Captain Sverdrup’s expedition to Northern Greenland.

Sverdrup, Otto. Geographical Journal 13 (Feb 1899) 136-147.
  • 1898-1902 Swedish Ship and Sledging Expedition to Northern Greenland (Led by Otto Sverdrup aboard Fram).
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
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Re the 1898-1902 ship and sledging expedition aboard the Fram, designed to survey the northern coast of Greenland, map its coastline, and to determine the extent of its northern islands. The article includes a description of Fram’s equipment.

Tracing the Connected Narrative: Arctic Exploration in British Print Culture, 1818-1860.

Cavell, Janice. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008). Studies in Book and Print Culture.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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An important if a bit theoretical approach to telling the Arctic story in the earlier nineteenth century, and especially in their serial publication (as in Dickens e.g.). She compares Arctic exploration narratives, serially reported, with serialized fiction of the period. Main emphasis is on John Franklin, from his earlier land journeys to his disappearance in 1845, and the periodic discoveries of his fate.

Foothold on Antarctica: The First International Expedition (1949-1952) through the Eyes of its Youngest Member.

Swithinbank, Charles, W. M. Lewes, UK: Book Guild, 1999.
  • 1949-52 Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition (NBSX or NBSAE) based at Maudheim.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Swithinbank was a member of this largely Norwegian expedition. He’s not a natural writer but the story has its share of adventure and danger which he reports in a rather dry style. He gives some information about reading among his colleagues but nothing on what he himself read.

The North Pole, Its Discovery in 1909 Under the Auspices of the Peary Arctic Club.

Peary, Robert Edwin. New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1910.
  • 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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p. 18: Many friends of the expedition who could not send cash sent useful articles of equipment, for the comfort or amusement of the men. Among such articles were a billiard table, various games, and innumerable books. A member of the expedition having said to a newspaper man, a short time before the Roosevelt sailed, that we had not much reading matter, the ship was deluged with books, magazines, and newspapers, which came literally in wagon loads. They were strewn in every cabin, in every locker, on the mess tables, on the deck,—everywhere. But the generosity of the public was very gratifying, and there was much good reading among the books and magazines.

A Voyage Around the World with the Romanzov Exploring Expedition in the years 1815-1818 in the Brig Rurik, Captain Otto von Kotzebue.

Chamisso, Adelbert von. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
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p. 27, a paeon to the son of Kotzebue, the German-born, Russian sea captain on his circumnavigation: How often in the far ends of the earth, namely on O-Wahu [O’ahu], Guaján [Guam], etc., have I been praised for my small share in the enterprise of his son, in order to cast a hem of the mantle of his fame over me. Everywhere we heard his name mentioned. American newspapers reported that The Stranger had been performed to extraordinary applause. All the libraries in the Aleutian Islands, as far as I have investigated them, consisted of a single volume of the Russian translation of Kotzebue.

The Silent Landscape: The Scientific Voyage of HMS Challenger.

Corfield, Richard. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press, 2003.
  • 1872-76 Challenger Expedition of Natural History (George Nares and Frank Thompson).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
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Corfield concentrates on the science of the expedition without neglecting the human relations of the scientifics. One notable chapter is called “The Library of Time,” in which the biological remains dredged from the ocean body, tiny creations which would eventually yield the details of earth’s climatic and oceanographic history: For the geologist and oceanographer there is simply nothing to match the detailed information trapped in the sediment of the deep sea; it is the library of time. [p. 135].

Ice Pilot: Bob Bartlett.

Sarnoff, Paul. New York: Julian Messner, 1966.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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A juvenile audience intended here, but a good overview and a few things wrong.

Hurrah for the Life of a Sailor.

Winton, John. London: Michael Joseph, 1977.
  • Maritime Reading
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p. 25-26: In July 1838 the Admiralty sanctioned the supply of libraries to sea-going ships. Large ships were issued with 276 books, small ships with 156. The books were mostly religious or of an ‘improving’ nature. Various societies and private individuals also contributed. As early as 1816 a Lieutenant Baker and a Dr Quarrier supplied the Leander frigate, fitting out from Woolwich, with a library of several hundred books. Mrs Elizabeth Fry later persuaded the Admiralty to issue libraries to naval hospitals and to the coastguard.

The Alaska-Klondike Diary of Elizabeth Robins, 1900.

Robins, Elizabeth. Ed. with Introduction by Victoria Joan Moessner and Joanne E. Gates. Fairbanks, AK: University of Alaska Press, 1999.
  • 1900 Private Visit to Alaska by Elizabeth Robins.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Robins was an actress, singer, feminist, and something of an adventurer; this diary covers only the Alaskan portion of her active life. Among other things she translated Nansen (p. 5), and wrote several novels and other books.

Confessions of A Leigh Hunt.

Hunt, A. Leigh. Wellington, NZ: Reed, 1951.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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No relation to Leigh Hunt, this one founded the NZ Antarctic Club and knew several explorers, and gave lantern lectures to schools about Scott etc.

A Very Gallant Gentleman.

Bernacchi, Louis Charles. London: Thornton Butterworth, 1935 [first published 1933] See supra, p. 174.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Bull, Colin. Email message to David Stam, August 31, 2005:

The Journal of Rochfort Maguire, 1852-1854: Two Years at Point Barrow, Alaska, aboard HMS Plover in the Search for Sir John Franklin.

Maguire, Rochfort. Edited by John Bockstoce. (London: Hakluyt Society, 1988).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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During the Franklin Search it appeared that Franklin’s ships might well have made it through the Northwest Passage and might be met at the western end of the Passage at Point Barrow or the Baring Strait. The Plover was given the ultimate but fruitless duty of looking for that possibility.