Polar Extremes: The World of Lincoln Ellsworth.

Pool, Beekman H. Fairbanks, AK: University of Alaska Press, 2002.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

A sympathetic but not uncritical account of Ellsworth, his problems with his father, his relationships to Amundsen and Nobile on Svalberg to Alaska flight, etc.

Travels through the Interior Parts of North-

Carver, Jonathan.
  • 1766-68 British Overland Journey to North America (led by Jonathan Carver).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

America, in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768. (London: Printed for the Author; And Sold by J. Walter, 1778).

Ice Window: Letters from a Bering Strait Village 1892-1902.

Lopp, Ellen Louise Kittredge, 1868-1947. Ed. and annotated by Kathleen Lopp Smith and Verbeck Smith. Fairbanks, AK: Univ. of Alaska Press, 2001.
  • Arctic Reading: Inuit and other indigenous people
 Preview 

p. 55, April 1893: I have learned a great deal about the Natives and their language and customs. Mr. Lopp preached his illustrated sermon all the way up and once on the way back. The folks asked for it twice, but once his throat was too sore to give it. We had two charts illustrating the life of Christ—two quarters’ lessons. Everyone who saw them was interested and gave good attention. We read from the Bible and had prayer every time and sang sometimes.

Safe Return Doubtful: The Heroic Age of Polar Exploration.

Maxtone-Graham, John. New York: Scribner’s, 1988.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

p. 1: On the night of January 30, 1916, a frail, white-haired gentleman retired to the bedroom of his house in London’s Eccleston Square. Once undressed, he swung expertly into a hammock and, as he had done for more than seven decades, read himself to sleep in traditional Royal Navy fashion: One hand held his book, the other a candle, exactly as he had learned as a midshipman in 1844.

To the Pole: The Diary and Notebook of Richard E. Byrd, 1925-1927.

Byrd, Richard Evelyn. Edited by Raimund E. Goerler. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press [1996].
  • 1928-30 First U.S. Antarctic Expedition (Byrd on City of New York).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Goerler’s edition has nothing to do with Antarctica other than Byrd’s having read about Scott’s death on returning from the South Pole:

The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the ‘Fram,’ 1910-1912.

Amundsen, Roald. Two Volumes. London: John Murray, 1913.
  • 1910-12 Norwegian National Antarctic Expedition (Amundsen on Fram).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Volume I, p. 68: aboard the Fram: We carried an extraordinarily copious library; presents of books were showered upon us in great quantities. I suppose the Fram’s library at the present moment contains at least 3,000 volumes.

James Eights, 1798-1882: Antarctic Explorer, Albany Naturalist, His Life, His Times, His Works.

McKinley, Daniel L. Albany, NY: State Education Department, 2005. New York Museum Bulletin 505.
  • 1829-30 First Preliminary US Exploring Expedition (Annawan and Seraph with Captains Nathaniel Palmer and Benjamin Pendleton).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Eights was listed as “Naturalist and Surgeon” on the Annawan Antarctic voyage of 1829-1831 and there are fragmentary results of his work on natural history in the published record, but he is an enigmatic figure, excluded like Reynolds from the Wilkes ExEx in 1838. I see no signs of his readings in the impressive library he helped create for the preliminary expedition.

A Woman’s Trip to Alaska, Being an Account of a Voyage through the Inland Seas of the Sitkan Archipelago in 1890.

Collis, Septima M. New York: Cassell Publishing, 1890.
  • 1890 US Tourist Voyage to Alaska (Septima Collis).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

An unusual woman’s trip for the time, written to encourage other women to abandon their grand tours in favor of this northern one. Miss Collis proves to be a self-indulgent, spoiled wealthy New Yorker, with no sympathy for the natives who “should be coerced into good behavior” (p. 15). She was a Jewish southerner who married a Philadelphia soldier, a general in the Civil War. She travelled with him during the war and wrote a book about her experiences in a divided family. That may be a better book than this self-indulgent one.

A True Description of Three Voyages by the North-East towards Cathay and China, Undertaken by the Dutch in the Years 1594, 1595, and 1596. …

Veer, Gerrit de. Translated into English by William Phillip. Edited by Charles T. Beke. London: Hakluyt Society, 1853.[1ser, no. 13; a second edition appeared in 1876 as 1series, no. 54].
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
 Preview 

p. lix-lxii: The introduction has an inventory of the many relics found at the final site of Barents fatal expedition. No 75 includes the following items: A great number of prints from copper engravings, completely frozen together, including some of Goltzius; Pallas, Juno, and Venus, with Bosscher excudit; scenes from the Bible. “The manner of engraving the names of the engravers proves that all these must have been the work of the sixteenth century. It may seem strange that Arctic navigators had prints or engravings on board, but it is not at all so, for Heemskerck and Barendsz intended to go as far as China, when they sailed to the North-East. For that purpose they had merchandise on board, and prints or engravings were often used as such.

Dr John Rae.

Richards, Robert L. Whitby, Yorkshire: Caedmon of Whitby Publishers, 1985.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

p. 35: Rae happily spent the winter [1845] at York Factory. He built a ‘laboratory’ and occupied himself with meteorological observations and he taught some of his men to assist him. The company [HBC] maintained a small library at York and Rae used it to continue his study of natural history, botany, geology and other subjects.

Behind the Palisades: An Autobiography.

McTavish, George Simpson. Victoria, BC: Gray’s Publishing Canada, 1963.
  • Hudson's Bay Company.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

McTavish (1834-93) was appointed Chief Trader of the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1859, serving in several posts including Fort William, Albany, Rupert’s House, Moose Factory, and other locations. He retired in 1880; this posthumously published autobiography shows him very supportive and loyal to the Company.

Marginalia.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Bollingen Edition. Five? Volumes. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 19-- .
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

Volume I: