Mariner’s Sketches, Originally Published in the Manufacturers and Farmers Journal, Providence.

Ames, Nathaniel. Revised, Corrected and Enlarged by the author. Providence: Cory, Marshall and Hammond, 1830.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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The author Nathaniel Ames was the son of the statesman, Fisher Ames (1758-1808), of Dedham, Massachusetts, and was a congressman from 1789 to 1797. Nathaniel was named for his grandfather, Nathaniel Ames, famous for the Ames Almanacs, which were the inspiration to Benjamin Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanac".

Little America: Aerial Exploration in the Antarctic; the Flight to the South Pole.

Byrd, Richard Evelyn. New York: Putnam’s, 1930.
  • 1928-30 First U.S. Antarctic Expedition (Byrd on City of New York).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Byrd’s account of his first Antarctic Expedition (1928-30) and the development of the first Little America. Here and elsewhere Byrd seems obsessed with the possibility of failure, though it also seems that he uses that device to heighten the tension of his narrative. Seems a transparent piece of reader manipulation.

Shores of the Polar Sea: A Narrative of the Arctic Expedition of 1875-6.

Moss, Edward L. (London: Marcus Ward & Co., 1878).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 9: While our two ships steamed northward along the west shores of Greenland, the novel charm of constant daylight was felt by every one. We all had our own ideas of what Arctic summer would be like, but ideas drawn from books rarely remain unchanged when brought face to face with reality. Although the passage into perpetual day was of course gradual, yet it was quite rapid enough to upset all regular habits.

Whaling Wherein are Discussed the First Whalemen of Whom We Have Record

Hawes, Charles Boardman. … [to] the Present State of a Once Flourishing and Lucrative Industry. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page, 1924.
  • Whalemen's Reading
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p. 320-21, on the decline of the industry, and the sources of its history: Thus dies old-fashioned whaling. There is only one way now to see it, and that is in its records and relics. Of records there are many, beginning away back with the days of Basque and Norseman and coming on down, through the Spitzbergen days—both English and Dutch accounts of them—the later Arctic whaling of the Hull and the Dundee fleet, and the "southern whale fishery" to our own American whaling. Of those earlier days some few first-hand accounts still survive, and of American whaling there are literally hundreds of log books and account books—the one showing life at sea; the other, the counting-house side of the game.

The Big Sea: An Autobiography….

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

Diary of the Discovery Expedition to the Antarctic Regions 1901-1904.

Wilson, Edward. Edited from the Original Mss. in the Scott Polar Research Institute, by Ann Savours. London: Blandford Press, 1966.
  • 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Wilson was a prodigious reader. In addition to the citations below he speaks often of readings on medicine or surgery, presumably technical books he had with him on the expedition. He was also a devout Christian and would read his services when he couldn’t attend or in addition to attendance. Most notable was his reading of Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” during the fatal polar trip.

Americans in Antarctica, 1715-1948

Bertrand, Kenneth J. . New York: American Geographical Society, 1971. (AGS Special Publication No. 39.).
  • Antarctic Reading: General
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A thorough account of American operations in Antarctica, from the Falklands in the 1770s to the 1947-48 US Navy “Operation Windmill.” See individual chapters for each expedition covered.

The Gifts of Reading.

Macfarlane, Robert. Penguin Random House, UK, 2017.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 31-32: As I work on this essay, over the Christmas of 2015, I know that a copy of my book The Wild Places is being sledge-hauled to the South Pole by a young Scottish adventurer called Luke Robertson, who is aiming to become the youngest Briton to ski there unassisted, unsupported and solo. Robertson’s sledge weighs seventeen stone, and he is dragging it for thirty-five days over 730 miles of snow and ice, in temperatures as low as -50˚C, and winds as high as 100mph. Under such circumstances I felt impossibly proud that The Wild Places (paperback weight: 8.9oz) had earned its place on his sledge, and impossibly excited at the thought of my sentences being read out there on the crystal continent, under the endless daylight of the austral summer.

