The Myth of the Explorer: The Press, Sensationalism, and Geographical Discovery.

Riffenburgh, Beau. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1994.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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Explores the role of the press in developing idealized versions of polar heroes, whatever their feet of clay. Cites Joseph Campbell, John Ruskin, and particularly J. Mackenzie in clarifying the requirements for heroic status: an exotic setting, the personal characteristics and qualities of the hero, the martyrdom of the hero (though this varied from country to country), and the development of icons of the fallen heroes for whatever nationalistic, patriotic, or commercial motives. (cf. Scott, p. 7).

The Hookers of Kew 1785-1911.

Allan, Mea. London: Michael Joseph, 1967.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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Joseph Hooker was part of the Erebus and Terror Antarctic expedition led by James Clark Ross, an expedition poorly equipped for scientific investigation.

Silas: The Antarctic Diaries and Memoir of Charles S. Wright.

Wright, Charles S. (Silas). Edited by Colin Bull and Pat F. Wright. Illustrated by Pat F. Wright. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1996.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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This is a rather thin diary of the Terra Nova expedition, fleshed out by the Editor’s commentary, and diary entries from other diaries for the corresponding dates, and illustrated by charming drawings of hundreds of topical subjects, mostly animals. We know that Wright was a very serious scientist as well as a reader; little of the reading is cited here but there are a few examples:

Arctic and Antarctic: A Prospect of the Polar Regions.

Bertram, Colin. Cambridge: Heffer, 1957.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 121: Outside the expedition’s little home the land is Nature’s own; there are no man-made contrivances issuing forth smoke and filth, no noise of wheels and engines, no newspapers lying and spreading scandals, and no ugliness of any kind. The land is as God made it, filled with peace and beauty.

Saga of the “Discovery.

Bernacchi, Louis Charles. London: Blackie, 1938.
  • 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Bernacchi was an Australian/Belgian explorer, another veteran of the heroic age of polar exploration, having participated in Borchgrevink’s Southern Cross expedition, Scott’s Discovery expedition, as well as journeys to Africa and Peru. He was also the biographer of Lawrence Oates, who died on Scott’s last expedition.

Books Afloat & Ashore: a History of Books, Libraries, and Reading among Seamen during the Age of Sail.

Skallerup, Harry Robert. Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1974.
  • Whalemen's Reading
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p. 4: In 1631, when Captain Thomas James fitted out his vessel in Bristol for a voyage in search of the Northwest Passage, he purchased ‘A Chest full of the best and choicest Mathematicall bookes that could be got for money in England; as likewise Master Hackluite and Master Purchase, and other books of Journals and Histories. [see C Miller, ed. Voyages of Captain Luke Fox of Hull, Hakluyt Soc. London 1894, p. 265-67, 606 p.]

Benjamin Leigh Smith: a forgotten pioneer.

Credland, Arthur C. Polar Record 20 (125) May 1980, p. 127-145.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Smith lived from 1783 to 1913 and took five important Arctic voyages to Novaya Zemblya, Svalbard, and Franz Josef Land. The last, in Eira, sank in August 1881 near Mys Barentsia in Franz Josef Land.

A Voyage to Terra Australis; Undertaken for the Purpose of Completing the Discovery of that Vast Country, and Prosecuted in the Years 1801, 1802, and 1803, in His Majesty’s Ship the Investigator….

Flinders, Matthew. In Two Volumes, with an Atlas. (London: Printed by W. Bulmer./.and Published by G. and W. Nicol, 1814).
  • 1801-03 British Exploring Expedition to Terra Australis (Captain Matthew Flinders aboard Investigator).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
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p. 5-6: On the 22nd [1801], a set of astronomical and surveying instruments, for the use of myself and officers, was sent down by direction of the Navy Board, as also various articles for presents to, and barter with, the native inhabitants of the countries to be visited, and many for our own use and convenience. Amongst the latter were most of the books of voyages to the South Seas, which, with our own individual collections, and the Encyclopedia Britannica, presented by the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, formed a library in my cabin for all the offices. Every chart at the Admiralty, which related to Terra Australis and the neighbouring islands, was copied for us under the direction of the late hydrographer, Alexander Dalrymple, Esq.; who also enriched our stock of information by communicating all such parts of his works as were appropriate to the voyage.

Proceedings of the “Proteus” Court of Inquiry on the Greely Relief Expedition of 1883.

United States. War Department. Proteus Court of Inquiry. 48th Congress, 1st Session, Ex. Doc. No. 100. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1884.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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p. 77, part of government inquire into the failure of the relief expedition of 1883 and the Proteus. The witness here is Lieut John C. Colwell:

The Outpost of the Lost: An Arctic Adventure.

Brainard, David L. (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1929.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Mainly Brainard’s diary of the Greely retreat from Fort Conger, starting on August 9, 1883, to the rescue of only six survivors of the twenty-eight men, including Brainard, in June 1884.

Karluk: the Great Untold Story of Arctic Exploration. [1913-1916]

McKinlay, William Laird. Foreword by Magnus Magnusson. New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1976.
  • 1913-16 Canadian Arctic Expedition (Led by Stefansson with Captain Bob Bartlett commanding the Karluk).
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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p. 36, at sea in Karluk: During the day a great deal of time was spent reading in our bunks, since there was not a single comfortable chair on board, except for those in Stefansson’s cabin, which was now shared by Captain Bartlett and Hadley.

The Wilkes Expedition: Tthe First United States Exploring Expedition (1838-1842).

Tyler, David B. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1968. (Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 73).
  • 1838-42 U.S. Exploring Expedition (Wilkes).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p. 41, Titian Peale quoted from letter to his daughters about his stateroom: I have a little bed over and under which is packed clothes, furs, guns, Books and boxes without number, all of which have to be tied to keep them from rolling and tumbling about, and kept off the floor as it is sometimes covered with water.

Journeyman Taylor: The Education of a Scientist.

Taylor, Griffith. London: Hale, 1958.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Has three or four short chapters on his participation in Scott’s Terra Nova expedition.

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
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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.