The Friendly Arctic: The Story of Five Years in Polar Regions.

Stefansson, Viljhamur. New York: Macmillan, 1921.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Stef’s most famous of many books, admired by many, reviled by some including Amundsen, who said it represented a danger in its claim that adoption of Inuit customs would assure safety in the north. The book is prefaced by testimonials from both Peary and Greely.

Two Years in the Antarctic.

Walton, Eric W. Kevin. London: Panther Books, 1957. First published London: Lutterworth, 1955, and New York: Philosophical Library, 1955.
  • 1945-46 Falkland Islands Dependency Survey, Stonington Island, Base E. (Commander E. W. Bingham).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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A personal account of two years spent in British Antarctica; in the second year they were joined by an American expedition [Finn Ronne; see 1946-48] and later combined to complete an extensive survey of the East Coast of the Graham Land peninsula. Includes details on how the expedition actually lived in Antarctica, how they organized their base, trained their dog teams, and carried out their work.

From Edinburgh to the Antarctic: An Artist’s Notes and Sketches during the Dundee Antarctic Expedition 1892-93, with a Chapter by W. S. Bruce.

Burn Murdoch, William Gordon. Bungay, Suffolk: Paradigm Press, Bluntisham Books, 1984. [Facsimile of 1894 London first edition.].
  • 1892-93 British Whaling Expedition(Alexander Fairweather aboard Balæna et al).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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One of the most delightful, witty, sardonic, and intelligent of early Antarctic accounts. Burn Murdoch shipped aboard the Balæna with his friend William Speirs Bruce in 1892. This is an account of that journey. Bruce, later well-known for the Scotia expedition, was the ship’s surgeon and naturalist and Murdoch assistant surgeon and ship’s artist. This expedition recorded the first photographs of Antarctica. Murdoch has a good deal of respect for the intelligence of the foc’sle men.

Tammarniitt (mistakes): Inuit Relocation in the Eastern Arctic, 1939-63.

Tester, Frame James and Peter Kulchyski. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press, 1994.
  • Arctic Reading: Inuit and other indigenous people
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Examines government involvement in Northern Canada which led to relocation of Inuit from the east coast of Hudson's Bay to the high Arctic, the Henik Lake and Garry Lake famines, the establishment of Whale Cove in response to inland famines in the Keewatin, and the second wave of state expansion in the 1950's.

The Strange and Dangerovs Voyage of Captaine Thomas Iames, in His Intended Discovery of the Northwest Passage into the South Sea….

James, Thomas. London, Legatt, 1633. [Reprint in Hakluyt Society edition of the Voyages of Luke Foxe and Thomas James. Two volumes. (London: Hakluyt Society, 1894). The James account is in Vol. II, p. 451-611.].
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 606, in a list of instruments provided for his voyage are a number of books: A Chest full of the best and choicest Mathematicall bookes that could be got for money in England; as likewise Master Hackluite and Master Purchase, and other books of Journals and Histories.

The Daily Journal of an Antarctic Explorer 1956-1958.

Warren, Guyon. Edited by Karen Warren. Nelson, NZ: Copy Press Books, 2014.
  • 1955-58 TAE: Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs and Hillary).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Warren was a geologist on the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (TAE) led by Vivian Fuchs (UK) and Sir Edmund Hillary (NZ). When not on surveying journeys to the Polar Plateau and the Dry Valleys, he was mainly at the Scott Base near McMurdo and he mentions the library at McMurdo a couple of times. His notes about reading occur mainly during the winter period, as outlined here:

Journal of a Voyage in Baffin’s Bay and Barrow Straits, in the Years 1850-1851, Performed in H.M. Ships “Lady Franklin” and “Sophia,” under the Command of Mr. William Penny….

Sutherland, Peter C. Two volumes. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1852.
  • 1848-51 British Expedition in Franklin Search (commanded by Capt. T.E.L. Moore aboard H.M.S. Plover).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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These volumes recount one of the early Franklin search expeditions, originally organized by Lady Franklin but adopted and furnished by the Admiralty, and which wintered near the Resolute and Assistance, and were also close to John Ross’s Felix and Mary expedition (HBC). Sutherland was surgeon on the Sophia, and appears from these volumes to have been a most panglossian optimist, as can be seen from some of the quotations below.

Cruises in the Bering Sea: Being Records of Further Sport and Travel .

Niedieck, Paul. Translated by R. A. Ploetz. London: Rowland Ward, 1909. [Reprint Camden, SC: John Culler, 1995.].
  • 1906 German Hunting Expedition in Alaska and Siberia.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
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The German author hunted bear and sheep in Alaska and Siberia and his book is now especially current as he hunted on the fabled Kamchatka Peninsula where hunting has just been opened. The author bagged many brown bears and snow sheep.

Journal of a Voyage with Bering, 1741-1742.

Steller, Georg Wilhelm. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1988.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
 Preview 

p. 189: Footnote: Among the essential items [on Bering’s expedition] were three quadrants, one chronometer, one compass, one spyglass, eleven books of navigation, one bundle of charts, two bundles of calculations, and seven maps. [See Bancroft 90: n 14.]

The Terror, a Novel.

Simmons, Dan. (New York: Little, Brown, 2007).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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A completely fanciful attempt to explain what might have happened to the Franklin expedition.

Journal of a Voyage Around the World: A Year on the Ship

King, Thomas Worthington. Helena (1841-1842). (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2003).
  • 1841-42 American Circumnavigation (aboard Helena).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
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Although not Antarctic bound, this ship did round Cape Horn and reached almost 59 degrees. King was a recent Harvard graduate when he took this voyage from New York to Canton, and after brief work there he continued on another ship back to New York. He was a fast reader and regular in his comments about reading.

Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled: A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska.

Stuck, Hudson. London: T. Werner Laurie, 1914.
  • 1913-18 US Private Journeys round the Coast and Interior of Alaska (Hudson Stuck, “Archbishop of the Yukon”).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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p. 77: The division of the labour of camping amongst four gave us all some leisure at night, and I found time to read through again The Cloister and the Hearth and Westward Ho! with much pleasure, quite agreeing with Sir Walter Besant’s judgment that the former is one of the best historical novels ever written. There are few more attractive roysterers in literature to me than Denys of Bergundy, with his “Courage, camarades, le diable est mort!” This matter of winter reading is a difficult one, because it is impossible to carry many books. My plan is to take two or three India-paper volumes of classics that have been read before, and renew my acquaintance with them. But reading by the light of one candle, though it sufficed our forefathers, is hard on our degenerate eyes.

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.