My Antarctic Honeymoon: A Year at the Bottom of the World.

Darlington, Jennie. By Jennie Darlington as told to Jane McIlvaine. New York, Doubleday, 1957.
  • 1946-48 Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

One of two women on Finn Ronne’s 1947-48 Weddell Sea expedition, the other being Edith Ronne, his wife. A rather unflattering portrayal of Ronne as well as Ronne’s wife, the other woman.

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.

The Last Great Quest: Captain Scott’s Antarctic Sacrifice.

Jones, Max. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Book shows tensions of scientific contributions of polar exploration over against the macho, imperial, jingoistic elements which often symbolized an imperial nation. Jones shows a good balance of respect and criticism for Scott, and situates Scott within the context of his times. His book shows tensions of scientific contributions of polar exploration over against the macho, imperial, jingoistic elements which often symbolized an imperial nation. He is particularly good on the English worship of manliness and pluck, showing how Scott’s reputation gained from the notion that he and his men were somehow superhuman heroes, though suggesting that we know little of how “heroically” Scott and his partners acted.

The Gifts of Reading.

Macfarlane, Robert. Penguin Random House, UK, 2017.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

p. 31-32: As I work on this essay, over the Christmas of 2015, I know that a copy of my book The Wild Places is being sledge-hauled to the South Pole by a young Scottish adventurer called Luke Robertson, who is aiming to become the youngest Briton to ski there unassisted, unsupported and solo. Robertson’s sledge weighs seventeen stone, and he is dragging it for thirty-five days over 730 miles of snow and ice, in temperatures as low as -50˚C, and winds as high as 100mph. Under such circumstances I felt impossibly proud that The Wild Places (paperback weight: 8.9oz) had earned its place on his sledge, and impossibly excited at the thought of my sentences being read out there on the crystal continent, under the endless daylight of the austral summer.

The Polar Rosses: John and James Clark Ross and their Explorations.

Dodge, Ernest S. New York: Harper & Row (Barnes and Noble Import), 1973.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
 Preview 

The Ross family of Uncle and Nephew could be called the dominant English explorers of the first half of the nineteenth century, despite the enmity which John Ross inspired from Sir John Barrow, the kingpin of the Royal Navy’s Arctic and Antarctic aspirations. John Ross was only engaged in the Arctic, with one of the first expeditions seeking the Northwest Passage, and much later the beginnings of the Franklin Search. James Clark Ross, on the other hand, was on his uncle’s first expedition, served with Parry on subsequent voyages, but is chiefly remembered for his command of the British Antarctic Expedition of 1838 to 1842, a long and important voyage bracketed for James Clark by Arctic expeditions. Among their achievements he can claim to have found both Magnetic Poles.

Antarctica’s First Lady.

Ronne, Edith M. (Jackie). Beaumont, TX: Clifton Seaport Museum, 2004.
  • 1946-48 Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Primarily an account of the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition of 1947-48 in which she accompanied her husband. Based largely on her diaries of that period, she is a staunch defender of Ronne’s leadership, dismissing his critics as merely bitching about his more disciplined Norwegian regimen. The complaints are taken as inevitable and nothing was done to contain them, here or on his later IGY expedition. There is nothing here about reading, even in her chapter on the long winter night where one usually finds some mention of antidotes to boredom. What a contrast to Walton’s book below.

Antarctica: An Encyclopedia

Stewart, John. Second revised edition. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 1990.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

p. 108, entry for “Books”: The first book published in Antarctica was Aurora Australis, a 120-page book written in 1908 by Shackleton and his 14-man crew of winterers to ward off boredom. They wrote it, printed, and bound it. Joyce and Wild typeset it, Marston illustrated, and Day created the covers. Shackleton’s printing press had been presented to him by Messrs. Joseph Causton and Sons, and they had trained Joyce and Wild in printing and typesetting. During Charcot’s Pourquoi Pas? expedition of 1908-10, Jules Rouch wrote a novel for a bet. It was called L’Amant de la dactylographe (The Typist’s Lover). Charcot brought 1,500 books with him on that trip. The Ross Sea party of 1914-17, under Mackintosh, had an Encyclopaedia Britannica available. On the other side of Antarctica Hurley salvaged some volumes of Britannica when the Endurance went down in 1915.

The Diary of Lieutenant Charles W R Royds. RN Expedition to the Arctic 1901-1904.

Royds, Charles W. R., Lieutenant. Bridwood, NSW, Australia, T. R. Royds, 2001.
  • 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Royds was the First Lieutenant on Scott’s Discovery expedition, and was involved in virtually all operations of the ship and the expedition, including ship’s discipline. It’s a rather ponderous (and heavy) tome but full of information about the expedition. He mentions the Cap’t. frequently but I didn’t seem to learn much about Scott from it. He frequently played the piano or pianola for a couple hours at a time. He was clearly a steady reader and names titles but gives little insight into his reactions to the books he read. Here are some examples of reading and related matters:

Shackleton’s Forgotten Expedition: The Voyage of the Nimrod

Riffenbergh, Beau. New York: Bloomsbury, 2004.
  • 1907-09 British Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Nimrod).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A thorough and balanced defence of Shackleton and his achievement in the furthest south of 1909, against Markham’s attempts to besmearch his reputation.

Obituary.

James, Reginald. Online.
  • 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Throughout most of the expedition, James regularly kept a diary, and his account of the time spent on Elephant Island gives perhaps the best insight into what conditions were really like for the 22 men left stranded there. Paper being scarce, he was forced to write some of his diary on spare pages in the copy of Lang’s Translation of the “Iliad”, which was one of the few books the men rescued from the sinking Endurance. The book is still in the safe keeping of the James family. His diary includes a number of maps and sketches.

Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, with a Sketch of Their Habits, Religion, Language and Other Peculiarities….

Rink, Henry. Translated from the Danish by the Author. Edited by Dr Robert Brown. Edinburgh: Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1875.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

Rink’s second volume of Eskimo Tales with his introductory sketch on their culture, based not on ornaments, weapons and other remains: But the time will certainly come when any relics of spiritual life brought down to us from pre- historic mankind, which may still be found in the folk lore of the more isolated and primitive nations, will be valued as highly as those material remains. In this respect the Eskimo may be considered among the most interesting, both as having been almost entirely cut off from other nations and very little influenced by foreign intercourse, and also as representing a kind of link between the aboriginals of the New and the Old World (p. vi). It is a fascinating collection of tales, with brief introductions noting the sources of the stories. Here are a few examples:

The Polar Regions, Or a Search after Sir John Franklin’s Expedition…

Osborn, Sherard. Dedicated to Lady Franklin. (New York: A. S. Barnes, 1871). [First published as Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal. London, 1852.].
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

This deals with the 1850 Franklin search by the Intrepid and Pioneer, in company with Resolute and Assistance, with Osborn as Commander of the Pioneer. "Account, by the commander of the "Pioneer", one of the tenders to the Resolute and Assistance, of the Franklin search expedition under Capt. H. T. Austin: the voyage by Baffin Bay, Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait, the wintering at Griffith Island, and return. Includes informative notes on West Greenland Eskimos, negotiating the ice of northern Baffin Bay, ice conditions in the Canadian Arctic waters, hunting adventures, clothing, food and equipment (for sledge journeys and otherwise), carrier pigeons, the sledge journeys, arctic nature and winter recreations." (Description on ABEBooks)