Ninth Circle: a Memoir of Life and Death in Antarctica, 1960-1962.

Behrendt, John C. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2005.
  • 1958-62 Operation Deep Freeze.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Much more prosaic than his earlier book on Ellsworth Station, and much less evidence of reading than in that book. Most of what follows is from his diaries of the time and not his connective commentary:

On Floating Ice: Two Years on Antarctic Ice-Shelf South of 75°S.

MacDowall, Joseph. Edinburgh: Pentland Press, 1999.
  • 1955-59 Royal Society IGY Antarctic Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

For one year MacDowall was the leader of this expedition and base at Halley Bay in the Weddell Sea, one of Britain’s contributions to IGY. It is quite a prosaic account, with little drama, but notable for its citations to the base newspaper, the Halley Comet.

The Winter Night Trip to Advance Base Byrd Antarctic Expedition II 1933-35.

Poulter, Thomas Charles. Mimeograph. “Copyrighted 1973 by Thomas C. Poulter.” 1914.
  • 1933-35 Byrd Second Antarctic Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Poulter was in command of Little America while Byrd spent his four months alone at Advance Base. Poulter was chosen by Byrd over the older Harold June and Paul Siple. Byrd thought Siple less mature and June unable to stay away from or hold his liquor. This book consists of notes from Poulter’s diaries and memos that passed among the men while at Little America or Advance base. A good deal is about Poulter’s problems in controlling liquor consumption, including his draining many gallons onto the ice.

A History of Antarctic Science.

Fogg, G. E. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
 Preview 

A humanistic study of the development of Antarctic science (not much different from science elsewhere apart from the extreme conditions); as such it constitutes a quite comprehensive history of most Antarctic exploration as well. Antarctic science grows out of mainstream science but has a different relation to politics. Contrasts the “heroic” explorers with the scientists for whom deprivation was no virtue. Fogg defines Antarctic as within the Antarctic Convergence (aka Polar Front), below 50 degrees south, not the 60 degrees of the Antarctic Treaty.

Ninety Degrees North: The Quest for the North Pole.

Fleming, Fergus. London: Granta Books, 2001.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

This is a fairly standard account of high Arctic exploration, well-written and readable but offering little by way of new insights into the phenomenon. Chiefly deals with British and American explorers, but includes Nansen, Andree and others.

Among Our Sailors.

Jewell, J. Grey. New York: Harper, 1874.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

Contains excerpts “from the laws and consular regulations governing the United States Merchant Service.”

A Report on the Resources of Iceland and Greenland.

Peirce, Benjamin Mills, compiler. Washington, DC: GPO, 1868.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

This is a report commissioned by William H. Seward, Lincoln’s Secretary of State, on the desirability of acquiring Iceland and Greenland for the US, just as the U.S. had acquired a few Caribbean islands and Alaska.

Captain Cook’s Journal during his First Voyage round the World Made in H.M. Bark “Endeavour” 1768-71….

Cook, James, Captain. Edited by Captain J. L. Wharton. London: Elliot Stock, 1893.
  • 1768-71 British Voyage to the South Pacific (aboard Endeavour commanded by Captain James Cook).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

p. x: In reading Cook’s Journal of his First Voyage it must be remembered that it was not prepared for publication. Though no doubt the fair copies we possess were revised with the care that characterizes the man, and which is evidenced by the interlineations and corrections in his own hand with which the pages are dotted, it may be supposed, from the example we have in the published account of his Second Voyage, which was edited by himself, that further alternations and additions would have been made, to make the story more complete, had he contemplated its being printed.

In the Days of the Red River Rebellion.

McDougall, John. Toronto: Briggs, 1903.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

p. 26-27, winter of 1868-69 near Edmondton: Most of our reading was done by the time tallow dip or chimney fire; our literature was limited, and of the ancient type; one thousand miles to the nearest post gave us very little trouble with our mail.

Life Aboard: The Journals of William N. and George F. Smith.

Smith, William N. and George F. Edited by Alan D. McNairn. (Saint John, CAN: NBM Publications, 1988.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

Diaries of typical 19th-century voyages by New Brunswick ships to all over the world, usually carrying timber. Nothing polar about it (mostly St John to Liverpool), but an interesting example of a seaman’s journals.

A Voyage to Spitzbergen. [The Gateway to the Polynia].

Wells, John Campion. From the Journal of John C. Wells. New and Cheaper Edition. London: Henry S. King & Co., 1876.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

Although the author, an “untraveled Englishman,” is motivated by sport, the main thrust of his book is that Spitsbergen is the best route to the north: for it’s whaling riches, for the benefits of geographical exploration, and for the most economical route of scientific inquiry. Wells himself is described as an old whaling captain in an introductory survey of Arctic exploration that doesn’t reveal its author. I assume the editor was a fellow traveler on a vessel captained by Wells, but I’ve not studied the matter. A most engaging volume.

Voyages Round the World; with Selected Sketches of Voyages to the South Seas, North and South Pacific Oceans, China, Etc.,.. between the Years 1792 and 1832.

Fanning, Edmund. New York: Collins & Hannay, 1833. [A later edition is Salem, MA: Marine Research Society, 1924.].
  • 1792-32 American Sealing Voyage (Captain Edmund Fanning).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Fanning from Stonington was the first known American to reach sub-polar Antarctica on various sealing expeditions, including the Falklands, Shetlands, and South Georgia and at least as far as 58°S. One of the later chapters describes Nathaniel Palmer’s meeting with Alexander I’s Russian ships in 1820-21 who learned from Palmer “of the existence of an immense extent of land to the south, whose mountains might be seen from the mast-head when the fog should clear away entirely” (p. 308). This rather charming book, first published in 1833, while covering several voyages in which Fanning was involved, chiefly as captain, betrays little of any books on board or any reading by him or his sailors other than the obligatory directional books and charts, for which here is one example.