Princeton resident Charles Neider has travelled to Antarctica three times. His travels are the focus of his newest volume of work, ‘The Grotto Berg.’
By: Faith Bahadurian
PRINCETON Charles Neider was first drawn to the fierce beauty of Antarctica in 1931 when, at 16, he heard legendary explorer Richard E. Byrd speak about his 1928-30 explorations there.
Over the course of three visits between 1969 and 1977 Mr. Neider became a devoted "literary explorer" of the Antarctic, and one of its best-known photographers. He is the only humanist to have been funded by the U.S. Government to travel to that region and write about it.
"I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the United States, and this book is a way of repaying that," said Charles Neider, author of "The Grotto Berg" (Cooper Square Press, $22.95).
At 86, the long-time Princeton resident is celebrating not just this new volume containing two novellas the second one is "The Left Eye Cries First" but the fact that eight of his previous books were re-released in 2000, and more are on the way this year. He is excited because he recently signed a contract for the October 2001 release of "Adam’s Burden," a book he is working on about his ongoing fight with cancer.
Mr. Neider’s 1974 book of stunning Antarctic photography, "Edge of the World: Ross Island, Antarctica" is among those being reprinted, due out in a couple of months. "While I was there, I existed in a state of grace," Mr. Neider reminisces.
His guardian angel must have worked overtime on Jan. 9, 1971, the day the helicopter he was riding in crashed on the slopes of Mount Erebus. Mr. Neider and the three other passengers survived, but were stranded at 12,200 feet in minus 31 degrees. Their lives hung in the balance during the 12 hours they waited to be rescued by another helicopter.
The group’s survival can be credited to Mr. Neider he was the only one carrying survival gear. Although he was prepared to die gracefully, the professional observer in him came out when he took off his gloves to change the film in his camera, so he could take pictures, suffering frostbite as a result. The harrowing experience became his 1986 novel, "Overflight."
One would think such daredevil exploits indicate a life of constant physical adventure. However, besides being a pre-eminent chronicler of Antarctica, which he characterizes as "the last great common on earth… almost extraterrestrial in its pristine beauty and majesty," Charles Neider is also a renowned "explorer" of Mark Twain.
He has published dozens of books, including novels, nonfiction works and edited collections, covering subjects as diverse as shipwrecks, insects, pilgrims, Robert Louis Stevenson, George Washington and Mark Twain. The many books on Mark Twain were a labor of love for Mr. Neider, who "discovered" the author when he was researching his 1956 novel, "The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones" (later made into the 1961 movie, "One-Eyed Jacks").
Twain seemed to have fallen into a black hole in publishing, with many of his works available only in old periodicals and limited collections. Some were still in manuscript form. Mr. Neider set out to edit collections of Twain’s work, several of which are among the current titles being reissued.
The Neiders were originally drawn to Princeton to see their friend Thomas Mann’s collections at Princeton University. Mr. Neider and his wife, a German literature scholar, moved here in 1962, looking for a well-located town in which to raise their daughter, Susy.
Originally trained in organic chemistry, Susan Neider has also become an accomplished photographer.
For all his contributions in preserving American literature and history, Mr. Neider is not an academic. It may be that his interests are too broad ranging to be corralled into any one scholarly niche.
"The Grotto Berg" is a psychological thriller, based on the author’s own time spent on Navy icebreakers, where the real grotto berg was an awe-inspiring sight and a literary inspiration to Mr. Neider. His spectacular photo of it graces the cover of the book.
Set in the Southern Ocean, a wild and remote juncture of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, the vast frozen landscape and the near intolerable weather become powerful characters in the novella.
The plot is simple, but the dark currents motivating Jack Tourneau, the captain of the Penguin, a military icebreaker ship, are fathoms deep. Tourneau takes a strange dislike to his unwanted passenger, George Barber, a photographer with senatorial connections that have allowed him to join the ship much as Mr. Neider himself did many years ago.
As the weather worsens, so does the relationship between the Captain and Barber. Relegated to the least commodious bunks in the ship, and banned from the officers’ table, Barber strangely offers little objection, until he is forbidden access to the bridge of the ship in bad weather, to take the pictures that are the object of his trip. At that point he wires for help, and Tourneau is ordered by his superior to allow his guest access to all decks on board.
Access is granted, and Tourneau starts "courting" Barber, taking risks in approaching too close to giant "bergs," ostensibly to offer better photographic opportunities. The crew, and the narrator, watch and fear the worst. In one surrealistic scene, Barber is invited to dine with the captain, who sports a flashy jeweled ring. Tourneau, in a kind of compulsive showing-off, repeatedly leaves the table to pass behind a curtain, each time re-emerging wearing a different over-the-top ring.
When asked about his knowledge of rare gemstones shown in the detailed descriptions of the rings, Mr. Neider said, "I’ve owned most of them." He laughed. "My daughter loves diamonds, Burmese sapphires, blue stones. But I love rubies, which are rarer than diamonds."
He launched into a discourse on the two kinds of Burmese rubies, Mogok and Manchu, and the merits of unheated Mogok rubies some are heated to clarify the color, but they are less valuable.
"The Grotto Berg" climaxes when the Penguin comes upon a huge tabular berg, with three giant grottos in its side created by avalanches. The grottos are so large, a ship’s bow can actually nose into them. Put that together with a mean spirited show-off captain, and disaster is inevitable.
The companion novella, "The Left Eye Cries First," has a very different setting, but is no less rooted in the author’s past. Mr. Neider was born in the Ukraine, but when he was 5, the family immigrated to America to escape German atrocities. His grandparents, not believing they were in danger, remained and perished.
In "The Left Eye Cries First," the aging protagonist, Sid Little, travels with his wife from his American home to his childhood homeland in a decaying Russia. Back home his best friend is slowly dying, and Sid has refused to write the obituary the dying man’s wife has requested.
But in Russia, Sid starts to regain the elusive memories of his childhood, and then is befriended by a vibrant young America woman. When tragedy strikes, Sid is changed by his realization of the enormous fragility of life, and its redemptive possibilities.
The grotto berg may be slowly breaking up in the Southern Ocean, but it is still a living force in Mr. Neider’s mind, as are the circumstances of his childhood.
These novellas have been on the author’s mind for a long time. He frequently refers to working on them in articles and interviews dating back many years. He must have known that the time was right, that he now had the perspective and wisdom to make them so wonderfully probing and emotionally evocative.
And the reviews have been positive. Publishers Weekly wrote "Neider projects a powerfully quirky vision, and the tales are never less than absorbing," and Library Journal calls the two novellas "incredibly vivid" and "compelling."
Charles Neider is enthusiastic about life, and very excited about his publishing activity, a windfall really. He counts himself a lucky man, grateful to have had these experiences he has so enjoyed, especially his Antarctic adventures.
He says that 1971 helicopter crash was good preparation for his fight with cancer. "I’m not scared. I go to bed at night and sleep well. I don’t worry about it, and I’m a happy man."