Voyages of Discovery in the Arctic and Antarctic Seas, and Round the World: Being Personal Narratives of Attempts to Reach the North and South Poles; and of an Open-boat Expedition up the Wellington Channel in Search of Sir John Franklin and Her Majesty’s ships “Erebus” and “Terror,” in Her Majesty’s Boat “Forlorn Hope,” under the Command of the Author. To which are added an Autobiography….

McCormick, Robert. In Two Volumes. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1884.
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These volumes cover three separate expeditions with an autobiography, and can be found on the Hathi Trust. McCormick was the surgeon on Ross’s Erebus (1839-1843), also something of a zoologist who also was involved in the Franklin Search in the 1850s.

Dead Reckoning: The Untold Story of the Northwest Passage.

McGoogan, Ken. Toronto: HarperCollins, 2017.
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McGoogan claims to bring a new integrative emphasis to the indigenous elements involved in the search for the Northwest Passage adding to the British focus on the Royal Navy. The work is a broad overview of this history but not so innovative as it seems to claim. His final chapter 32 is called “Erebus and Terror Validate Inuit Testimony,” citing the discovery of the two ships (2014, 2016) as Inuit Vindication.

Conquering the Arctic Ice.

Mikkelsen, Ejnar. London: William Heinemann, 1909.
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First edition, with folding map and illustrated throughout with photographs. Mikkelsen's 1906 Anglo-American expedition proved that there was no land north of Alaska. In addition to the scientific data gathered in the expedition, it was noteworthy in its contribution to understanding the Eskimo people. Mikkelsen was awarded a Patron's Medal from the Royal Geographic Society for exploration in the Arctic and for his work in Eskimo resettlement in Greenland.

A Briefe Historie of Muscovia.

Milton, John. Vol. III. Complete Prose Works. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982.
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p. 524: The discovery of Russia by the northern Ocean, made first, of any Nation that we know, by English men, might have seem’d an enterprise almost heroick; if any higher end than the excessive love of Gain and Traffick, had animated the design. Nevertheless that in regard that may things not unprofitable to the knowledge of nature, and other Observations are hereby come to light, as good events ofttimes arise from evil occasions, it will not be the worst labour to relate briefly the beginning, and prosecution of this adventurous Voiage; until it became at last a familiar Passage.

To the Arctic: The Story of Northern Exploration from Earliest Times to the Present.

Mirsky, Jeannette. With an Introduction by Vilhjalmur Stefansson. [First published as To the North in 1934.]. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970.
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p. 103, on Parry’s 1819-20 expedition: A school was formed to teach the men to read and write. Captain Sabine edited a weekly, the North Georgia Gazette and Winter Chronicle, for the amusement of the officers, and they in turn amused the men. Fortnightly a farce that had had a successful run in London was given. Christmas was celebrated by a special dinner and an operetta, Northwest Passage. [A facsimile page of the gazette is on p. 102.]

The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1971.
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p. 502, on Martin Frobisher’s first voyage: More impressive than the ships was the equipment…. The literature included two works by André Thever: his Cosmographie universelle, just out, and Singularitez de la France antarctique; and Medina’s Arte de Naviguar, one of the best available treatises on navigation. Strangely enough, Frobisher did not carry William Bourne’s more recent Regiment of the Sea (1574). Probably more for amusement than anything else, he had a copy of Sir John Mandeville’s famous book of whoppers. Also, for good measure, a ‘great’ English Bible. This was probably the ‘Bishop’s Bible’ of 1572, whose title page includes a portrait of the Queen, useful to show the natives…. [Can’t tell the source of Morison’s list but he does suggest there was a complete list somewhere—see Stefansson ed. of Best, v. 2, p. 77-78]

Scott’s Last Biscuit: The Literature of Polar Travel.

Moss, Sarah. Oxford: Signal Books, 2006. [Published as The Frozen Ship(New York: BlueBridge, 2006).
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Polar expeditions have created a literature with its own history and style, and "The Frozen Ship" is a detailed and moving examination of the most intriguing and influential journeys into the eternal ice. Sarah Moss delves into the morbid fascination of expeditions that went terribly awry and the increasing interest in those that were rescued at the last minute, and she pays particular attention to the desire to find and even preserve long-lost explorers. Some of them, like Ernest Shackleton, Richard Byrd, and Roald Amundsen, have become iconic figures, while others, as important in their day, have faded into obscurity. Here, like wayward travelers, they are rescued heroically. (ABEBooks, from Strand entry)

To the Ends of the Earth.

Pease, Francis K. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1935.
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Begins with 1925 cruise to Antarctica aboard Discovery, Scott’s old ship, commanded by Stenhouse. First it brought gifts to Tristan da Cunha, including many writing implements, essentially useless to that population, and “a large quantity of Bibles, in which, however, the Tristans displayed very little interest, for the reason…that during the course of the years so many Bibles had been sent to the island that there was now an average of seven copies per inhabitant” (p. 20).

Ship’s Libraries, Their Need and Usefulness.

Pierson, John S. New York: American Seamen’s Friend Society, 1878. 33 p.
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p. 5 describing what first can be done for the physical and spiritual welfare of the sailor, the author goes on to ask what more can be done for his welfare: Obviously the only way left to reach him is by the printed truth,—The Bible, the tract, the good book. Just here then comes in the ship’s library with its indispensable offices,--the last important advance made in the line of religious work among seamen,--the ‘missing link,’ I think we may call it, in the chain of evangelical agencies for their benefit.

Dr John Rae.

Richards, Robert L. Whitby, Yorkshire: Caedmon of Whitby Publishers, 1985.
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p. 35: Rae happily spent the winter [1845] at York Factory. He built a ‘laboratory’ and occupied himself with meteorological observations and he taught some of his men to assist him. The company [HBC] maintained a small library at York and Rae used it to continue his study of natural history, botany, geology and other subjects.

The Myth of the Explorer: The Press, Sensationalism, and Geographical Discovery.

Riffenburgh, Beau. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1994.
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Explores the role of the press in developing idealized versions of polar heroes, whatever their feet of clay. Cites Joseph Campbell, John Ruskin, and particularly J. Mackenzie in clarifying the requirements for heroic status: an exotic setting, the personal characteristics and qualities of the hero, the martyrdom of the hero (though this varied from country to country), and the development of icons of the fallen heroes for whatever nationalistic, patriotic, or commercial motives. (cf. Scott, p. 7).