Tries to analyze as objectively as possible the roots of antagonism between Stefansson and Canadians—sees a degree of arrogance, opportunism, manipulation, and pig-headedness on Stefansson’s part, but also a competence hard to deny. Sees the debacle of Wrangell Island as the final blow to Stef’s reputation in Canada, but there is much else documented here. By 1924 Stef’s connections with Ottawa and Canada were essentially severed and by his choice he ended his Canadian career.
Stefansson and the Canadian Arctic.
Diubaldo, Richard J. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1978. [Reprinted in paperback 1998.].
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Preview
The Autobiography of a Seaman.
Thomas Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald. (London: Richard Bentley, 1872).
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Preview
This author is one very aristocratic sailor who had his troubles with the Royal Navy and the British government in the early nineteenth century. Suffice it to say that this is not a voice from the forecastle, but of petulant complaints concerning the “injustice and folly” of the government court (p. 493). There is nothing I could find in this book about polar reading, or any reading at all.
Étoffe du pays: Lower St. Lawrence Sketches.
Simms, Florence Mary. Toronto: Musson, n.d.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Preview
This alleged children’s book is undated but probably describes events and publication of the mid-1920s. A couple of jems are worth recording from this delightful book:
Sir Francis Drake and the Famous Voyage, 1577-1580.
Thrower, Norman J. W., editor. (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1984).
- 1577-80 English Expedition around the World (Francis Drake commanding The Golden Hind).
- Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
- Maritime Reading
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An handsome volume celebrating the 400th anniversary of Drake’s voyage to New Albion in 1577, a collection of essays by some of the luminaries of geographic and cartographic history in the later 20th century: John Parry, David Waters, David Quinn, Helen Wallis, and Thrower himself, among others. It is full of puzzles, enigmas, speculations, secrets, etc. There is this intriguing passage at the end of Helen Wallis’ substantial and fascinating essay on “The Cartography of Drake’s Voyage”:
Typescript of Orde Lees diary prepared by him for Shackleton.
Orde Lees, Thomas. SPRI MS 1605/5/1.
- 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Apparently Lees edited his diary, eliminating the first person, as grist for Shackleton’s book on the expedition—refers to himself in third person (Lees is our mess man) and Shackleton as Sir Ernest. Always seems excessively deferential to Shackleton, particularly in this typescript which Lees prepared for Sir Ernest.
Saga of the “Discovery.
Bernacchi, Louis Charles. London: Blackie, 1938.
- 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Bernacchi was an Australian/Belgian explorer, another veteran of the heroic age of polar exploration, having participated in Borchgrevink’s Southern Cross expedition, Scott’s Discovery expedition, as well as journeys to Africa and Peru. He was also the biographer of Lawrence Oates, who died on Scott’s last expedition.
A Journey to the North Pole.
Verne, Jules. London & New York: George Routledge, 1875. [Later editions under the title At the North Pole, Or The Adventures of Captain Hatteras. Also known as The English at the North Pole.].
- Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
Preview
Novel about an American proposal to auction all territory north of the 84th parallel. The sale was to take place in Baltimore with all proceeds to be divided among underbidders. The English strongly opposed an American purchase, since “The North Pole belonged to them.” The plan itself was to turn the globe on its axis to melt the Pole and extract the coal, while changing the torrid zones as well; but the calculation of the equation to do it proved faulty and the earth was saved. The satire chiefly involves the French poking fun at the US for its North Pole obsession.
Narrative of a Voyage to the Ethiopic and South Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Chinese Sea, North and South Pacific Ocean, in the Yeas 1829, 1830, 1831.
Morrell, Abby Jane. New-York: Published by J. & J. Harper, 1833.
- 1822-31 Four US Voyages to South and North Pacific Seas and Antarctica (Capt. Benjamin Morrell aboard Various Ships).
- Arctic Reading: United States
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Mrs. Morrell followed her husband’s larger and multi-voyage 1832 narrative by only one year, and was considerably more successful with her account of the last of her husband’s voyages. No doubt its greater appeal lay in the unusual phenomenon of a woman’s account of such a voyage. The pair deserve a dual biography.
Antarctic Night
Bursey, Jack. New York: Rand McNally, 1957.
