My Life as an Explorer is a classis of Polar literature, written by the one man to do more to further the exploration of both Polar Regions than any other person. First sailing to the Antarctic in the 1899 Belgian expedition, Amundsen never lost his passion for exploring, following this trip with a journey around the top of Canada to prove the existence of the North West Passage between 1903 and 1906. Setting sail for the Antarctic a full month or so after Scott, Amundsen still managed to beat the British team to the Pole by a full month. Making a lot of money out of shipping during the First World War, Amundsen followed his epic journeys by being only the second man to travel around the top of Siberia from Atlantic to Pacific oceans, then flying over the North Pole by airship. He died in 1928.