Books contained in a box labeled ‘Books used on board Discovery no. 1.

Royal Geographical Society.
  • 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

The vicomte de Bragelonne by A. Dumas Owd Bob by Alfred Ollivant Emerson’s Essays (Selections) The Newcomes by Thackeray Vixen by Miss Braddon The Poetical works of Robert Burns vol. III (entry on fly-leaf, The Discovery from H.R.M.) Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson (entry on fly-leaf R.F.S. 1901) The Primrose Path by Miss Oliphant (entry printed in pencil on fly-leaf: “This book was part of the library of the Terra Nova captain R. F. Scott) The Egoist by G. Meredith Diana of the Crossways by G. Meredith Round the World on a Wheel by J. Foster Fraser (These three books have on the fly-leaf, R. Scott Terra Nova 1910. not in Capt. Scott’s hand. Slip of paper, bookmark?, found in Diana of the Crossways with tiny drawings of a bird and some insects, with initials P.M.S. H.R.M. is Hugh Robert Mill, meteorologist & friend of W.S. Bruce. [courtesy Innes Kinreigh] [Read through leaf 455—may return to it, but not too promising for reading matter. DS]

Playing Dead: A Contemplation Concerning the Arctic.

Wiebe, Rudy. Edmonton, ALB: NeWest, 1989.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

p. 21: Young Midshipman Robert Hood is unaccustomed to both the nightly ‘dismal serenade’ of the ‘cowardly, stupid and ravenous’ sled dogs and to the lazy winter lives of the traders, ‘few of [whom] have books, and the incidents of their lives do not furnish much subject for thought.’ Hood decides: ‘in such a state one might be disposed to envy the half year’s slumber of the bears.’

The Light that Failed.

Kipling, Rudyard. Revised ed. New York 1899.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

The Memorial University in St Johns, Newfoundland, has a copy of Kipling’s The Light that Failed. (Revised ed. New York 1899). It has a note on the cover that “This book was on the “Roosevelt” 83 degrees North, the time Perry [Peary] discovered the North Pole 1909.” Question is whether this might have been a title from the American Seamen’s Friend Society portable library that went on that voyage and is now at Mystic Seaport library, but lacking the books from the box.

Russians in the Arctic: Aspects of Soviet Exploration and Exploitation of the Far North, 1937-57

Armstrong, Terence. London: Methuen, 1958, p. 17-50.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
 Preview 

Includes the remarkable story of the drift of the Sedov , 3800 miles and 800 days, covering some of the Fram route. In addition to schooling in engineering and navigation, there were also classes of ideological indoctrination. In its third year adrift members of the crew were nominated for political positions in Murmansk, and presumably as the only candidates were elected.

Thulia: A Tale of the Antarctic.

Palmer, James Croxall. New-York: S. Colman, 1843.
  • 1838-42 U.S. Exploring Expedition (Wilkes).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A narrative poem about the sailing travails of the US schooner Flying-Fish on the US Exploring Expedition (1838-42). An appendix describes the circumstances that the poem portrays. Basically this is doggerel poetry describing two vessels of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition, the Peacock, and the Flying-Fish. An appendix describes the adventures of the latter ship:

Shipwrecked in Greenland.

Thompson, Arthur R. Boston: Little, Brown, 1905.
  • 1894 US Expedition to Greenland aboard Miranda.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

A summer pleasure expedition by a few American young men that ended in the shipwreck of the Miranda off the Greenland coast. Reads like a young adult adventure, introducing young readers to the realities of Arctic exploration.

Searching for the Franklin Expedition. The Arctic Journal of Robert Randolph Carter.

Carter, Robert Randolph. (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1998).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

Private journal of a cruise in the Brig Rescue in search of Franklin, together with the Advance. Part of US Grinnell Expedition in 1850, one of 12 search vessels that year. Carter was first officer of the Rescue, a small ship that wintered in 1850-51 off Beechey Island in, where the bodies of three of Franklin’s menrs had been found. Clearly Carter is intelligent witty and educated. p. 10: The headquarters [of the expedition] were the luxurious Astor House, whose accommodations were provided by the management; and the Grinnells had already stocked the ships’ libraries with books, many written by earlier Arctic explorers.

This Accursed Land.

Bickel, Lennard. Melbourne: Macmillan, 1977.
  • 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (Mawson).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Bickel notes the absence of “heroics” in Home of the Blizzard, betrayed by his journals, however modest. An earlier version of Mawson’s Will, with some additional reading passages.

Shackleton’s Argonauts: A Saga of the Antarctic Icepacks.

Hurley, Frank. Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1948.
  • 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

p. 72-73: While on the subject of salvage [from the dying Endurance], I might add that I recovered the volumes of the encyclopaedia from the chief’s cabin and a large part of my own personal library, as well as several packs of cards. Many a day we had cause to bless the fact. What tedious hours were whiled away in reading; what wonderful and purely imaginary fortunes changed hands at poker patience.

Time on Ice: A Winter Voyage to Antarctica.

Shapiro, Deborah & Rolf Bjelke. Shrewsbury, UK: Waterline Books, 1997.
  • 1989-92 Palmer Peninsula Expedition (Shapiro and Bjelke).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Three-year voyage with overwintering on Palmer Peninsula 1989-92.