Volume I: 1936-38
Distant Summers: P. G. Downes’ Journals of Travels in Northern Canada, 1936-1947.
- Hudson's Bay Company.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Life on an Icefloe.
- 1938 Russian.
- Arctic Reading: Russia
A Soviet paean to Stalin and the system, claiming Stalin’s great interest in Arctic science. There is a heavy dose of communist Stalinism written by a rather pedestrian author but still there is some interest simply in seeing what they were reading.
The Lord’s Librarians: The American Seamen’s Friend Society and their Loan Libraries 1837-1967
- Whalemen's Reading
p. 1 Abstract: "The Lord's Librarians" describes in new detail the activities of the American Seamen's Friend Society in distributing loan libraries to merchant and naval ships for over 130 years. Based on the archives of the Society in the G.W. Blunt White Library at the Mystic Seaport Museum, the study examines the history of the Society in its efforts towards moral improvement of seamen, fostering temperance, reducing licentiousness, encouraging Sabbath worship and observation, countering swearing, and promoting thrift and financial responsibility among sailors. It examines the largely evangelical collection development policies for these compact 40-45 volume library boxes, and attempts to locate the surviving boxes and surviving books from these libraries. It ends with some unanswered questions which deserve further study.
An Arctic Boat Journey, in the Autumn of 1854
- 1854 US North Pole Mission of Charles Francis Hall.
- Arctic Reading: United States
Hayes participated in Charles Hall’s 1854 attempt to reach the North Pole, and contributed a couple of versions of his account before completing this 1860 version, closely following publication of Hayes’s The Open Polar Sea.
Count Benyowsky; Or The Conspiracy of Kamtschatka: A Tragic-Comedy.
- Arctic Reading: Russia
Kotzebue, a German dramaist wrote this play about Benyovzky in 1798.In 1769, while fighting for the Polish armies under theBar Confederation, he was captured by the Russians and exiled toKamchatka. He subsequently escaped and returned to Europe viaMacauandMauritius, arriving in France.
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:
Survival in Antarctica.
- Antarctic Reading: General
On the purpose of this manual: Today people go from the United States to Antarctica in hours. Warm buildings and home comforts shield them from months-long darkness, high winds, and temperatures sometimes below -75°C. (-100°F.). At stations like McMurdo, life seems so normal that it is easy to forget Antarctica's dangers. Tragedy and disaster can strike unexpectedly. It has happened, and it will happen again. This manual will help you prepare for the possibility, when all seems to be going well, of suddenly being in a survival situation.
Explorer: The Life of Richard A. Byrd.
- 1928-56 Expeditions of Rear Admiral Richard Byrd.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
This is an appreciative but critical biography of a man who, despite notable achievements, comes across as an egomaniacal, depressive, ambitious, narcissistic, vindictive, white supremacist, a sometimes petty man, yet one who could be generous, brave, physically courageous. He is almost a model of the lonely depressive hero.
Among Unknown Eskimo: An Account of Twelve Years Intimate Relations with the Primitive Eskimo of Ice-bound Baffin Land: with a Description of Their Way of Living, Hunting Customs & Beliefs.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
A detailed description of Baffin Island and the Inuit way of life, with an appendix of Eskimo deities, including the vampiric Aipalookvik who 'Has a large head and face, human in appearance but ugly like a cod's. Is a destroyer by desire and tries to bite and eat the kyakers.' (p.266). His account is also notable for descriptions of euthanasia: a blind man is willingly led to an ice hole where 'He went right under, then and there under the ice and was immediately drowned and frozen. A handy piece of ice served to seal the death trap, and all was over. Nandla had died on the hunt, and had entered the Eskimo heaven like the other valiant men of his tribe, and taken his place with the doughtiest of them, where there would be joy and plenty for evermore.' (p. 153) [From John Bockstoce collection catalogue, item 10, from McGahern Books, 2019.]
This Frozen World: The Polar Diaries of Alfred Wright Stuart.
- 1958-62 Operation Deep Freeze.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Stuart was chosen to serve as a geologist based at McMurdo starting in 1958, at the end of the IGY.
Newfoundland Discovered: English Attempts at Colonisation, 1610-1630.
- 1610-30 British Exploration of Newfoundland.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Diverse and interesting materials on colonizing Newfoundland.
The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
p. 42-3, describes the life of an impressed seaman: With books he was for many years ‘very scantily supplied.’ It was not till 1812, indeed, that the Admiralty, shocked by the discovery that he had practically nothing to elevate his mind but daily association with the quarter-deck, began to pour into the fleet copious supplies of literature for his use. Thereafter the sailor could beguile his leisure with such books as the Old Chaplain’s Farewell Letter, Wilson’s Maxims, The Whole Duty of Man, Secker’s Duties of the Sick, and, lest returning health should dissipate the piety begotten of his ailments, Gibson’s Advice after Sickness. Thousands of pounds were spent upon this improving literature, which was distributed to the fleet in strict accordance with the amount of storage room available at the various dockyards. [Footnote: Ad. Accountant-General, Misc. (Various), No. 106—Accounts of the Rev. Archdeacon Owen, Chaplain-General to the Fleet, 1812-7.]
Under Sail to Greenland, Being an Account of the Voyage of the Cutter “Direction”. 1929.
- 1929 Private US Voyage to Greenland (aboard Direction with Arthur Allen and Rockwell Kent).
- Arctic Reading: United States
An easygoing and relaxed account of the Greenland trip by three twenty-year olds including Rockwell Kent (who took the trip for painting purposes primarily) in a small vessel which was wrecked near Godthaab in the summer of 1929. Tragic in that the author was killed in a car crash the month after returning to the US. A few reading and library references are included in this adventure:
Parry of the Arctic: The Life Story of Admiral Sir Edward Parry 1790-1855.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
A biography by his great-great-granddaughter. Only the first half of the book deals with Parry’s Arctic experience.
A Voyage Around the World with the Romanzov Exploring Expedition in the Years 1815-1818 in the Brig
- 1815-18 Russian Exploring Expedition (Captain Otto von Kotzebue aboard Rurik).
- Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
- Maritime Reading
p. 27, a paean to Kotzebue as author, the father of this Captain: How often in the far ends of the earth, namely on O-Wahu [O’ahu], Guaján [Guam], etc., have I been praised for my small share in the enterprise of his son, in order to cast a hem of the mantle of his fame over me. Everywhere we heard his name mentioned. American newspapers reported that The Stranger had been performed to extraordinary applause. All the libraries in the Aleutian Islands, as far as I have investigated them, consisted of a single volume of the Russian translation of Kotzebue.”