Joan N. Boothe has been fascinated with stories of Antarctic adventure and exploration since childhood. In 1995, after many years working in the worlds of economics, finance, and teaching business administration to graduate business students, she at last made her first trip to Antarctica and saw where so many things she had read about took place. Ms. Boothe has returned to the Antarctic regions many times since, including making a 67-day circumnavigation of the entire Antarctic continent aboard an icebreaker. In 2010, she taught a course on Antarctica's Heroic Age for Stanford University's continuing studies program. Ms. Boothe has two children, both raised in San Francisco, California, where she and her husband have lived since 1970.

. . . expertly rendered history of Antarctic's most-visited region. . . . Boothe . . . tells the [explorers'] stories with such authority, readers forget she was not part of their expeditions [as she] captures their motives, struggles, heartbreaks and triumphs. . . . serious readers, armchair historians and geography or maritime buffs will find it a most rewarding journey. --Kirkus Reviews, which awarded The Storied Ice a Kirkus Star as a book of remarkable merit.

. . . a wonderfully researched book . . . Even the most hardened Antarctic aficionado will enjoy this freshly written [and] . . . important book. . . . a must read for anyone going to the Antarctic Peninsula. . . . a beautifully written . . . book to fill in the history of this most visited . . . region of [Antarctica] --Antarctican Society Newsletter

. . . much more than a modern update of the exploration of the area . . . every expedition has been re-analyzed by the author. . . The reproduction of contemporary illustrations from the expeditions . . . make the stories come alive. . . . this will become the handbook to use when referring to the history of this part of the Antarctic. . . fills an important gap in every Antarctic library. . . . a must for anybody interested in South Georgia, the sub-Antarctic islands, and the Antarctic Peninsula from a historical point of view. It is both easy to read and to use as a reference book, and . . . fascinating. --The Upland Goose and The Polar Post