Review of The life of José María Sobral: scientist, diarist, and pioneer in Antarctica, by Mary R. Tahan (2018). Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. 336 pp. ISBN 978-3-319-67267-0

A very young man, the first Argentine to explore and work in Antarctica, a man alone in many ways, a man who kept a diary: José María Sobral (1880–1961) was a member of the Swedish South Polar Expedition (1901–1903) shore party of six men, headed by Professor Otto Nordenskjöld, which worked on Snow Hill Island off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. His presence among the Scandinavians was a trade-off for the support of the Argentine government, which had supplied food and provisions. Sobral, a 21-year-old under-lieutenant in the Argentine navy, performed expedition work in meteorology