The Voyage of the Challenger.

Linklater, Eric. New York: Doubleday, 1972.
  • 1872-76 Challenger Expedition of Natural History (George Nares and Frank Thompson).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Speaks here and there of the boredom of a scientific voyage that dredged ocean bottoms thousands of times through the ocean world. Dredging was known as “drudging” and even some desertions were attributed to boredom.

At the Mountains of Madness,

Lovecraft, H. P. in At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1964.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

First published in 1931, this phantasmagoric combination of science fiction and horror novel is located on the high plateau of Antarctic, reached by airplane, but discovering the world’s highest mountains and remains of an ancient ‘civilization’ come back to life and destructive of the expedition.

South Polar Times

SPRI MS 505/4: Typescript.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Only copy, owned by Cherry-Garrard and largely produced by him. Introduction written later by Frank Debenham. No mention of Scott’s Polar party. “Ed., typed & illus. largely by me”—ACG. Drawings by Cherry have a remarkable delicacy.

Come North with Me: An Autobiography.

Balchen, Bernt. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1958.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

Although as a child Balchen read a great deal about Polar adventures, his adult autobiography shows little sign that reading played any role in his professional life as a career aviator. The book is included here as one of the best written and least narcissistic of personal accounts. There is no indication that this is a translation from his native Norwegian, nor whether he used a ghost writer in preparing the book. His WWII adventures in northern Norway are particularly compelling.

The Noose of Laurels: Robert E. Peary and the Race to the North Pole.

Herbert, Wally. New York: Athenaeum, 1989.
  • 1891-1920 Robert Peary and the Search for the North Pole; 1908-09 US North Pole Expeditions under Robert E. Peary (aboard Roosevelt).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

A genuine attempt at an objective assessment of Peary and his North Pole claim, which Herbert eventually concludes to have been off the mark, probably by 50 miles. He carefully avoids anything that might be prejudicial against Peary, but he doesn’t seem to, the same restraint re Cook (but that itself might be prejudicial on my part). In the end he does seem to vindicate Peary as national hero (see Lisa Bloom).

The Big Sea: An Autobiography….

Hughes, Langston. (New York: Hill & Wang, 1963). [First published in 1940.].
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

p. 3: Melodramatic maybe, it seems to me now. But then it was like throwing a million bricks out of my heart when I threw the book into the water. I leaned over the rail of the S.S. Malone and threw the books as far as I could out into the sea—all the books I had had at Columbia, and all the books I had lately bought to read.

The Tragedy of the Italia, with the Rescuers to the Red Tent.

Giudici, Davide. New York: Appleton, 1929.
  • 1928 Italian North Pole Flight of Umberto Nobile (aboard the airship Italia).
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

An account by an Italian reporter aboard a Russian icebreaker looking for Nobile after the airship had crashed.

Greenland, the Adjacent Seas, and the North-West Passage to the Pacific Ocean.

O’Reilly, Bernard. Illustrated in a Voyage to Davis’ Strait during the Summer of 1817. London: Baldwin, Craddock, & Joy, 1818.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

O'Reilly served as surgeon aboard a whale-ship, in order to gather scientific information on the northern regions. He gives much information concerning Arctic zoology, whale fishery, natural atmospheric phenomena, observations of magnetic variation, the history and habitation of Greenland, and observations concerning the possibility of a Northwest Passage." Field - "The observations of the author on the natives of Greenland, are recorded on pp. 52 and 85, of which the last two are occupied with a vocabulary of their language. Five of the plates are illustrative of the features, or habits of life of the Exquimaux." According to Abbey an article in the 'Quarterly Review' called the book 'a bare faced imposition.' Stanton & Tremaine mentions the book is said to have been plagiarized from material prepared by Sir Charles L. M. von Giescke. Hill: Pacific Voyages, p. 219. Field: Indian Bibliography, p. 297

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)

The Blizzard. Newspaper of the Discovery

May 1902. SPRI MS 859. Illus.
  • 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Title page: Never mind The Blizzard I’m all right.

The Rescue of Greely.

Schley, Winfield Scott. By Commander W. Scott and Professor J. R. Soley. New York: Scribner’s, 1885.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

The author sums up the expedition on p. 142 as follows:

Ship’s Libraries; Their Need and Usefulness.

Pierson, John S. New York: American Seamen’s Friend Society, 1878. 33 p.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

p. no page: After you’ve done everything to assure the physical and spiritual welfare of the sailor, “the only way left to reach him is by the printed truth—The Bible, the tract, the good book. Just here then comes in the ship’s library with its indispensable offices,--the last important advance made in the line of religious work among seamen,--the ‘missing link,’ I think we may call it, in the chain of evangelical agencies for their benefit.”

Man the Ropes.

Courtauld, Augustine. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1957).
  • 1930-31 British Greenland Air Route Expedition.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

A short autobiography that covers his early Greenland trip with Gino Watkins, the British Arctic Air Route Expedition of 1930.