An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty for Making Discoveeries in the Southern Hemisphere, And Successively Performed by Commodore Byron : Captain Carteret, Captain Wallis : And Captain Cook. Drawn Up from the Journals which were kept by the several Commanders, And from the Papers of Joseph Banks, Esq; by John Hawkesworth.

Hawksworth, John. In Three Volumes. London: W. Straham and T. Cadell, 1773.
  • 1768–79 British Naval Expeditions of Captain James Cook.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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A very controversial work, Hawksworth being heavily attack by Philip Carteret in particular for distorting the nature, failures, and successes of the Carteret circumnavigation.

Under the Northern Lights, with Illustrations by G. R de Wilde.

MacGahan, Januarius A. (London: Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1876).
  • 1875-76 Private Expedition to Magnetic North Pole and North West Passage (Captain Allen Young aboard Pandora).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Narrative of Captain Allen Young's expedition in his yacht Pandora (later the Jeannette), 1875-76, into Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait, and into Peel Sound. Also contains an account of Young's sledge trips during M'Clintock's Fox Expedition. The Voyage was privately organized, its object to sail to the magnetic pole by way of Lancaster Sound and from there negotiate the North West Passage. They reached Beechey Island where they found a number of relics left by earlier expeditions but were finally beset by ice in Franklin Strait. There were two other works written on this expedition, both by the commander, one was privately published and contained photographs. (ABEBooks description.)

In the Days of the Red River Rebellion.

McDougall, John. Toronto: Briggs, 1903.
  • 1868-73 Red River Rebellion in Saskatchewan.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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McDougall was a rather devout Protestant missionary who (p. 111-113) engaged the Indians in an anti-alcohol petition, a miner episode in the Red River Colony’s rebellion against the Canadian government which had transferred Hudson’s Bay Company land to the new country to the detriment of Métis interests in their land and culture.

Northern Regions: Or, A relation of Uncle Richard’s Voyages for the Discovery of a North-west Passage.

(London: J. Harris, 1825) [New York reprint published by Johnson Reprint, 1970.].
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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A serious account of four British expeditions intended to introduce children to the excitement and uncertainties of Arctic travel, without sparing the more gruesome aspects of exploration (death, storms, cannibalism, etc.) Good and accurate descriptions of amusements aboard, and relatively balanced accounts of the “savages.” The expeditions are Parry I, Franklin I, Parry II, and Cochrane’s overland journey to Siberia.

Voices in Stone; A Personal Journey into the Arctic Past.

Schledermann, Peter. Calgary, AL: Arctic Institute of North America, 1996.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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Voices in Stone is a personal journey of discovery, a portrait and a history of the human presence in the far northern regions of Canada. Archaeological investigations have provided us with a window into the world of the Palaeo- and Neo- eskimos who occupied the High Arctic intermittently for more than 4000 years. The book tells the story of the search for evidence of ancient human settlements on the central east coast of Ellesmere Island and the exciting discovery of Norse artifacts in thirteenth-century Neoeskimo winter houses. In 1818, Sir John Ross made the first recorded Western contact with descendants of the Neoeskimos, the Polar Eskimos or Inughuit of North Greenland. His entry into Baffin Bay led the way for Western whalers, explorers, and North Pole seekers, whose presence turned out to have dramatic consequences for the Inughuit. Voices in Stone is not only an account of the discovery of archaeological materials in the High Arctic, but a story of life in remote, isolated research camps occasionally threatened by sudden, violent storms or curious polar bears.

The Real Story of the Whaler: Whaling, Past and Present.

Verrill, Alpheus Hyatt. New York: D. Appleton, 1916.
  • Whalemen's Reading
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A general history of New Bedford and its whalers. The book is both a useful compendium of knowledge about New Bedford, and a sentimental threnody for its whalers and whalemen.