South with Shackleton.

Hussey, L. D. A. London: Sampson Low [1949].
  • 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A rather saccharine account of Endurance and Shackleton, with very little critical self-assessment. Nonetheless, it mainly conforms to most stories of the expedition.

The Outpost of the Lost: An Arctic Adventure.

Brainard, David L. (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1929.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

Mainly Brainard’s diary of the Greely retreat from Fort Conger, starting on August 9, 1883, to the rescue of only six survivors of the twenty-eight men, including Brainard, in June 1884.

The Wicked Mate: the Antarctic Diary of Victor Campbell. An Account of the Northern Party….

Campbell, Victor. Edited by H. G. R. King. Bluntisham, UK: Bluntisham books, 1988.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Campbell’s chief Antarctic activity was as first officer to Robert Falcon Scott on the Terra Nova expedition. As leader of the Northern Party (earlier called the Eastern Party), he led his team of six men while stranded for a winter in an ice cave on Inexpressible Island. On returning finally to Cape Evans and learning of Scott’s death, Campbell took command of the Terra Nova expedition.

Discovery

In an exhibition at the Discovery Center in Dundee, Scotland.
  • 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

In the exhibition at the Discovery Center in Dundee, Scotland, is a copy of Gulliver’s Travels given to Scott by Clements Markham. “C R Markham—this book went with me to the Arctic region. 1850. Presented to Robert F. Scott with all good wishes July 1901.” Likely to have been aboard Discovery, for Scott’s British Antarctic Expedition, 1901-1904.

Scientific Observations of Dr. I. I. Hayes’ Arctic Expedition of 1860-61.

Schott, Charles A. Port Foulke Observatory, Sept 9 1860. Library of Congress. Miscellaneous Manuscript Collections. Nine notebooks labeled 2108.
  • 1860-61 US North Pole Expedition (aboard United States, commanded by Isaac Hayes).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

Schott, who worked for the Coast and Geodetic Survey, appears to have done the analysis of Hayes’ data in 1865. At end of Part I, the “Computation of the Astronomical Observations” is a draft letter from Schott to Hayes (Feb. 13, 1865) about their publication.

Letterbooks.

Bryant, Henry. APS Mss. Collection 38, Vol. 1.
  • 1891-1920 Robert Peary and the Search for the North Pole.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

January 15, 1903, Bryant to Commander Robert Peary, stating his skepticism toward the Smith Sound route to the North Pole: The chances of failure are too great to warrant further endeavor on the old lines. Suggests repeating the Fram experiment of forcing a ship north of Spitzbergen or better routes. Pledges $2000 to the Peary Arctic Club for this alternate proposal.

Forty Years for Labrador.

Grenfell, Wilfred, Sir. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Riverside Press, 1932.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

A revised and mostly rewritten version of his earlier A Labrador Doctor,the autobiography of a medical missionary in Labrador.

The Southwest Pacific since 1900: A Modern History.

Grattan, C. Harley. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1963.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

This survey of the history of Australia, New Zealand, The Islands, and Antarctica includes a substantial chapter on “The Heroic Age” (p. 561-91), a derivative but very serviceable summary. Unlike some others he ends the Heroic Age with the completion of Shackleton’s Endurance debacle in 1916 rather than with Shackleton’s death on South Georgia in 1922 during the Quest expedition. His summary of the age rings true: “Thus ended the Heroic Age in a wild burst of blazing ambition, disaster, valor, fortitude, squalor, squabbles, and tragedy” (p. 591).

Redburn: His First Voyage, being the Sailor-boy Confessions and Reminiscences of the Son-of-a-Gentleman, in the Merchant Service

Melville, Herman. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern-Newberry, 1969.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

p. 47-8: And I remembered reading in a magazine, called the Sailors’ Magazine, with a sea-blue cover, and a ship painted on the back, about pious seamen who never swore, and paid over all their wages to the poor heathen in India; and how that when they were too old to go to sea, these pious old sailors found a delightful home for life in the Hospital, where they had nothing to do, but prepare themselves for their latter end. And I wondered whether there were any such good sailors among my ship-mates; and observing that one of them laid on deck apart from the rest, I thought to be sure that he was one of them: so I did not disturb his devotions: but I was afterwards shocked at discovering that he was only fast asleep, with one of the brown jugs by his side.

Anson’s Voyage Round the World.

Anson, George. By Richard Walter. A New Edition by G.S. Laird Clowes. (London: Martin Hopkinson, 1928).
  • 1740-44 English Naval Voyage to South Seas and Round the World (under George Anson aboard Centurion).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Judging from his critiques Anson had books with him, though we don’t know how many. He was especially critical of the work of Frazier:

Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America in the Years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814, or the First American Settlement of the Pacific.

Franchère, Gabriel. Translated and Edited by J. V. Huntington. New York: Redfield, 1854. [See also the Champlain Society Edition of 1969].
  • 1811-1814 US Voyage to Northwest Coast of America and America’s First American Settlement.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

p. 5-7, in Preface to Second Edition: Without disparagement of Mr. Irving ’s literary fame, I may venture to say that I found in his work inaccuracies, misstatements (unintentional of course), and a want of chronological order, which struck forcibly one so familiar with the events themselves. I thought I could show or rather that my simple narration, of itself, plainly discovered that some of the young men embarked in that expedition (which founded our Pacific empire), did not merit the ridicule and contempt which Captain T horn attempted to

The U.S. Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin: A Personal Memoir

Kane, Elisha Kent. New York: Harper, 1854.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

Kane was surgeon aboard the Advance, under the command of Edwin De Haven. The search did find the three graves at Beechey Island, but DeHaven felt the voyage to be ineffectual. Kane went on to command the second Grinnell expedition in 1853.