Arctic Adventure: My Life in the Frozen North

Freuchen, Peter. . New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1935.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
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One of two or three autobiographies by Freuchen, this mainly of his life and adventures with Rasmussen during the Thule expeditions. A few things stand out: his total admiration for Robert Peary (of course for Rasmussen as well), his growing sensitivity to Inuit culture (thanks to his marriage with Navarana), and his lack of any literary pretentions. He scarcely mentions anything he does during his leisure time.

A Voyage Around the World 1826-1829.

Litke, Frederic. Edited by Richard A. Pierce. (Kingston, ONT: Limestone Press, 1987).
  • 1826-29 Russian Exploring Expedition (aboard Veniamin).
  • Maritime Reading
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Trip on Seniavin, a Russian ship, to survey coasts of Kamchatka, the Okhotsk Sea, and the Shanter Islands. Traveled from Kronstadt to Portsmouth, Rio, Cape Horn, Valparaiso, Sitka, & Kamchatka. Stopped in Sitka to observe the Russian colonies there under the Russian-American Company in New Archangel. Baron Wrangell was governor and the fort itself had been rebuilt after being destroyed by the Americans:

Tom Cringle’s Log.

Scott, Michael. Two Volumes. Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1833.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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Early maritime fiction, sometimes compared to Marryat’s work. There is a good deal of material, not very respectful, about black sailors. Not much reading amidst the swashbuckling, except for burials. An example:

Travel and Adventure in the Territory of Alaska, Formerly Russian America—Now Ceded to the United States—and in Other Parts of the North Pacific.

Whymper, Frederick. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1869.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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p. 22: Enroute from England to Vancouver in June 1862 viâ the Horn on a steamer called Tynemouth: On board were some three hundred passengers, two-thirds of whom showed a total loss of dignity and self-respect during these early days, and made our vessel much resemble a floating hospital. But there is an end to all things; and by the time we reached the tropics, our friends had recovered their appetites, and, clad in light attire, lounged, smoking, chatting, and reading under the awnings, giving our decks the appearance of a nautical picnic. Our passengers were a study in themselves. They included a number of young men, much too large a proportion of whom .had apparently no profession, business, or definite aim in life, to auger well for their future career in a new country.

Shackleton: By Endurance We Conquer.

Smith, Michael. London: Oneworld Publications, 2014.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

This full-scale biography of Shackleton, though not terribly well written is a well-balanced combination of adulation and judicious criticism of Shackleton the man, his psychological difficulties always moderated during times of crisis. The book often lacks the drama of the best Shackleton narratives and yet is well worth reading.

In a Crystal Land: Canadian Explorers in Antarctica

Beeby, Dean. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994.
  • 1943-44 Canada Taberin Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Despite the common publicity gimmick of the blurb about “the first to set their feet” or eyes on some piece of godforsaken territory, this is still a sound collection of stories about Canadian involvement in Antarctic exploration. Although Canada never mounted an expedition of its own, its citizens were leaders of important expeditions starting in the 1890s.

The Search for the North Pole; Or, Life in the Great White World….

Baldwin, Evelyn Briggs. Chicago, IL: Sold only by subscription, 1896.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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Baldwin’s papers are at the Library of Congress (q.v.); this book was written before some of his expeditionary work. Interestingly, he seems to have been an ardent Freemason and his chapter XLVI “Lovers of the Arts and Sciences: Free and Accepted Masonry in Arctic Exploration,” lists a number of explorers who shared that association: Kane, Hayes, Greely, Melville, Gilder, and Lt. Peary (with whom he later squabbled. See p. 507-12.)

The Life and Adventure in the South Pacific. By A Roving Printer.

Jones, John, attr. New York: Harper & Bro., 1861.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

The attribution comes from the Nautical Magazine 23 (1864) p. 66, but who it is I haven’t learned. A bit more literate than the average whaleman but not a riveting book—a good overview of whaling but not with the art of a Melville or Bullen.

The U.S. Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin: A Personal Memoir

Kane, Elisha Kent. New York: Harper, 1854.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Kane was surgeon aboard the Advance, under the command of Edwin De Haven. The search did find the three graves at Beechey Island, but DeHaven felt the voyage to be ineffectual. Kane went on to command the second Grinnell expedition in 1853.

Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen: Ambition and Tragedy in the Antarctic.

Thomson, David. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2002 [first published 1977].
  • Antarctic Reading: General
 Preview 

A revision of a pre-Huntford critical work on Scott, though he says he didn’t know he was writing a “debunking” biography in 1977. Doesn’t have the acerbic bite of Huntford, but has something critical to say about all three explorers.

On Floating Ice: Two Years on Antarctic Ice-Shelf South of 75°S.

MacDowall, Joseph. Edinburgh: Pentland Press, 1999.
  • 1955-59 Royal Society IGY Antarctic Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

For one year MacDowall was the leader of this expedition and base at Halley Bay in the Weddell Sea, one of Britain’s contributions to IGY. It is quite a prosaic account, with little drama, but notable for its citations to the base newspaper, the Halley Comet.

Fighting the Icebergs.

Bullen, Frank (Franklin) Thomas. London: James Nesbet & Co., 1910.
  • Maritime Reading
    Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

A novel about a whaleman and his foundling ‘son’ who learns everything about whaling from his ‘father’: the book is a good fictional introduction to whaling, a teetotaler tract (the father becomes sober as soon as he has responsibility for the boy), and a tearjerker. Towards the end of the book the author says that the boy was inculcated at an early age in the habit of reading. But there is a little bit of everything here: a happy crew converted from alcoholism, the mendacity of the owners, the death of the captain/father, the nip and sinking of their vessel, the success of the son, and his final marriage to a petticoat sailor.

Autobiographical manuscript

Ellsworth, Lincoln. in the AMNH [RB Collection].
  • Antarctic Reading: General
 Preview 

J-3] Typescript, with corrections in pencil by G.H.G. Pre-1935.