Birdie Bowers: Captain Scott’s Marvel.

Strathie, Anne. Stroud, UK: History Press, 2012.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Biography of the sailor who went to the South Pole and then died with Scott in 1912. Brought up an evangelical whose father was a Freemason, the biography shows a gradual ebbing of his faith through the early part of his career until he was summoned by Scott from the Royal Indian Marines.

Minutes of Council Northern Department of Rupert Land, 1821-31….

Rupert’s Land. Northern Department. Edited by R. Harvey Fleming. (Toronto: Champlain Society, 1940.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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p. 60, minutes of July 5, 1823, minutes of Council: 153. That for the more effectual civilization and moral improvement of the families attached to the different establishments and the Indians—Every Sunday when circumstances permit, divine Service be publickly read with becoming solemnity…., at which ever man woman and child resident must attend, together with such of the Indians who may be at hand… 154. That for this purpose, the requisite supply of Religious Books be imported by and at the expense of the Company, to consist of Books of Common Prayer of Sermons & Bibles”—also sermons in French for Canadians. [An item in 1824 added the urging of Parents to teach A.B.C. Catechism. Similar entries appeared in the next four years. See also pages 121, 135, 174, 201, and 230-31.]

Elephant Island: An Antarctic Expedition.

Furse, Chris. Shrewsbury, UK: Anthony Nelson, 1979.
  • 1976-77 British Elephant Island Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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This was a BAS sponsored survey of the birdlife of the Elephant Island group of islands of the South Shetlands. Despite a detailed listing of all supplies and equipment for the expedition, there is no mention of books or reading.

National Library of Scotland. Archives.

  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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McClintock Notes : [Murray 12604 1736] McClintock to Murray, generally showing McClintock’s involvement in every detail of the publication of his work.

The Wonders of the Arctic World: A History of All the Researches and Discoveries in the Frozen North, from the Earliest Times. Together with a Complete and Reliable History of The Polaris Expedition. By William H. Cunnington.

Sargent, Epes L. [“Perils and Escapes among Icebergs!” precedes title.] Philadelphia, John E. Potter, 1873.
  • 1870-73 US North Pole Expedition of Charles Hall (aboard USS Polaris).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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This large volume neatly combines two works, the first a general history of arctic exploration up to the Hall expedition (Sargent) with an early hagiography of Hall, or in Parry’s words, a “massive whitewash” .

An Evangelical Christian on Franklin’s Last Expedition: Lieutenant John Irving of HMS Terror,

Lloyd-Jones, Ralph. Polar Record 33 (October 1997) 327-32.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Irving, an officer on Franklin’s Terror, died on King William Island, and his bones were found by Lt. Frederick Schwatka in June 1879 between Victory Point and Cape Jane Franklin. His remains were returned to Scotland and he was reburied in Edinburgh in 1881.

Work and Adventures of the Northern Party of Captain Scott’s Antarctic Expedition, 1910-1913.

Priestley, Raymond E. Geographical Journal 43 No. 1(Jan. 1914) 1-14.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p. 11: Every Saturday evening we held a singsong, when every man participated to the best of his ability. Every Sunday we managed to scrape together at least a dozen hymns and a couple of Psalms, and Campbell read us a chapter of the New Testament, of which we had a pocket edition. The other three books we possessed, ‘David Copperfield,’ ‘Simon the Jester,’ and Balfour’s ‘Life of Stevenson,’ were successively read, one chapter a night, by Levick. Every subject of conversation was thrashed out again and again until it was pretty well threadbare, and the only things we were careful to avoid were questions on which either of us had much at heart.

The Frozen Zone and Its Explorers: A Comprehensive History of Voyages, Travels, Adventures, Disasters, and Discoveries in the Arctic Regions….

Hyde, Alexander. Hartford, CT: Columbia Book CO., 1874.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 793-94, concerning the Dutch expedition at Nova Zembla in 1596, describes the Ice House of Berentz found in 1871, a house unvisited for 278 years until 1871, the house included: the books that had beguiled the weary hours of that long night, two hundred and seventy-eight years ago. The ‘History of China’ points to the goal which Barentz sought, while the ‘Manual of Navigation’ indicates the knowledge which guided his efforts. Stranger evidence never told a more deeply interesting story.

Glimpses of the Northland: Sketches of Life among the Cree and Salteaux Indians.

Santmier, Arthur. Chicago: Published for the Author by S. K. J. Chesbro, 1905.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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p. 28: At God’s Lake the work of teaching a school was of a different character. No missionary or teacher had been stationed there, and parents and children were alike totally ignorant of the nature of a school. I arrived at God’s Lake in early September and at once commenced work. The church was a slimsy structure, very cold, and the roof leaked so badly as to render it untenable in rainy weather. There were no desks, chairs or black boards. A few books and slates I brought from Oxford House. A number of children were orphans. I plainly announced in the preceding Sabbath services that only children of school age, that is, from six to fourteen years, would be received, and that I did not conduct a nursery, nor did I want a wife, and therefore grown-up girls could not attend the school, for their sole object in coming was to impress the school-teacher with their charms and thus win a husband if possible.

Either/Or

Kierkegaard, Søren. Translated by David F. Swenson and Lillian Marin Swenson. Volume I. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1959.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 281, in “The Rotation Method” section (p. 279-96): Starting from a principle is affirmed by people of experience to be a very reasonable procedure; I am willing to humor them, and so begin with the principle that all men are bores. Surely no one will prove himself so great a bore as to contradict me in this. The principle possesses the quality of being in the highest degree repellent, an essential requirement in the case of negative principles, which are in the last analysis the principles of all motion. It is not merely repellent, but infinitely forbidding; and whoever has this principle back of him cannot but receive an infinite impetus forward, to help him make new discoveries. For; if my principle is true, one need only consider how ruinous boredom is for humanity, and by properly adjusting the intensity of one’s concentration upon this fundamental truth, attain any desired degree of momentum. Should one wish to attain the maximum momentum, even to the point of almost endangering the driving power, one need only say to oneself: Boredom is the root of all evil. Strange that boredom, in itself so staid and stolid, should have such power to set in motion. The influence it exerts is altogether magical, except it is not the influence of attraction, but of repulsion.

Diaries and Notebooks

Ferrar, Hartley. 10 vols. SPRI MS 1264.
  • 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p 18: During the first six months, we find him poring over Drygalski, an author to whom he and several others frequently returned. In rapid succession we find him reading Ball’s The Cause of an Ice Age, Morley’s Challenger Notes, Judd’s Volcanoes, Gregory’s Great Rift Valley, Nansen’s First Crossing of Greenland, Scoresby’s Arctic Regions, Greely’s Handbook of Arctic Observation, Mill’s The Realm of Nature, Ross’s Voyage to the Southern Seas, and Howorth’s The Glacial Nightmare.