Antarctica, or Two Years Amongst the Ice of the South Pole By Dr. N. Otto G. Nordenskjöld and Dr. Joh. Gunnar Andersson.

Nordenskjöld, Otto. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1905. [Another edition was published in Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1977.].
  • 1901-04 Swedish Antarctic Expedition (Otto Nordenskjöld).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Nordenskjöld was a Swedish geologist with a genetic link to polar research through his uncle Adolph. The account in this book covers one of the epic narratives of polar survival on an expedition that produced some important geological findings.

“Antarctic” zwei Jahre in Schnee und Eis am Südpol.

Nordenskjöld, Otto. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer, 1904.
  • 1901-04 Swedish Antarctic Expedition (Otto Nordenskjöld).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

The German edition of Nordenskjöld’s book contains several photographs of reading spaces, esp. opp. p. 210, the author at his worktable.

Saga of the White Horizon.

Olsen, Magnus L. Lymington, UK: Nautical Publishing Company, 1972.
  • 1901-04 Swedish Antarctic Expedition (Otto Nordenskjöld).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Olsen was a Norwegian aviator who participated in the Ellsworth/ Trans-Antarctic/Polar Star expedition between 1933 and 1936 as support on the three attempts to make the trip. On one occasion, during the later portion of these trips, the Wyatt Earp anchored at Snow Hill Island and the men visited the place where Otto Nordenskjöld wintered and built a winter house over thirty years earlier.

The Voyage of the “Scotia” Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration in Antarctic Seas. By Three of the Staff.

Brown, R. N. Rudmose, et al. Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1906.
  • 1902-04 Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (Bruce on Scotia).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

An account by various authors of the Scotia Expedition of 1902-04, led by Robert Speirs Bruce. The Preface, signed by the three authors [Brown, R.C. Mossman, and J.H. Pirie], gives some flavor of one unusual aspect of the Scotia voyage, a Scottish expedition in direct scientific competition with Scott: “There is still a lurking tendency to judge an expedition of exploration largely by the sensational character of its adventures, and to crown with plaudits of approval men who can lay claim to have escaped half a dozen times from a near and overshadowing death. Every expedition—particularly those to such unknown and inhospitabl regions as the Antarctic—must of course meet with its full quota of adventure, but Polar seas are not the place to court it, and to play with death a such close quarter’s is but a fool’s game…, but the fewer adventures the more content must the really earnest explorer be, and it may be very truly said that the less sensation a traveller has to recount the better and more far-seen were his preparations. And this is the only apology that the authors would offer should the reader regret that they were not more frequently at death’s door during the two years of the Scotia’s voyage.” That could appear a self-serving way of explaining the less dramatic but very solid scientific accomplishments of this expedition when compared with those of Scott, Mawson, and Shackleton.

The Log of the Scotia Expedition, 1902-4.

Bruce, William Speirs. Edited by Peter Speak. With a foreword by Sir Vivian Fuchs. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1992.
  • 1902-04 Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (Bruce on Scotia).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

First Edition of the narrative of the 1902-04 Scotia Expedition to the Antarctic, published 90 years later, including Bruce's log, photographs, and plans as originally intended. Speak has added an introduction, explanatory notes, and a glossary of scientific terms.

Gilded Youth: Three Lives in France’s Belle Epoque

Cambor, Kate. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009.
  • 1908-10 Second French South Polar Expedition (Charcot on Pourquoi-pas?).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Focuses on three notable children of famous French families: Jeanne Hugo (granddaughter of Victor Hugo), Jean-Baptiste Charcot (son of neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot), and Leon Daudet (son of Alphonse). Chapter 8 “The Heiress and the Polar Gentleman” concerns Jean-Baptiste Charcot, his two Antarctic voyages, and his much later death by drowning off Iceland. Cambor makes about 15 relatively minor mistakes in the Charcot chapter, enough to wonder about other less-familiar parts of the book.

The Voyage of the ‘Why Not ?’ in the Antarctic: the Journal of the Second French South Polar Expedition, 1908-1910

English Version by Philip Wash. New York, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1911. [Reprinted Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1978].
  • 1908-10 Second French South Polar Expedition (Charcot on Pourquoi-pas?).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Charcot’s is a rather ponderous book about an important expedition, with several historical excurses in which he consistently praises Antarctic explorers, as if to elevate himself.

To the Sixth Continent: The Second German South Polar Expedition.

Filchner, Wilhelm. Bluntisham, UK: Bluntisham Books, 1994.
  • 1911-13 Second German Antarctic Expedition (Filchner).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Filchner’s original plans mirrored Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition a few years later, with two ships and men starting from both the Weddell Sea and the Ross Sea then meeting mid-way. Shackleton and Nordenskjöld helped him get a ship, the Deutschland, but he could get only one and went only to the Weddell Sea. He named the iceshelf after Kaiser Wilhelm II, but the Kaiser renamed it after Filchner. The ship was trapped in ice but was freed in the austral summer of 1912. The expedition is noted for its animosities, hostility not indicated in the passages here.

The Adelie Blizzard: Mawson’s Forgotten Newspaper 1913.

Preface by Emma McEwin. Introduction by Elizabeth Leane and Mark Pharoah. Adelaide: Friends of the State Library of South Australia…, 2010.
  • 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (Mawson).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

An elegant facsimile of the newspaper of Douglas Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1913, taken from the only extant copy. The AAE had a well-stocked library, and though much of the content of the Blizzard was poetic doggerel, there was both serious and satiric discussion of books and also a series in each issue on Polar exploration, based on some of the library’s books.

Mawson: a Life.

Ayres, Philip. Melbourne, Aus.: The Miegunyah Press, 1999.
  • 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (Mawson).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A balanced biography of Mawson, emphasizing his achievements but not ignoring his sometimes depressive personality and temper.

This Accursed Land.

Bickel, Lennard. Melbourne: Macmillan, 1977.
  • 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (Mawson).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Bickel notes the absence of “heroics” in Home of the Blizzard, betrayed by his journals, however modest. An earlier version of Mawson’s Will, with some additional reading passages.

Born Adventurer: The Life of Frank Bickerton, Antarctic Pioneer.

Haddelsey, Stephen. Stroud, UK: Sutton Publishing, 2005.
  • 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (Mawson).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Bickerton was a member of Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition, but resigned from Shackleton’s Endurance to join the war effort before Shackleton left for Antarctica. Although this is a full biography of Bickerton, the story of the AAE takes up the first half of the book, followed by a separate chapter on the Endurance. John King Davis, a multi-facited friend of Mawson, served as captain of Aurora, irritating a good number of officers and men, though seldom Mawson.

The Ice and the Inland: Mawson, Flynn, and the Myth of the Frontier.

Hains, Brigid. Melbourne, AU; Melbourne University Press, 2002.
  • 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (Mawson).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A comparative study of two frontiersmen, Douglas Mawson’s work in Antarctica (mostly 1911-14) and John Flynn, a Presbyterian minister of the Australian Inland Mission. Concentrating on the AAE (1911-14) Hains has gone through many if not all of the diaries of participants, taking special note of their books and reading, more so than any expedition I know of.