The Frigid Mistress: Life and Exploration in Antarctica.

Doumani, George A. Baltimore, MD: Noble House, 1999.
  • 1957- Operation Deep Freeze.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A personal account of five trips to the Antarctic, mainly to Byrd Station. Probably the worst book of Antarctic exploration I’ve encountered. To quote one review of this account of five visits to Antarctica: “He is no writer.” There is one paragraph about the library room at Byrd Station: if the publisher had remembered to provide pagination I would provide a citation—it’s near the beginning of the book.

Jack in the Forecastle; or, Incidents in the Early Life of Hawser Martingale.

Sleeper, John Sherburne. Boston: Crosby, Nicholas, Lee, 1860.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

Sleeper was an American sailor, journalist, and politician who was Mayor of Roxbury, Mass., and a member of the Mass. Senate. As a novelist he used the pseudonym of Mawser Martingale, and I suspect this book is autobiographical fiction. He went to sea as a cabin boy in 1809, age 15, and the book is about his first command in the merchant marine in 1821.

Chances for Arctic Survival: Greely’s Expedition Revisited.

Wesławski, Jan Marcin, and Joanna Legeżyńska. Arctic 55 4 (Dec. 2002) 373-379.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

The caloric requirements of the expedition survivors could not have been met by their available resources exclusive of cannibalism.

Greenland, the Adjacent Seas, and the North-West Passage to the Pacific Ocean.

O’Reilly, Bernard. Illustrated in a Voyage to Davis’ Strait during the Summer of 1817. London: Baldwin, Craddock, & Joy, 1818.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

O'Reilly served as surgeon aboard a whale-ship, in order to gather scientific information on the northern regions. He gives much information concerning Arctic zoology, whale fishery, natural atmospheric phenomena, observations of magnetic variation, the history and habitation of Greenland, and observations concerning the possibility of a Northwest Passage." Field - "The observations of the author on the natives of Greenland, are recorded on pp. 52 and 85, of which the last two are occupied with a vocabulary of their language. Five of the plates are illustrative of the features, or habits of life of the Exquimaux." According to Abbey an article in the 'Quarterly Review' called the book 'a bare faced imposition.' Stanton & Tremaine mentions the book is said to have been plagiarized from material prepared by Sir Charles L. M. von Giescke. Hill: Pacific Voyages, p. 219. Field: Indian Bibliography, p. 297

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.

Private Journal of George Comer while on the Relief Schooner George B. Cluett for the Crocker Land Expedition Party at Etah, North Greenland, 1915-1917

Comer, George. RB Coll: GG-4 at AMNH Lib.
  • 1915-17 Crocker Land Expedition Relief Schooner Cluett (George Comer).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

Expedition Outline: August 12, 1915 Upernavik to North Star Bay p. 13-38 Sept. 13, 1915 North Star Bay p. 39-43 Sept. 24, 1915 Parker Snow Bay p. 44-87 Dec. 26, 1915 North Star Bay p. 88-163 (Land party of Comer, Peter?, Dr. Hunt & 5 natives for long Winter at North Star Bay) Sept. 8, 1916 Etah until 8/3/17 p. 164-302 Aug. 4, 1917 On Neptune returning to Sydney p. 303-318

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.

Reminiscences of Adventure and Service. A Record of Sixty-Five Years.

Greely, Adolphus W. New York: Scribner’s, 1927.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

A sanitized, somewhat saccharine autobiography which delves shallowly into the IPY expedition of 1881-84 ( p. 120-51), and doesn’t even mention his one-time friend Henry W. Howgate, without whom the expedition never would have happened. Although descended from British settlers from 1623, Greely was a working-class boy, educated through high school (including Latin). He enlisted as a private in 1861, served in a number of battles (incl. Antietam) before being promoted to lieutenant at age 18 to command a black infantry regiment. For the Greely Arctic expedition he emphasizes the scientific purposes of the IPY over pole-seeking adventure. At Fort Conger (p. 122) “needful relief from scientific labors was had by the celebration of festive occasions, the issue of a newspaper, the training and coddling of our dogs, the devising of contests and games. So, work and play marked our lives in the comfortable home, where well-cooked meals, warm quarters and plentiful reading matter were duly enjoyed.” Such was not the case at Camp Clay at Cape Sabine at the end of their retreat. Greely does deal with the execution of Private Henry but not the cannibalism allegations, nor with his bad relations with officers and men.

Sport and Travel in the Northland of Canada.

Hanbury, David T. New York: Macmillan, 1904.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

A sporting memoir but with good historical material on the “Barron Lands.” Stefansson cites this book most favorably in his My Life with the Eskimo.

The Voyage of the Chelyuskin.

Chelyuskin. By Members of the Expedition. New York: Macmillan, 1935.
  • 1934 Russian Voyage of the Cheluyskin (commanded by Captain Schmidt).
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
 Preview 

The Chelyuskin was beset and sank near the Bering Strait in 1934. The book has contributions by many of the crew, including captain Schmidt, and presents a most idealistic view of Bolshevik sacrifice.

A Man’s Woman.

Norris, Frank. New York: Doubleday & McClure, 1900.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

Norris’s turn-of-the-century novel is loosely based on George Washington De Long’s U.S. North Polar expedition aboard the Jeannette (1879-81). It borrows freely from the locale (Wrangell Island and environs), the beset and crushed ship, the forced march on ice and pressure ridges, the heroic commander, the few survivors finally rescued. He adds the love interest, a strong-minded woman who resists the commander, succumbs, marries, and subtly convinces the hero that he is the one who must achieve the North Pole for the United States, knowing his safe return to be doubtful. He sails from New York in a new ship clearly modeled on Nansen’s Fram. Sources in Greely’s expedition and parallels with Robert E. Peary, who had already begun his North Pole quest and was in Northern Ellesmere land at the time of publication, are easily drawn.