There are several mysteries about the libraries and books at the successive bases begun and used by Richard Byrd: who was responsible for selecting the books, were they all donated or were some purchased, and were they disassembled at the end of each mission or were they allowed to float away along with the bases themselves. There is little doubt that the leadership of Little America saw their book collections as vital components of the psychological health of the personnel. [See David H. Stam, “Byrd’s Books: The Libraries of Little America I-III. ” Coriolis: Interdisciplinary Journal of Maritime History vol. 6 no. 1, and his Adventures in Polar Reading: The Book Cultures of High Latitudes. New York: The Grolier Club, 2019. pp. 263
1929-47 Libraries at Little America, 1929-30, 1934-35, 1935, 1940-41, 1946-47 (commanded by Admiral Richard Byrd)
- Maritime Reading
Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America; Effected by the Officers of the Hudson’s Bay Company during the Years 1836-39.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
From the introductory memoir of Simpson by his brother Alexander (p. xviii), following the death of Simpson at the hands of a few Métis: if, indeed, it pleased Providence to darken the spirit which had passed undaunted through so many we can but acknowledge that the decrees of God are inscrutable to mortals, and join in these beautiful lines of Cowper:
The Log of a Sea-Waif: Being Recollections of the First Four Years of My Sea Life.
- Arctic Reading: General
p. 20: There were no books on board of reading matter of any kind, except the necessary works on navigation on the captain’s shelf; so it was just as well that I could take some interest in our surroundings, if I was not to die mentally as most of the sailors seemed to have done…. they seemed totally ignorant of anything connected with the wonders of the sea.
Sir John Franklin’s Last Arctic Expedition: The Franklin Expedition; A Chapter in the History of the Royal Navy
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
p. 43-4: Research work was planned in magnetism, geology, botany, and zoology, and all the necessary instruments were supplied. Great importance was attached to magnetic observations, for the taking of which an elaborate and very comprehensive outfit was provided. Colonel Sabine gave special instruction in magnetism to several of the officers. Furthermore, a library was supplied to each ship, the one in the Terror comprised twelve hundred volumes, and the one in the Erebus was probably at least as large—Commander Fitzjames described it as a ‘very capital library’. The books included not only those in the ‘Seamen’s Library’ ordinarily issued to every ship, but also technical treatises on the management of steam engines, narratives of previous Arctic expeditions, geographical journals, and some lighter literature, such as Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby, The Ingoldsby Legends, Charles O’Malley, and volumes of Punch. Seventy slates, slate pencils, two hundred pens, ink, paper, and some ‘Common Arithmetic’ books, were supplied expressly for use in the schools which Sir John Franklin intended to hold for the men during the winter months. He was very anxious that every man should be adequately supplied with devotional works, and shortly before he sailed requested the Admiralty to furnish a hundred Bibles, Prayer Books, and Testaments, for sale on board the ships at cost price to all who applied for them. The Admiralty took immediate steps to comply with this request, but friends and various societies presented so many religious books that those furnished by the Admiralty were not needed and were, therefore, returned.
The Franklin Expedition from First to Last.
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
King was among the most ascerbic critics of most explorers other than himself, carrying his battles through the press and elsewhere. His expedition was ???
Innocents on the Ice: A Memoir of Antarctic Exploration, 1957.
- 1957-58 Operation Deep Freeze I. Ellesworth Station. (Finn Ronne).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
An account of the International Geophysical Year expedition to the Weddell Sea with Captain Finn Ronne, 1956-58, with emphasis on the stresses and conflicts between the military captain and the civilian scientists. Behrendt is unusual in noting, mostly from his daily journal, a substantial amount of reading during the winter at Ellsworth Station. These readings included Ronne’s own Antarctic Conquest (p. 24); War and Peace (p. 58); The Rebel (Camus) and Stefansson’s Arctic Manual (p. 114); Gods Graves and Scholars (Ceram: p. 122); Thurber (p. 136); Cold (Gould: p. 140); thesaurus (p. 153); The White Desert (Giaever: p. 158 with a long quote); Mrs Warren’s Profession (Shaw) and Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck: p. 170); The Rain Cave: p. 189); Of Whales and Men (R.B. Robertson: p. 201); Life on the Mississippi (Twain: p. 214); The Life of Greece (Durant: p. 223); Scott’s Last Expedition (p. 320); Time magazine (p. 323); Merck Manual (p. 346); Human Destiny (LeComte de Nouilly: p. 371); The Wall (Hersey: p. 374).
