First Crossing of the Polar Sea, with Additional Chapters by Other Members of the Expedition.

Amundsen, Roald and Lincoln Ellsworth [et al]. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1927.
  • 1926 Amundsen/Ellsworth/Nobile Flying Expedition over North Pole.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

A composite account of the 1926 Svalberg to Alaska flight with Nobile, giving a fairly florid account of the expedition, avoiding most of the controversy it engendered. Obviously not much about reading in a crowded gondola, but there are a few things of interest:

A Walk to the Pole

Mear, Roger. New York: Crown, 1987.
  • 1985-87 ‘Footsteps of Scott’ Expedition (Southern Quest).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Private British expedition tracing Scott’s trip in 1985, with Roger Mear, Robert Charles Swan, and Graeme Phippen, who walked from Cape Evans to the Pole. Did they have a copy of Cherry-Garrard with them? They quote from it frequently. They spent several days at Scott’s hut at Cape Evans, though they apparently were afraid to sleep in it. Given their views of the Scott expedition that may not be surprising.

Catalogue of the Library of Charles Dickens from Gadshill.

Dickens, Charles. [Arctic books in Dickens’ library, from J. H. Stonehouse, editor.] (London: Piccadilly Foundation Press, 1935).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

Dickens was very involved in the Franklin Search, including his extremely critical Household Words attacks on both the allegations of cannibalism and on the “savage” Inuit who were the messengers who brought the reprehensible news. This list has some of the fundamental publications on the Search as it developed.

Untitled remarks at the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association convention on May 22, 1952

Cherry-Garrard, Apsley. Published in The Clique June 7, 1952.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Cherry-Garrard, Apsley George Benet (1886-1959), British Explorer on Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition, was an unlikely hero for the Heroic Age, a near-sighted, inexperienced ingénue who paid Scott £1000 to participate in and suffer through the Terra Nova expedition. As such he was an always helpful addition to the expedition staff, but his fame rests on his account of The Worst Journey in the World: Antarctica 1910-1913. Two vols. (London: Constable and Co., 1922), listed under the Terra Nova journey.

Ninety Degrees North: The Quest for the North Pole.

Fleming, Fergus. London: Granta Books, 2001.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

This is a fairly standard account of high Arctic exploration, well-written and readable but offering little by way of new insights into the phenomenon. Chiefly deals with British and American explorers, but includes Nansen, Andree and others.

South: A Memoir of theEndurance Voyage.

Shackleton, Ernest, Sir. New York: Carroll & Graff, 1998.
  • 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

p. 93, [after abandoning the Endurance]: In addition to the daily hunt for food, our time was passed in reading the few books that we had managed to save from the ship. The greatest treasure in the library was a portion of the Encyclopædia Britannica. This was being continually used to settle the inevitable arguments that would arise. The sailors were discovered one day engaged in a very heated discussion of the subject of Money and Exchange. They finally came to the conclusion that the Encyclopædia, since it did not coincide with their views, must be wrong. ‘For descriptions of every American town that ever has been, is, or ever will be, and for full and complete biographies of every American statesman since the time of George Washington and long before, the Encyclopædia would be hard to beat. Owing to our shortage of matches we have been driven to use it for purposes other than the purely literary ones, though; and one genius having discovered that the paper used for its pages had been impregnated with saltpeter, we can now thoroughly recommend it as a very efficient pipe-lighter.’ [Unclear why this paragraph is in Shackleton’s quotes; could these passages be quoted from Worsley’s diary?]

Lady Spy, Gentleman Explorer: The Life of Herbert Dyce Murphy.

Rossiter, Heather. Sydney: Random House Australia, 2001.
  • 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (Mawson).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A thoroughly fascinating account of a participant in Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911 which thoroughly debunks Mawson, only slightly more gently than Huntford did Scott.

A Voyage to the South Seas in His Majesty’s Ship the Wager in the Years 1740-1741.

Bulkeley, John and John Cummings. Gunner and Carpenter of the Wager. New York: Robert M. McBride, 1927. [First edition, 1743; Second edition, 1757].
  • 1740-41 English Naval Voyage to the South Seas (aboard Wager).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Fascinating account of a shipwreck, a potential mutiny, and a Warrant Officer who took it on himself to advise incompetent officers in how to save the lives of the crew. His advice was dependent upon one volume he borrowed from the ship’s Captain.

A Naturalist at the Poles: The Life, Work & Voyages of Dr. W. S. Bruce the Polar Explorer.

Brown, R. H. Rudmose. London: Seeley, Service, 1923. [Five early chapters by W. G. Burn Murdoch].
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Rudmose Brown, as he is often called, participated in only one Antarctic expedition, the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition organized by William Spires Bruce. But his influence in polar studies was extensive through his academic career, his high status in the geographical community, and his exceptional writing ability of which this book is a prime example.

Nansen

Hall, Anna Gertrude. Illustrated by Boris Artzybasheff. New York: Viking Press, 1940.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

p. 67, on equipping the Fram for Nansen’s North Pole voyage: There were a library of a thousand books and a supply of games and musical instruments to help pass the time.

Hunting with the Eskimos: The Unique Record of a Sportsman’s Year among the Northernmost Tribe….

Whitney, Harry. New York: Century Co., 1910.
  • Arctic Reading: Inuit and other indigenous people
 Preview 

Whitney traveled with Peary to Greenland in 1908 and spent the year only with Eskimos north of Etah at Annootok, while Peary was making his north pole attempt. Whitney is the complete hunter, rich and well-provided, and demonstrates some intellectual curiosity about the natives and about the natural resources, and does try to master their language, but he evidently reads little except under the duress of prolonged inactivity.

To the Pole: The Diary and Notebook of Richard E. Byrd, 1925-1927.

Byrd, Richard Evelyn. Edited by Raimund E. Goerler. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press [1996].
  • 1928-30 First U.S. Antarctic Expedition (Byrd on City of New York).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Goerler’s edition has nothing to do with Antarctica other than Byrd’s having read about Scott’s death on returning from the South Pole:

A Thousand Days in the Arctic…with a Preface by Admiral Sir. F. Leopold McClintock.

Jackson, Frederick G. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1899.
  • 1894-97 British Jackson-Harmsworth Polar Expedition to Franz-Josef Land.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

This is the expedition which Nansen found (or vice versa) when returning from his North Polar trip, June 17, 1896. Jackson’s ship was the Windward which took Nansen back to Norway, returning the following July to return the whole Jackson expedition.

Life Onboard an Emigrant Ship: Being a Diary of a Voyage to Australia.

Mereweather, John Davies. London: T. Hatchard, 1852.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

The Rev. Mereweather of the Anglican Church saw it as his unpaid duty to provide moral leadership to the “poorer classes” being conveyed to Australia. Proceeds from its sale would go to the Female Emigrant Society for that purpose.