Diary of the Terra Nova expedition to the Antarctic 1910-1912. An account of Scott’s last expedition edited from the original mss. in the Scott Polar Research Institute and the British Museum.

Wilson, Edward Adrian. London: Blandford Press [1972].
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p. 69, Dec. 5, 1910: I have been reading The Illustrious Prince, which Mrs. Wigram, you remember, gave me just before leaving New Zealand, a book I have thoroughly enjoyed—and the last novel, probably, that I shall read until we are well up in the warm sunshine on the way home. If I read novels habitually there would be no diary writing. As it is, the only quiet time in the day is from 4.30 a.m. or 5 a.m. to breakfast at 8 a.m.—and my writing is all done then.

A Black Explorer at the North Pole

Henson, Matthew A. Foreword by Robert E. Peary, Rear Admiral, U.S.N. Introduction by Booker T. Washington. Introduction to Bison Book Edition by Susan A. Kaplan. (Lincoln, Nebr.: University of Nebraska Press, 1989). [First published as A Negro Explorer at the North Pole in 1912; There are many other editions, often with variant titles.].
  • 1891-1920 Robert Peary and the Search for the North Pole; 1908-09 US North Pole Expeditions under Robert E. Peary (aboard Roosevelt).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Mostly from Hensen’s diary with connecting narrative of Peary’s North Pole expedition of 1908-9.

Zoology. 1845. Survey of the Voyage.

Hooker, Joseph Dalton. [Not found in WorldCat].
  • 1839-42 British Antarctic Expedition (James Clark Ross/Terror and Erebus).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p. xii: Most especially does he find it incumbent on him here to return thanks to the Commanding Officer of the expedition (as is his first duty)… for the generous manner in which that officers’ private cabin and library were unreservedly placed at his disposal during the whole time the expedition was afloat.

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.

Travel and Adventure in the Territory of Alaska, Formerly Russian America—Now Ceded to the United States—and in Other Parts of the North Pacific.

Whymper, Frederick. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1869.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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p. 22: Enroute from England to Vancouver in June 1862 viâ the Horn on a steamer called Tynemouth: On board were some three hundred passengers, two-thirds of whom showed a total loss of dignity and self-respect during these early days, and made our vessel much resemble a floating hospital. But there is an end to all things; and by the time we reached the tropics, our friends had recovered their appetites, and, clad in light attire, lounged, smoking, chatting, and reading under the awnings, giving our decks the appearance of a nautical picnic. Our passengers were a study in themselves. They included a number of young men, much too large a proportion of whom .had apparently no profession, business, or definite aim in life, to auger well for their future career in a new country.

Report on the Dominion Government Expedition to Arctic Islands and the Hudson Strait on Board the C.G.S. “Arctic” 1906-1907.

Bernier, J. E. By Captain J. E. Bernier, Canada. Dept. of Marine and Fisheries. Ottawa, CAN: Govt. Printed by C. H. Parmelee…, 1909.
  • 1906-07 Canadian Expedition to Arctic Islands and the Hudson Strait (aboard Arctic commanded by J. E. Bernier).
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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Part of the purpose of this expedition was to make territorial land claims for Canada “asserting Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic regions which are territory of this Dominion by right of cession made to Canada by the imperial government” (p. 3). It also restored a memorial tablet in honour of Sir John Franklin on Beechey Island.

“Pechuck”: Lorne Knight’s Adventures in the Arctic.

Montgomery, Richard G. Caldwell, ID: Caxton Printers, 1948.
  • 1921-23 Canadian Wrangel Island Expedition (Organized by Vilhjalmur Stefansson).
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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Knight was born in 1893, son of a Methodist minister from Oregon. He died on Wrangel Island in 1923 of scurvy, in company with Ada Blackjack.

A Narrative of the Voyages Round the World, Performed by Captain James Cook. With an Account of His Life, During the Previous and Intervening Periods.

Kippis, Andrew. London: Bickers and Son, 1883.
  • 1768–79 British Naval Expeditions of Captain James Cook.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 223: Soon after our commander had come to this determination [to sail to the Cape of Good Hope], he demanded of the officers and petty officers, in pursuance of his instructions, the log books and journals they had kept; which were delivered to him accordingly, and sealed up for the inspection of the Admiralty. He enjoined them also, and the whole crew, not to divulge where they had been, till they were permitted to do so by their lordships; an injunction, a compliance with which might probably be rendered somewhat difficult from the natural tendency there is in men to relate the extraordinary enterprises and adventures wherein they have been concerned.

Weird and Tragic Shores: The Story of Charles Francis Hall, Explorer.

Loomis, Chauncey C. New York: Knopf, 1971.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Excellent account of the life of the most eccentric of Arctic explorers who essentially abandoned his family in Cincinnati to pursue his Arctic dreams. Uneducated and inexperienced in Arctic ways, he adopted to and adapted Eskimo ways of living and survival by living with them for long periods and learning from them their secrets of survival. Both his origins and demise are clouded in mystery.

Smith Sound and its Exploration.

Bessells, Emil. Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute X 3 (1884) p. 333-447.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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p. 335, John Barrow: the English geographer, who credited only those discoveries that were made by officers of the Royal Navy.

The Big Sea: An Autobiography….

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

Arctic Alaska and Siberia, Or, Eight Months with the Arctic Whalemen.

Aldrich, Herbert L. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1889.
  • Whalemen's Reading
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p. 75: Each native is said to keep a diary of his hunting trips by carving the important events on a piece of ivory, showing his camps, shooting deer, walruses, seals or bears, or catching and driving fish. A few of the supposed diaries were offered for sale.