Zebulon: Or, The Moral Claims of Seamen Stated and Enforced.

Harris, John. First American revised edition. Boston: Gould, Kendall & Lincoln, 1837.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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A polemical tract about the neglect of the moral condition of seamen in evangelical work. The proposed solutions include development of safe Christian sailor’s homes in all major ports, banking and credit institutions so sailors will save rather than spend their money on drink and prostitutes, and provision of Bibles and literacy training for all.

Lines in the Ice: Exploring the Roof of the World.

Hatfield, Philip J. London: British Library, 2016.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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[What follows here is a review I wrote for the journal Historian, included here not as related to reading by polar explorers, but relevant to current reading about them. As far as I know this review was never published, due to some confusion between the US and UK book review editors of Historian.]

“Arctic Explorers at Work and Play, 1824-1854: Six Rare broadsides recently acquired for the rare book Collection”

Hoag, Elaine. National Library of Canada Bulletin 34 (Jan-Feb 2002) –7 pages from the web.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 3, Parry’s Hecla while wintering in the Arctic in December 1824: It was Parry who had recognized that the Arctic expeditions of his predecessors had often been jeopardized, not by the dangers of the journey itself, but by the long inactive winter layover, with its monotonous diet, unvaried company, restricted physical activity, lack of light and warmth, and simple boredom. In response, Parry instituted a highly successful wintering regime that included shipboard theatricals, concerts and masquerades among its many elements. Broadside advertisements were a natural adjunct to these activities.

“Caxtons of the North: Mid Nineteenth-century Arctic Shipboard Printing”

Hoag, Elaine. Book History 4 (2001) 81-114.
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p. 109, footnote 39: The catalogue of the Resolute library appears in the first issue (June 1850) of the Aurora Borealis, one of the manuscript newspapers produced on that voyage. The issue is held in the Edward Newell Harrison papers, MS/75/061, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. The catalogue was not reproduced in Arctic Miscellanies, the publication that reprinted selections from the Aurora Borealis after the crew returned home to England. The catalogue of the library on Belcher’s Assistance was actually printed on board ship: A Catalogue of the Library Established on Board H.M.S.Assistance, Captain Sir Edward Belcher, C.B. Commanding the Arctic Squadron in Search of Sir John Franklin and His Companions: Printed and published on Board H.M.S.Assistance, Wellington Channel, Arctic Regions, H. Briantt, Printer, 1853. (1853). A copy of this catalogue is held in the Royal Geographical Society Library bound with other pamphlets concerning the Arctic donated by John Barrow Jr. and given the binder’s title: Arctic Pamphlets, 1852-54.

Arctic Exploration.

Hoare, J. Douglas. . London: Methuen & Co., 1906.
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p. 89: Very little that is worthy of note occurred during the first winter. The monotony of the excessively dull season was, however, relieved by the appearance of a party of Eskimos, who proved to be thoroughly friendly, except on one occasion when they nearly assassinated half the party because they imagined that they had caused the death of one of the members of their tribe by witchcraft.

The Frozen Zone and Its Explorers: A Comprehensive History of Voyages, Travels, Adventures, Disasters, and Discoveries in the Arctic Regions….

Hyde, Alexander. Hartford, CT: Columbia Book CO., 1874.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 793-94, concerning the Dutch expedition at Nova Zembla in 1596, describes the Ice House of Berentz found in 1871, a house unvisited for 278 years until 1871, the house included: the books that had beguiled the weary hours of that long night, two hundred and seventy-eight years ago. The ‘History of China’ points to the goal which Barentz sought, while the ‘Manual of Navigation’ indicates the knowledge which guided his efforts. Stranger evidence never told a more deeply interesting story.

The Sketch Book.

Irving, Washington. Leipzig: Bernard Tauchnitz, 1843. Authorized Edition. [First published serially in 1819-20.].
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 12: This rambling propensity strengthened with my years. Books of voyages and travels became my passion, and in devouring their con-

Twenty Years before the Mast, Or Life in the Forecastle. … Contain an Account of His Escapes from Wild Beasts; from the Dangers of War; from British Press-Gangs; from Frequent Shipwrecks; Together with Several Remarkable Dreams… and His Conversion to God.

