Buddy Levy

Buddy Levy (born February 2, 1960) is a professor of writing at Washington State University, a freelance magazine writer, TV personality, and author of nine non-fiction books.

Biography Levy was born February 2, 1960, in New Orleans, and grew up in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Career Levy is a freelance magazine writer in the realm of travel and adventure journalism. He has written for Discover, Field & Stream, Canoe & Kayak, Hemispheres, and others.

American Legend: The Real-Life Adventures of David Crockett (2005) is a biography of David Crockett, and Levy's first work of history. He contends Crocket's autobiography prefigures the literary genre of realism. A Publishers Weekly review says that Levy exposed some of Crockett's deficiencies without making judgements.

Between 2020 and 2025, Levy published the "Ice" trilogy, set during the golden age of polar exploration (1865 to 1928). The books are Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition about the Greely Expedition (1881–1884). Next is Empire of Ice & Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk, about the last voyage of the Karluk (1913–1916) in the Pacific Arctic region. Finally he published Realm of Ice and Sky: Triumph, Tragedy, and History's Greatest Arctic Rescue, a tri-biography of attempts to reach the North Pole by airship between 1906 and 1928. He restores the reputations of Walter Wellman as a genuine innovator and explorer; and that of Italian commander Umberto Nobile, who had been unfairly maligned by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and Benito Mussolini.

Awards and honors 2024 Audie Award for History or Biography, finalist, Empire of Ice & Stone 2023 National Outdoor Book Award, History/Biography, winner, Empire of Ice & Stone 2023 Banff Mountain Book Award, Adventure Travel, shortlist, Empire of Ice & Stone 2020 National Outdoor Book Award, History/Biography, winner, Labyrinth of Ice 2020 Banff Mountain Book Award, Adventure Travel, winner, Labyrinth of Ice

Works Realm of Ice and Sky: Triumph, Tragedy, and History's Greatest Arctic Rescue (2025) Empire of Ice & Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk (2022) Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition (2020) No Barriers: A Blind Man's Journey to Kayak the Grand Canyon (2017) Geronimo: Leadership Strategies of an American Warrior (2014) - with Mike Leach River of Darkness: Francisco Orellana and the Deadly First Voyage Through the Amazon (2011) Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs (2008) American Legend: The Real-Life Adventures of David Crockett (2005) Echoes On Rimrock: In Pursuit of the Chukar Partridge (1998) - foreword by Jack Hemingway