The Myth of the Explorer: The Press, Sensationalism, and Geographical Discovery.

Riffenburgh, Beau. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1994.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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Explores the role of the press in developing idealized versions of polar heroes, whatever their feet of clay. Cites Joseph Campbell, John Ruskin, and particularly J. Mackenzie in clarifying the requirements for heroic status: an exotic setting, the personal characteristics and qualities of the hero, the martyrdom of the hero (though this varied from country to country), and the development of icons of the fallen heroes for whatever nationalistic, patriotic, or commercial motives. (cf. Scott, p. 7).

Memoirs of Joseph René Bellot…with his Journal of a Voyage in the Polar Seas in Search of Sir John Franklin. [1851-52]

Bellot, Joseph Rene, Lt. Two volumes.(London: Hurst and Blackett, 1855).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Though much of this takes place on land, Bellot sailed on the Prince Albert as part of a British expedition searching for Franklin. Bellot died in 1853. The work consists of a memoir of Bellot by Julien Lemer (p. 1-87), an introduction by Bellot (p 88-108, reprinted from the Annales Maritimes), and Bellot’s journal, the remainder, though the running heads get confused.

Books Afloat & Ashore: A History of Books, Libraries, and Reading Among Seamen During the Age of Sail.

Skallerup, Harry Robert. Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1974.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 4: In 1631, when Captain Thomas James fitted out his vessel in Bristol for a voyage in search of the Northwest Passage, he purchased ‘A Chest full of the best and choicest Mathematicall bookes that could be got for money in England; as likewise Master Hackluite and Master Purchase, and other books of Journals and Histories. [See C. Miller, ed. Voyages of Captain Luke Fox of Hull, Hakluyt Soc. London 1894, p. 265-67, 606 p.]

The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore.

Hutchinson, John Robert. (London: Eveleigh Nash, 1913).
  • Maritime Reading
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p. 42-3, description of life of 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.]

The Private Life of Polar Exploration.

Scott, James Maurice. Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1982.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

p. 65, re Scott’s Northern Party: Levick used to read aloud in the evening, first a chapter a night of David Copperfield, then the Life of Stevenson, then Simon the Jester [William Locke novel]. That was their library, and thus rationed lasted them about half way through the winter…. On Sunday nights they sang with a religious bias.

A Voyage Round the World with Captain James Cook in H.M.S. Resolution by Anders Sparrman.

Sparrman, Anders, 1748-1820. Introduction and Notes by Owen Rutter. Wood-engravings by Peter Barker-Mill. London: Golden Cockerel Press, 1944.
  • 1772-75 British Naval Expedition–Second Voyage (Captain James Cook aboard the Resolution).
  • “Discovery” of Antarctica.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A Swedish botanist who was taken on board Cook’s second voyage at Cape Town where Cook had met the Forsters. Forster had studied under Linneaus, who had recommended him for a South African botany project. He joined the Resolution reluctantly and suffered/or helped cause the usual hostilities between officers and scientists, what he calls the “contempt of ignorance.”

Reminiscences of a Voyage Around the World.

Davis, Raymond Cazallis. Ann Arbor, MI: Dr. Chase’s Steam Printing House, 1869.
  • 1849-51 American Circumnavigation (aboard Hampton).
  • Maritime Reading
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Written by an Assistant Librarian of the University of Michigan and son of the captain, who says he wrote it to increase an “insufficient salary.” First published in a weekly newspaper, readers he claims called for book publication. The author was early on a cabin boy, a job from which he was “ignominiously dismissed” for his greater interest in the world, than the world around him.

A Voyage Around the World 1826-1829.

Litke, Frederic. Edited by Richard A. Pierce. (Kingston, ONT: Limestone Press, 1987).
  • 1826-29 Russian Exploring Expedition (aboard Veniamin).
  • Maritime Reading
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Trip on Seniavin, a Russian ship, to survey coasts of Kamchatka, the Okhotsk Sea, and the Shanter Islands. Traveled from Kronstadt to Portsmouth, Rio, Cape Horn, Valparaiso, Sitka, & Kamchatka. Stopped in Sitka to observe the Russian colonies there under the Russian-American Company in New Archangel. Baron Wrangell was governor and the fort itself had been rebuilt after being destroyed by the Americans:

Antarctica Sixty Years Ago: A Re-appraisal of the British Expedition 1934-1937.

Bertram, Colin. Polar Record 32 (181) April 1996, p. 98-183.
  • 1934-37 British Graham Land Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p. 151: Our reading matter, our library, was limited and exiguous. We had a pleasing special bookplate that may be a collector’s item one day. We had a good collection of Antarctic exploratory histories of past expeditions, a few basic reference books, to which each of us had added a personal collection limited, I think it was, to 10 volumes each. The voyage of the Beagle and Anson’s voyage I read while we sailed the Southern Ocean, and we compared the size and shape of Beagle with that of Penola. Darwin was a gentleman scientist; for him no hauling on the ropes watch by watch, by day and by night. Nor did Darwin nor Anson cook for the entire ship’s company, baking bread and washing up: times had changed, and they have changed again since. Darwin in Beagle started out at age 22, whereas I was already 23. The incredible genius of Darwin must astonish us all. Would that one could say with him in his biography: ‘My industry has been nearly as great as it could have been in the observation and collection of facts. What is far more important, my love of natural science has been steady and devout.’