Isaacs, Nicholas Peter. Written by Himself, and Revised by the Editor of “Thirty Years from Home.” New York: J. P. Beckwith, 1845.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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Memoir of a sailor born in Norway, removed to England after his father’s death, and shipped as cabin boy at age ten. Sailed the world on sealers and New Bedford ships. He became one of many nineteenth-century sailors turned pious proselytizer in the name of the Holy Spirit and Providence. His rather elaborate dream sequences are redolent of John Bunyan, but apart from his dogged spiritual views there is little evidence of education or reading here. There are a few interesting passages:

The Strange and Dangerovs Voyage of Captaine Thomas Iames, in His Intended Discovery of the Northwest Passage into the South Sea….

James, Thomas. London, Legatt, 1633. [Reprint in Hakluyt Society edition of the Voyages of Luke Foxe and Thomas James. Two volumes. (London: Hakluyt Society, 1894). The James account is in Vol. II, p. 451-611.].
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 606, in a list of instruments provided for his voyage are a number of books: A Chest full of the best and choicest Mathematicall bookes that could be got for money in England; as likewise Master Hackluite and Master Purchase, and other books of Journals and Histories.

Personal Letter to David Stam, January 15, 2018.

Jakups, Deborah.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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Jakups is the Librarian of Duke University, a specialist in Latin American affairs, and an old friend. In early 2018 she served as a consultant at the Falkland Islands, when we had the following email exchange, about the book culture of the islands:

A Book of Book Lists.

Johnson, Alex. London: British Library, 2017.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 63-66, Scott’s Discovery Library, 1901. A listing of the major polar titles from the Catalogue of the Discovery, from Scott’s first expedition, together with brief commentary, plus a list of books present on his cabin shelves aboard Endurance(1914-17).;

Sir John Richardson: Arctic Explorer, Natural Historian, Naval Surgeon.

Johnson, Robert E. London: Taylor & Francis, 1976.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 71, when chief surgeon at Royal Naval Hospital Haslar: Richardson “was charged with caring for the hospital’s library and museum…. Between 1840 and 1850, he built up an important facility for research in natural history …and a first-rate library of natural history.” Visitors included Darwin, Lyell, Gray, and Hooker.

Biographical Notes.Feb. 6-1877 to Jan. 24, 1960.

Jones, Bassett. Garnered from his archives at AMNH, the Grolier Club, Columbia University Library, and the Explorers Club. The following notes are by David H. Stam, based on his Grolier Club lecture on Jones in 2007.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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Bassett Jones was a consulting engineer who graduated from MIT in 1898, who formed a consulting partnership specializing in elevator and lighting design and installation. He was also a major collector of materials dealing with the polar regions and he and Vilhjalmur Stefansson prepared a major exhibition of their collections at the Grolier Club in 1931-32. He joined the Explorers Club in 1926 when it was on 47 W 76th St. At the time of the exhibition he was living at 1088 Park Avenue and was acting President of the Explorers Club. Not all of his Explorers Club activities were entirely congenial: in April 1933 the NYTimes reported that he was being sued for $50,000 by a former librarian of the Club for asserting that the librarian had sold copies of the Club publication, As Told at the Explorers Club (New York, 1931),for his personal profit. The Times makes no further reference to this slander suit.

Libris Polaris.

Jones, Bassett. Columbia University Library Collection. Notes.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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Collection of Bassett Jones at Columbia University Library. [MS CollLibris Polaris]. Bassett Jones was a collector and member of both Explorers and Grolier Clubs. He and Stefansson did a major exhibit of polar exploration literature in English at the Grolier Club in January 1932. In that year Jones was also Acting President of the Eplorers Club. He then lived at 1088 Park Avenue. Bartlett in the National Geographic says: “ We stopped for a couple of days at Nantucket, and there, through the generosity of Bassett Jones, electrical engineer in charge of the lighting at the New York World’s Fair, we acquired an otter trawl, which later enabled us to bring back a wealth of specimens from the floor of the ocean.”