- 1928-56 Expeditions of Rear Admiral Richard Byrd.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
Bursey participated in three Byrd-related expeditions in 1928-1930; 1931-41; and 1955-57. He grew up in northern Newfoundland and claims to have read everything he could find on Antarctica while a youth and went on to be an apparently successful dog handler in all three expeditions. His book is a paean to the continent and its sheer magnetism to the smitten, and he expresses its pull chiefly through cliché. If he read more about Antarctica or anything else you won’t find out from this book. He does refer to the fine libraries in the first and third expeditions, but mainly he describes parts of the end of the world where no man has ever tread before, and similar bromides.
With Peary Near the Pole…
Astrup, Eivind. Translated from the Norwegian by H. J. Bull. London: C. Arthur Pearson, 1898.
- Arctic Reading: United States
Preview
Astrup participated in two of Peary’s early Greenland expeditions.
From Pole to Pole: The Life of Quintin Riley, 1905-1980.
Riley, Jonathan P. Bluntisham, UK: Bluntisham Books, 1989.
- Arctic Reading: General
Preview
Quinton Riley was the Quarter Master of the British Graham Land Expedition, and this biography includes one full chapter on his participation in the BGLE (p. 55-95). He is described as a good-natured but argumentative colleague, of firm religious convictions, and a valuable member of the expedition staff.
My Life as an Explorer.
Amundsen, Roald. Garden City: Doubleday, 1927.
- Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
Preview
A fairly straightforward autobiography of his life, from childhood adventures on the ice, the Belgica expedition and its problems with scurvy, his secret departure for the NW Passage to avoid his creditors, the two years on King William Island, another year near Herschel Island, and completion in 1906. Next he planned a North Pole expedition, but Peary’s claim there clandestinely shifted his focus to the South Pole. He passes over the SP trip quickly, before moving on to his attempt to drift across the North Pole, his interest in aerial exploration (1922), his business difficulties with H.J. Hammer as well as his brother Leon, his dirigible work with Lincoln Ellsworth, and the flight of the Norge in 1926. Throughout he claims he has been misrepresented and sometimes his apologia is convincing, sometimes not; either way it is a lengthy (over 100 pages) exercise in self-justification. He is particularly incensed at Nobile for claiming the Norge expedition was his idea (later attributed to Mussolini), and for any number of contractual difficulties. The work concludes with miscellaneous chapters on Stefansson, on Amundsen’s views on the business of exploration, on food and equipment, and finally an appendix of notes by Riiser-Larsen further refuting Nobile’s claims; these are more dispassionate than Amundsen and therefore more convincing.
The Yankee Tar. An Authentic Narrative of the Voyages and Hardships of John Hoxse, and the cruises of the U.S. Frigate Constellation, …
Hoxse, John. Written by Himself. With an Extract from the Writings of Rev. John Flavel. Northampton: MA: John Metcalf, for the Author, 1840.
- Arctic Reading: United States
Preview
p. 7, introducing what must have been one of the first author publicity tours: Having got this work up in a handsome style, and at a great expense, I have concluded to make a tour through the principal towns in this and the adjoining states, and to call personally upon every individual who may wish to purchase one of the books, that all who do this, may rest assured there is no imposition; for it would be a hard task for aany person to counterfeit my
Logbook for Grace: Whaling Brig Daisy, 1912-1913.
Murphy, Robert Cushman. New York: Macmillan, 1947.
- 1912-13 American Whaling Expedition (Daisy).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
An engaging account by a 25-year-old naturalist of a whaling voyage to South Georgia in 1912, taking the form of a log written to and for his new wife, Grace. Witty and reflective, including lots of material on his own reading and library, mostly during the ship’s passage through the tropics.
The Lure of the Labrador Wild: The Story of the Exploring Expedition Conducted by Leonidas Hubbard, Jr.
Wallace, Dillon. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1905.
- 1903 US Personal Exploring Expedition to Labrador by Leonidas Hubbard Jr. and Dillon Wallace.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Preview
As a young lawyer Wallace met Hubbard, an editor of Outing magazine, in 1900 and in 1903 they departed New York to explore the wilder and hitherto unexplored parts of Labrador. It was a difficult journey in which Hubbard died of starvation and Wallace managed to survive and go on to further explorations and successful books. Hubbard’s wife Mina felt that Wallace had disparaged her husband by implying that Leonidas caused the failure—she went on to her own career as successful competitor of Wallace as a Labrador explorer in the “great race of 1905.” All the reading that I could find was Scriptural and from The Book of Common Prayer.