Obituary: Vilhjalmur Stefansson 1879-1962.

Sullivan, Walter. Geographical Review 53 2 April 1963, p. 291.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

The polar collection that Stef assembled in his later years was initiated by a gift to him of three hundred books by the American Geographical Society. By now the collection, the property of Dartmouth College, numbers some twenty-five thousand bound volumes and forty-five thousand manuscripts, pamphlets, and the like. His widow, the former Evelyn Schwartz Baird, is still its able librarian, and until the end Stef could be seen quietly at work in a corner of the stacks that hold this vast assemblage of polar information.

Redburn: His First Voyage, being the Sailor-boy Confessions and Reminiscences of the Son-of-a-Gentleman, in the Merchant Service

Melville, Herman. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern-Newberry, 1969.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

p. 47-8: And I remembered reading in a magazine, called the Sailors’ Magazine, with a sea-blue cover, and a ship painted on the back, about pious seamen who never swore, and paid over all their wages to the poor heathen in India; and how that when they were too old to go to sea, these pious old sailors found a delightful home for life in the Hospital, where they had nothing to do, but prepare themselves for their latter end. And I wondered whether there were any such good sailors among my ship-mates; and observing that one of them laid on deck apart from the rest, I thought to be sure that he was one of them: so I did not disturb his devotions: but I was afterwards shocked at discovering that he was only fast asleep, with one of the brown jugs by his side.

Edward Wilson of the Antarctic: Naturalist and Friend.

Seaver, George. With an introduction by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. London: John Murray, 1933.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Although Wilson was known to be an assiduous reader, as well as deeply religious, not much of his reading appears in this biography. Here are a few related references:

A Man-of-War Library

Melville, Herman. White-Jacket, or The world in a Man-of-War. (New York: Library of America, 1983) p. 522-24:.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Chapter 41 A Man-of-War Library

Ice and Esquimaux

Wasson, David A. Atlantic Monthly 14 (Dec. 1864) 728-34; 15 (Jan 1865)39-4; (Feb 1865) 201-12; (April 1865) 437-48; (May 1865) 564-72.
  • Arctic Reading: Inuit and other indigenous people
 Preview 

A series of articles on his 1864 voyage to Labrador on the Benjamin S. Wright with artist William Bradford. Passengers included a Colonel: A Greenland voyager, and better read than any man I have met in the literature of Northern travel.

Alone in Antarctica.

Aston, Felicity. With a Foreword by Joanna Lumley. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2014.
  • 2011-12 British Solo Ski Crossing of Antarctica.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Aston crossed Antarctica alone and unsupported in 59 days. Her book, hyped as a riveting adventure, is to my mind a rather tepid affair though describing an unusual and impressive accomplishment. She apparently took no books or print with her but jokes about her experience with modern audio practice.

An Account of the Voyages undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, and Successively Performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret, and Captain Cook, in the Dolphin, the Swallow, and the Endeavour: Drawn up from the Journals which were Kept by the Several Commanders, and from the Papers of Joseph Banks, esq.; by John Hawkesworth … Illustrated with Cuts, and a Great Variety of Charts and Maps.

Hawkesworth, John. Three volumes.London: Strahan & Cadell, 1773.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
 Preview 

Hawkesworth’s introduction (p. xix) has a brief but controversial discussion of Providence and natural events. p. xx: “it will always be found that Providence interposes too late, and only moderates the mischief which it might have prevented.” In final passage he says he honors God but doubts his intervention in natural events.

N by E.

Kent, Rockwell. New York: Brewer & Warren, 1930.
  • 1929 Private US Voyage to Greenland (aboard Direction with Arthur Allen and Rockwell Kent).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

An account of Kent’s small-boat journey with Arthur Allen on the yacht Direction from New York to Greenland, its wreck, and other adventures.

Mirage in the Arctic: the Astounding 1907 Mikkelsen Expedition

Mikkelsen, Ejnar. Introduction by Lawrence Millman. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2005.
  • 1907 Mikkelsen Expedition.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

A breezy account of Mikkelsen’s attempt to find land within the Arctic Sea, and his dealing with the ice that he did find instead of land.