Life Onboard an Emigrant Ship: Being a Diary of a Voyage to Australia.

Mereweather, John Davies. London: T. Hatchard, 1852.
  • Whalemen's Reading
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The Rev. Mereweather of the Anglican Church saw it as his unpaid duty to provide moral leadership to the “poorer classes” being conveyed to Australia. Proceeds from its sale would go to the Female Emigrant Society for that purpose.

Shackleton Collection.

Rendell, Kenneth. Exhibited at Boston Museum of Science, March 2001.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Included in the exhibit were: Tennyson, Alfred Lord. Complete Works. Given in 1908 to Lt. Shackleton and the Officers of the Nimrod, and kept in officer’s mess; Swinburne Poems. Signed by Shackleton; South. First ed. Signed by Shackleton; Nautical Almanac. 1908. Shackleton’s copy from the Nimrod; Inscribed portrait of Shackleton; Signed 1914 solicitation letter for the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition; Signed photograph of Frank Hurley’s Winter Night; Cover illustration of South, presented to a Mrs. Pearson.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket….

Poe, Edgar Allan. New York: Library of America, 1984. p. 1003-1182.
  • Whalemen's Reading
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Fictional account of mutiny on Grampus, June 1827, followed by rescue by a whaler which sailed nearly to the South Pole. Very little about books, but the cabin of Pym’s friend Augustus contained “a table, a chair, and a set of hanging shelves full of books, chiefly books of voyages and travels” (p. 1021). When Pym, a stowaway, was first hidden before departure he describes his hideaway on p. 1024: “I now looked over the books which had been so thoughtfully provided, and selected the expedition of Lewis and Clarke to the mouth of the Columbia. With this I amused myself for some time, when growing sleepy, I extinguished the light with great care, and soon fell into a sound slumber.” That seems to be the last mention of books in this exciting and inventive tale.

The People of the Polar North: A Record.

Rasmussen, Knud. Compiled from the Danish Originals and Edited by G. Herring. Illustrations by Count Harald Moltke. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1908. [another edition London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1908].
  • Greenland.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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But, as its title implies, it is first and foremost an account of the most northerly dwelling people in the world, that is to say, of the little Eskimo group of nomads who wander from settlement to settlement between Cape York, North of Melville Bay, and Cape Alexander (approximately therefore between 76˚ and 78˚ N. latitude), and who are called in this book the Polar Eskimos [Editor’s Preface].

The Big Sea: An Autobiography….

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

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
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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.

In Search of a Siberian Klondike as Narrated by Washington B. Vanderlip the Chief Actor and Herein Set Forth by Homer B. Hulbert.

Vanderlip, Washington V. New York: The Century Co., 1908.
  • 1896 Russian-Sponsored Overland Expedition by American W. V. Vanderlip in Search of Gold.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
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Hard to know whether the charm of this book is to the narrator or amanensis, but it is a delight to read both for its human interactions and its elements of natural history and hunting. These exxcerpts give some flavor of the book, and there are a few comments on language and literature.

The Content of the Kettles.

[Dickens] Stone, Ian. Dickensian 83 (1987) 7-16.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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An even-handed account of Dickens’ attack in Household Words on John Rae’s reports of cannibalism among the Franklin party, reporting Rae’s eventual vindication.

Marooned: Being a Narrative of the Sufferings and Adventures of Captain Charles H. Barnard, Embracing an Account of the Seizure of his Vessel at the Falkland Islands, &c., 1812-1816.

Barnard, Charles H., Captain. Edited with an introduction by Bertha S. Dodge. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1986 [first published 1979].
  • Whalemen's Reading
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No doubt a most harrowing tale, marred only by the seeming innocence and trusting self-presentation of Barnard and his providential beliefs. The work includes excerpts from the log of Barzillai Pease (originals in Syracuse University Library), a co-partner in Barnard’s endeavor. Barnard’s ship, Nanina, was taken over by mutineers, he himself was abandoned by other shipmates, rescued by the Isabella which in turn was shipwrecked, abandoned again, and other perils, his ship eventually declared war bounty by the British during war of 1812.

The Life of Sir John Franklin, R.N.

Traill, Henry Duff. London: John Murray, 1896.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 57-58: Traill cites Beechey’s Voyage of Discovery towards the North Pole of the Dorothea and Trent in which Franklin sailed: It is a most spirited narrative of a voyage the interest of which as a series of maritime adventures considerable exceeded its scientific results…. But considered as a record of manifold dangers and difficulties encountered with unflinching courage and overcome by brilliant seamanship, the story of their voyage must always hold a high place in the history of Arctic adventure.

Voyages of a Modern Viking

Hanssen, Helmer. Foreword by Vice-Admiral E.R.G.R. Evans.London: George Routledge, 1936.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
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A very pleasant autobiography of someone who sailed with Amundsen on the Gjoa, the Fram, and the Maud, based on his diaries and presumably translated from Norwegian (though there is no indication).