The Polar Rosses: John and James Clark Ross and their Explorations.

Dodge, Ernest S. (New York: Harper & Row, 1973).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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These two Rosses, respectively uncle and nephew, were arguably the major forces in Polar exploration from Barrow’s initial enthusiasm in the 1810s through to the successful findings of the Franklin Search, that despite Barrow’s loathing for Sir John after the failure of Ross’s first search for the North West Passage. This is an excellent and well-written biography of the two men and their era of discovery.

Icebound in Antarctica

Lewis, David and Mimi George. London: Secker & Warburg, 1987.
  • 1982-84 Australian Yacht Cruises (aboard Dick Smith Explorer).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p. 81, on meeting the Russian icebreaker Kapitan Markov: There were sixteen women on their ship, most in their thirties and forties. Some were very good-looking. I noticed. Some were sailors; some laundry workers. We tied to a rope a copy of Voyage to the Ice, the story of my 1977-8 expedition. It was hauled up and we received in return a guide to Leningrad’s Hermitage Museum.

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” .

Report of the Cruise of the U. S. Revenue Cutter Bear and the Overland Expedition for the Relief of the Whalers in the Arctic Ocean, from November 27, 1897 to September 13, 1898.

Tuttle, Francis, Capt. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1899.
  • 1897-98 US Revenue Service Cruise and Overland Rescue Expedition in Relief of Whalers (Tuttle aboard Bear).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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p. 22, on the murder of a native by other natives: About 11 o'clock in the forenoon on the 17th of November, 1807, Mr. Rustan Nelson was sitting in his house reading, and Messrs. Charles Sandbourne and George F. Tilton were working in one of the other rooms, when they all heard two rifle shots fired in quick succession, followed shortly after by four others. Nelson thrust his revolver in his pocket, rushed out of the house, and there saw, close to the house, two natives, Avulik and Shukurana, each with a smoking rifle in his hand, standing over the body of Washok, which was lying on the snow close to his sled, pierced with six bullet holes. Washok's wife was close by, and several other natives were running to the scene of the firing. Sandbourne and Tilton ran out soon after Nelson, and after ascertaining that Washok was dead and beyond all help, they all returned to the house. Soon after the body was carried out into the country and put up on sticks, after the native fashion, the murderers aiding in the ceremony.

Incidents of a Whaling Voyage….

Olmsted, Francis Allyn. New York: Appleton, 1841). (New edition. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle, 1969).
  • Maritime Reading
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Olmsted was a passenger aboard the whaler North American [a temperance ship] in 1839, a trip taken as a kind of rest cure for his chronic nervous debility. He returned to Yale for medical school and in fact graduated but died in 1844 after a second voyage.

John Caldigate.

Trollope, Anthony. Introduction by R. C. Terry. London: The Folio Society, 1995. [First published in book form London: Chapman and Hall, 1879.].
  • Maritime Reading
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A romantic evening second-class deck conversation between a disinherited young gentleman and a mysterious widow (Mrs Smith) in some form of trouble. The talk turns to books, starting with John Caldigate, the deprived gentleman:

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.

To the Ends of the Earth.

Pease, Francis K. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1935.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
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Begins with 1925 cruise to Antarctica aboard Discovery, Scott’s old ship, commanded by Stenhouse. First brought gifts to Tristan da Cunha, including many writing implements, essentially useless to that population, and “a large quantity of Bibles, in which, however, the Tristans displayed very little interest, for the reason…that during the course of the years so many Bibles had been sent to the island that there was now an average of seven copies per inhabitant” (p. 20).

My Life as an Explorer

Amundsen, Roald. Garden City: Doubleday, 1927.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
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Roald Amundsen (1872-1928), Norwegian Explorer. It is appropriate for Amundsen to take pride of place in this compilation since he can easily lay claim to being the world’s most successful Polar explorer. His experience was broad and his successful explorations included priority conquests of the South Pole, the North Pole by air, the Northwest Passage, and a third transit of the Northeast Passage. Pride of place goes to his Norwegian team’s “discovery” of the South Pole on December 14, 1911, thereby winning the so-called “race to the Pole” over Robert Falcon Scott and his British companions.

A Gipsy of the Horn.

Clements, Rex. London: Hart-Davis, 1951.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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Although not a polar book as such there is this passage on reading during a voyage around the world:

The Mystery of the Erik.

Green, Fitzhugh. New York: Appleton, 1923.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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An engaging juvenile fiction account of a mutiny aboard a Northwest Passage expeditionary ship, with a reasonable plot concerning an insurance claim for a sunken ship. Like many Arctic juvenile tales, this is a very good vehicle for instructing boys in almost all aspects of expeditionary life: sailing, sealing, natives, walrus, magnetism, you name it.

The Rescue of Captain Scott.

Aldridge, Don. East Lothian, Scotland: Tuckwell Press, 1999.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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A judicious debunking of the Scott myths which had in turn rescued him from mediocrity. Draws on Huntford and many others to show Scott as inept, petulant, and egomaniacal.

Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Expedition.

Murdoch, John. Introduction by William W. Fitzhugh. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1988. [First published 1892.].
  • 1881-83 International Physical Year US Expedition to Point Barrow Alaska (Ray).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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p. xvii, re IPY cruise on Golden Fleece to Point Barrow, Aug 8, 1881, Murdoch to Richard Rathbun at Smithsonian: The hold and the deck are filled with our stuff, while we are so crowded in the cabin that we are only able to keep out the simple necessary articles and a few books. … I had hoped to have things so that I might do some work on the voyage up, but the vessel is so small and we have so much material that it is entirely out of the question…. They feed us well and by reading, writing, eating and sleeping we manage to fill up the time.