For the past week, author Michael Smith has been touring schools and libraries in Kerry to mark Irish Book week. His book, An Unsung Hero - Tom Crean: Antarctic Explorer, has been a runaway success for the Collins Press with 18,000 copies sold since last October, and plans by Hodder-Headline to bring it out in Britain next September.
Crean, from Annascaul, was with Shackleton on the legendary Endurance expedition. His story is the stuff of schoolboy dreams: running away from home at an early age and becoming part of the heroic age of Polar exploration.
The author brought the Kerry hero alive for young pupils in seven schools during his visit. "I am absolutely gobsmacked by the reaction of the Irish people to this story. The book has captured the imagination of the Irish public and should do the same in Britain later this year," he said.
The lecture tour ended in the South Pole Inn at Annascaul where a simple plaque above the door bears the legend, "Tom Crean, Antarctic Explorer, 1877-1938", and where the author began his researches.
Smith says expedition leaders such as Scott and Shackleton received all the glory while the courage of men like Tom Crean often went unnoticed.
The book, containing many photographs not published before, is the definitive and lasting account of an indomitable son of Kerry.