Reminiscences of service aboard USS Flasher (SSN 613) as yeoman submariner in 1966-69.
- 1966-68 US Deployment of USS Flasher to Kamchatka and Beyond.
- Arctic Reading: United States
The sub adopted as its honorary submariner the novelist Louis L'Amour, author of Western thrillers. Dale was the yeoman who corresponded with him, sent him a letter when they crossed the equator, and L'Amour in turn sent signed copies of all his work to the ship.
Ancestral Voices.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
p. 31-32, describes a visit to Lord & Lady Kennet's home in 1942: Lord Kennet was luckily in bed with bronchitis so we were alone. K [Scott’s widow] as outgiving as ever. The first glimpse of her showed how she is ageing. Her figure is noticeably spread, and not mitigated by the shapeless, sacklike garments she always wears. She is the worst-dressed woman I know; and rejoices in a sort of aggressive no-taste in clothes and house.
Voyages of a Modern Viking.
- Antarctic Reading: General
For someone who participated in Amundsen’s three major expeditions, went to the South Pole with him in 1910, and was captain of Maud on the later Northeast Passage expedition, Hanssen sounds generally as boring as extreme weather reports, at least in this version. There is no indication of a translator, nor any indication that Hanssen and Amundsen may have had a falling out on the 1918-1920 Northeast Passage trip. So the Fram Museum suggests on its website, citing the journals of other participants as claiming Amundsen fired Hanssen because the designation of Hanssen as captain went to his head. If so, even that excitement is concealed in this book.
Alaska, the Golden Land of the Midnight Sun.
- Arctic Reading: United States
Chicago: Published by the Author, 1901.
Arctic Adventure: My Life in the Frozen North
- Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
One of two or three autobiographies by Freuchen, this mainly of his life and adventures with Rasmussen during the Thule expeditions. A few things stand out: his total admiration for Robert Peary (of course for Rasmussen as well), his growing sensitivity to Inuit culture (thanks to his marriage with Navarana), and his lack of any literary pretentions. He scarcely mentions anything he does during his leisure time.
Northward over the ‘Great Ice’: A Narrative of Life and Work along the Shores and Upon the Interior Ice-cap of Northern Greenland in the Years 1886 and 1891-1897
- 1891-1920 Robert Peary and the Search for the North Pole.
- Arctic Reading: United States
Volume I:
Towards the Poles.
- Arctic Reading: United States
A fascinating harbinger of U.S. participation in the International Geophysical Year (1957-58). One could only wish, sixty years later, that the Navy had distributed this work widely among its officers and men to help them understand what they were dealing with. The work consists of a series of timelines of polar expeditions, including in addition to the introductory chronologies, other sections on the Franklin Search, the Northwest Passage, the Northeast Passage. Part II includes two chapters on Antarctica, the second another timeline. Appendices include an Arctic index, a select bibliography, and a glossary.
Saga of the White Horizon.
- 1901-04 Swedish Antarctic Expedition (Otto Nordenskjöld).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Olsen was a Norwegian aviator who participated in the Ellsworth/ Trans-Antarctic/Polar Star expedition between 1933 and 1936 as support on the three attempts to make the trip. On one occasion, during the later portion of these trips, the Wyatt Earp anchored at Snow Hill Island and the men visited the place where Otto Nordenskjöld wintered and built a winter house over thirty years earlier.
Scientific American Handbook of Travel. With Hints for the Ocean Voyage, for European Tours and a Practical Guide to London and Paris.
- Maritime Reading
A compendium of shipboard needs including recommendations for desirable reading on lengthy ocean voyages.