levy (River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana's Legendary Voyage of Death and Discovery Down the Amazon, 2011, etc.) makes full use of all the writings--journals, books, and articles--that the expedition spawned. The adventurers wanted to establish a chain of research stations to collect data on the region, and they also set out to search for survivors of the USS Jeannette expedition, which had disappeared two years prior. Furthermore, they sought to "attain Farthest North, an explorer's holy grail of the highest northern latitude, which had been held by the British" for three centuries. Levy does a remarkable job of keeping things lively despite the crush of detail ("it carried a load of five thousand pounds of coal (in thirty-nine bags), gear, and men, drawing five feet of water"). When Greely finally decides to make a dash for it, having waited in vain for two years for supply ships to rendezvous with his team, the author comes into his own, grippingly chronicling their harrowing journey. Through the bitter cold and long nights, the men slogged in retreat south, suffering frostbite so bad that one explorer pleaded, "Oh, will you kill me? Please." They ate the soles of their boots and, later, "nothing but a few swigs of water since eating the last of Greely's sleeping bag cover." Levy presents the evidence for cannibalism in a balanced manner, and he does a solid job situating the expedition's scientific achievements in the history of polar exploration.
A graphic tale of horrific deprivation that is sure to be the benchmark account.
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Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Levy, Buddy: LABYRINTH OF ICE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Oct. 2019, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A601050343/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=36ea1d00. Accessed 10 Nov. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A601050343