The Life of Sir Clements R. Markham.

Markham, Albert Hastings. London: John Murray, 1917.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Pure hagiography by his cousin, also a naval officer. Clements had a short but early naval career which included service as the only midshipman on the Assistance on its 1850-51 search for John Franklin. He contributed to the Aurora Borealis and other papers of the voyage.

A Relic of Ross.

Mill, Hugh Robert. The Polar Record III no. 21 (January 1941) 354-56.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Identifies a book which James Clark Ross had with him on both his Arctic and Antarctic voyages and which he inscribed twice to so indicate. The book is The Economy of Human Life, 1808, variously attributed to Lord Chesterfield, Robert Dodsley (Johnson’s publisher), John Hill, or even unascribed as a volume from the library of the Grand Lama of Tartary. It is a small book of homilies on the conduct of life, often published; this copy first belonged to Isabella Ross, sister of James Clark Ross. He had it with him as first lieutenant to Captain Edward Parry in H.M.S. Hecla in the high Arctic when he inscribed it: “Written on board the Endeavour [a sledge boat detailed from the Hecla] in Latitude 82 3/4˚ N. 27th July, 1827. Jas. C. Ross.” (p. 355)

Northern Regions: Or, A relation of Uncle Richard’s Voyages for the Discovery of a North-west Passage.

(London: J. Harris, 1825) [New York reprint published by Johnson Reprint, 1970.].
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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A serious account of four British expeditions intended to introduce children to the excitement and uncertainties of Arctic travel, without sparing the more gruesome aspects of exploration (death, storms, cannibalism, etc.) Good and accurate descriptions of amusements aboard, and relatively balanced accounts of the “savages.” The expeditions are Parry I, Franklin I, Parry II, and Cochrane’s overland journey to Siberia.

Band of Brothers: Boy Seamen in the Royal Navy.

Phillipson, David. (Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 2003).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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This is partly autobiographical, partly historical in its description of the training and service of boys in the Royal Navy, a system which did not end until 1956, amply demonstrating the RN’s vaunted conservatism. He attended the nautical school for boy seaman known as Ganges, and neatly compares its ancient traditions with those of his post-1950s education.

The Polar Regions.

Richardson, Sir John. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1861.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Richardson worked with Franklin in two overland expeditions much as Edward Wilson worked with Robert Falcon Scott on two Antarctic journeys, the last one fatal to both explorers. Naturalist, surgeon, explorer, and eventually librarian of Haslar Hospital. In this general overview of the [chiefly northern ] Polar Regions, Richardson shows his erudition while summing up his wide experience of the North.

Clement Markham: Longest Service Officer, Most Prolific Editor,

Savours, Ann. in Compassing the Vaste Globe of the Earth: Studies in the History of The Hakluyt Society, 1846-1996. (London: Hakluyt Society, 1996) p. 165-88.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 168, on Markham’s 1850-51 Greenland expedition: Confined to a tent by a storm, he ‘Read Pickwick aloud, ate, drank, slept and read Johnson’s life of Pope, alternately. Had a duck and sandpipers stewed in green pea soup, for dinner.’ See Markham’s MS. Journal in the Royal Geographical Society, Archives, CRM 3. This entry is from 7 July 1851.

A Voyage Round the World with Captain James Cook in H.M.S. Resolution / by Anders Sparrman; Introduction and Notes by Owen Rutter; Wood-engravings by Peter Barker-Mill.

Sparrman, Anders. (London: Golden Cockerel Press, 1944).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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A Swedish botanist who was taken on board Cook’s second voyage at Cape Town when he had met the Forsters. Sparrman had studied under Linneaus, who had recommended him for a South African botany project. He joined the Resolution reluctantly and suffered/or helped cause the usual hostilities between officers and scientists, what he calls the “contempt of ignorance.”

The Man who Mapped the Arctic.

Steele, Peter. (Vancouver, BC: Raincoast Books, 2003).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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A complete biography of George Back, covering all aspects of his background and explorations: Franklin’s two overland journeys; his Great Fish River Expedition; and his HMS Terror debacle, including his teenage five-year Napoleonic captivity in Verdun. Many maps.

A Narrative of Arctic Discovery, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, with the Details of the Measures Adopted by Her Majesty’s Government for the Relief of the Expedition under Sir John Franklin.

Stillinglaw, John J. London: William Shoberl, 1850.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 114, Luke (Lucus) Fox on his own book: “Gentle reader,— expect not here any florishing phrases or eloquent tearmes, for this child of mine, begot in the north-west’s cold clime (where they breed no scholleers), is not able to digest the sweet milke of Rethorick, &c.”

The Night Side of Dickens.

Stone, Ian. (Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1994).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 544, Dickens library contained many volumes on Arctic voyages and several on Franklin.

The Autobiography of a Seaman.

Thomas Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald. (London: Richard Bentley, 1872).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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This author is one very aristocratic sailor who had his troubles with the Royal Navy and the British government in the early nineteenth century. Suffice it to say that this is not a voice from the forecastle, but of petulant complaints concerning the “injustice and folly” of the government court (p. 493). There is nothing I could find in this book about polar reading, or any reading at all.