Thor Heyerdahl (NOR)

Thor Heyerdahl (October 6, 1914 – April 18, 2002) was a Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer with a background in biology, zoology, botany, and geography. He became notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 km (5,000 mi) across the Pacific Ocean in a hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. The expedition was designed to demonstrate that ancient people could have made long sea voyages, creating contacts between apparently separate cultures. This was linked to a diffusionist model of cultural development. Heyerdahl subsequently made other voyages designed to demonstrate the possibility of contact between widely separated ancient peoples. He was appointed a government scholar in 1984.

In May 2011, the Thor Heyerdahl Archives were added to UNESCO's "Memory of the World" Register.[1] At the time, this list included 238 collections from all over the world.[2] The Heyerdahl Archives span the years 1937 to 2002 and include his photographic collection, diaries, private letters, expedition plans, articles, newspaper clippings, original book, and article manuscripts. The Heyerdahl Archives are administered by the Kon-Tiki Museumand the National Library of Norway in Oslo.

Books: 

På Jakt efter Paradiset (Hunt for Paradise), 1938; Fatu-Hiva: Back to Nature (changed title in English in 1974).
The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas (Kon-Tiki ekspedisjonen, also known as Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft), 1948.
American Indians in the Pacific: The Theory Behind the Kon-Tiki Expedition (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1952), 821 pages.
Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island ISBN 0-14-001454-3
Sea Routes to Polynesia: American Indians and Early Asiatics in the Pacific (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1968), 232 pages.
The Ra Expeditions ISBN 0-14-003462-5.
Early Man and the Ocean: The Beginning of Navigation and Seaborn Civilizations
The Tigris Expedition: In Search of Our Beginnings
The Maldive Mystery
Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day: Memories and Journeys of a Lifetime
Pyramids of Tucume: The Quest for Peru's Forgotten City
In the Footsteps of Adam: A Memoir (the official edition is Abacus, 2001, translated by Ingrid Christophersen) ISBN 0-349-11273-8
Ingen grenser (No Boundaries, Norwegian only), 1999
Jakten på Odin (Theories about Odin, Norwegian only), 2001

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl