Eight Men in a Crate; the Ordeal of the Advance Party of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1955-1957. Based on the Diary of Rainer Goldsmith.

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Because of goods unloaded too hastily at the beginning of the expedition, eight men had to spend an Antarctic winter in a large packing crate and a few tents while they gradually built their main hut during the winter. The italic passages below are from Goldsmith’s diary, the others from Arnold’s connective prose.

The White Desert.

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Barber was a British journalist under contract to write for the Daily Mail on the Fuchs/Hillary Trans-Antarctic Expedition. He spent the austral summer of 1957-58 in Antarctica, mainly at McMurdo but making two substantial visits to the South Pole and was there when Hillary and then Fuchs arrived in 1958. He takes a British anti-Hillary stance on the controversy over Hillary’s arrival at the SP and makes him into a quite unattractive figure. But he is not uncritical of Fuchs either, finding him stuffy, portentous, too proud to accept help offered by the Americans, but accepting it on a number of dire occasions. Nor does he note how Adm. Dufek is complicit in the feud of Fuchs and Hillary by encouraging Hillary to go to the Pole on his plane when it should have been none of Dufek’s business. He rather simply sees Dufek as an innocently generous American with little agenda of his own.

Diary of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition and New Zealand’s IGY Participation December 1956 to February 1958.

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Transcript of personal diary of Roy Carlyon, covering the period December 1956-February 1958, which he spent as a member of the New Zealand contingent of a joint British/New Zealand Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition. It’s unclear from the OCLC entry as to where the original manuscript diary is, but two copies of a transcript are at the University of Canterbury Library (Christchurch) and the University of Waikato Library. Carlyon seems to have been a prodigious reader. While at Scott Base during the first winter months of late April to mid-July, 1957, Carylon mentions the following books:

The Crossing of Antarctica: The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1955-58)

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Fuchs wrote most of this book, including the chapters on the men who crossed from the Weddell Sea Shackleton Base to the Scott Base on the Ross Sea via the South Pole, with chapters on the Ross Sea supporting party written by Hillary who led that group. This is a thoroughly whitewashed version mostly omitting the conflicts between the two leaders. There are very few references to reading, though Hillary does say that “our library was well patronized” (p. 146). Some inferences can be drawn and we do know from Hillary’s other book that they had the paperback Penguin edition of The Worst Journey in the World, which they used to retrace Edward Wilson’s worst journey to Cape Crozier. Otherwise there are only fairly anodyne references such as these:

A Time to Speak: An Autobiography.

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A comprehensive story of his life with concentration on his Falklands (FIDS) experience, and the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1955-58. He is very judicious in describing his relations with Hillary on the later, but a certain animosity comes through.

Shackleton’s Dream: Fuchs, Hillary and the Crossing of Antarctica.

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A solid, workmanlike account of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition (TAE) which for a time pitted Fuchs and Hillary in a race to the pole. The author calls it “the greatest polar expedition ever forgotten” (p. 251). He alludes to men reading occasionally, but never with any helpful details of which books or how read. General tone at times seems “a pox on both your houses” re the stubbornness of both Fuchs and Hillary.

Antarctica. By A. S. Helm and J. H. Miller. The Story of the New Zealand Party of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

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The official account of the New Zealand part of the Fuchs/Hillary expedition, the one based at Scott Base near McMurdo which in addition to its Trans-Antarctic work sponsored some sledge journey surveys of the Darwin Glacier and other areas.

No Latitude for Error.

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Re Trans Antarctic Expedition of 1956-57, with Vivian Fuchs. Unlike their joint book, Hillary’s at least shows some interior pictures with shelves of books, incl. one opposite p. 97 with one title legible, Into China.

Opposite Poles

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A light and half-hearted defense of Hillary’s determination to get to the Pole ahead of Fuchs, despite his dissembling on his motives. The title emphasizes the conflict. McKenzie, a NZ journalist drove one of the Ferguson tractors enroute to the S.P. between depot 450 and 700.

Climbing the Pole: Edmund Hillary & the Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1955-1958.

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An excellent book which skewers Hillary for his disingenuous claim that his trip to the South Pole, upstaging Vivian Fuchs, was a spur of the moment decision, while convincingly documenting that it was Hillary’s intent from the outset of his involvement with TAE.

The Daily Journal of an Antarctic Explorer 1956-1958.

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Warren was a geologist on the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (TAE) led by Vivian Fuchs (UK) and Sir Edmund Hillary (NZ). When not on surveying journeys to the Polar Plateau and the Dry Valleys, he was mainly at the Scott Base near McMurdo and he mentions the library at McMurdo a couple of times. His notes about reading occur mainly during the winter period, as outlined here: