Scott and Amundsen: Duel in the Ice.

Langner, Rainer-K. Translated by Timothy Beech. London: Haus Publishing, 2007. Originally published in Frankfort in 2001.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A concise and fairly superficial retelling of the Antarctic story from the Belgica to Scott’s death. It does emphasize, as others often ignore, Amundsen’s reliance on his Polar reading for his preparation.

A Winter Circuit of Our Arctic Coast: A Narrative of a Journey with Dog-Sleds around the Entire Arctic Coast of Alaska.

Stuck, Hudson. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1920.
  • 1913-18 US Private Journeys round the Coast and Interior of Alaska (Hudson Stuck, “Archbishop of the Yukon”).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

One of four travel accounts by the “Archdeacon of the Yukon and the Arctic,” with Walter Harper as companion. “My purpose was an enquiry into their present state, physical, mental, moral and religious, industrial and domestic, into their prospects, into what the government and the religious organizations have done and are doing for them, and what should yet be done” (p. viii). Among other things the archdeacon did a good deal of reading during his journey, not all of which will be captured here.

Danish Greenland: Its People and Its Products

Rink, Henry. Edited by Dr. Robert Brown. London: Henry S. King, 1877.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

p. 168: on training of indigenous boys: The author cannot omit adding one instance to illustrate this. Once he took such a boy with him to Denmark, where he stayed only one winter as apprentice in a printing-office, and acquired a skill in book-printing, lithography, and bookbinding, of which he has afterwards given proofs by managing, all by himself, without the least assistance, a small office in Greenland, the productions of which will be mentioned by and by. This young man is by no means a rare exception; perhaps one out of ten may be found to be equally highly gifted. It cannot be denied that the half-breeds seem to surpass the original race as regards such perfectibility.

Reminiscences of service aboard USS Flasher (SSN 613) as yeoman submariner in 1966-69.

Gleave, Dale.
  • 1966-68 US Deployment of USS Flasher to Kamchatka and Beyond.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

The sub adopted as its honorary submariner the novelist Louis L'Amour, author of Western thrillers. Dale was the yeoman who corresponded with him, sent him a letter when they crossed the equator, and L'Amour in turn sent signed copies of all his work to the ship.

Strong Men South.

Menster, William J. Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing, 1949.
  • 1946-48 US Operation Highjump, Byrd’s Fourth Expedition to Little America (aboard USS Mount Olympus).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A charming if a bit sanctimonious account of Operation Highjump by the chaplain of that 1947 expedition aboard USS Mount Olympus.

Eskimo Realities.

Carpenter, Edmund Snow. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973.
  • Arctic Reading: Inuit and other indigenous people
 Preview 

A beautiful evocation of the Inuit culture, its orality, its spiritual essence, and its pictorial sensitivity.

The Speedwell Voyage: A Tale of Piracy and Mutiny in the Eighteenth Century.>

Poolman, Kenneth. New York: Berkley Books, 2000.
  • 1720 British Privateering Voyage (aboard Speedwell).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

Not a particularly well done account of British privateering in the early 18th century, but it does mention that the Captain of the Speedwell, George Shelvocke, had a few books that guided his navigation, including Captain Woodes Rogers A Cruising Voyage Round the World (London, 1712), and A. F. Frezier’s Voyage to the South Sea and Along the Coasts of Chili and Peru (London, 1706).

The Life of Captain James Cook.

Beaglehole, John C. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1974.
  • 1768–79 British Naval Expeditions of Captain James Cook.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

This biography together with Beaglehole’s five-volume edition of Cook’s Journals constitute the definitive source on Cook’s voyages and work.

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.

Archives at Georgetown University

Green, Fitzhugh.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

Green was ghostwriter for Byrd’s Skyward, participated in MacMillan’s Crocker Land Expedition, and was responsible for killing a native.

Ice: The Antarctic Diary of Charles F. Passell.

Passell, Charles F. Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech University Press, 1995.
  • 1939-41 Third Byrd Antarctic Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Passell was a paleontologist and geologist at the West Base of Byrd’s 3rd Antarctic expedition in 1939-41. Passell’s style is rather naïve (e.g., “Boy was it ever hot last night”), but he does mention a good deal of his reading:

Ice Bound: A Doctor’s Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole.

Nielsen, Jerri. New York: Hyperion, 2001.
  • 1998-99 South Pole Winterover (NSF) at Amundsen-Scott Base.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

This book created considerable controversy by the author going public with her medical condition, despite commitments not to call for special services in case of serious illness. Her cancer was the cause.

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.