The Arctic in the Middle Ages,

Vaughan, Richard. Journal of Medieval History8 (1982) 313-42.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

An overview of knowledge of the Arctic in the middle ages. Claims that any one of the writers displays woeful ignorance, but collectively they provide a good picture of the medieval Arctic, from cold to frostbite, from skies to polar bears, to unicorn horns. The writers he cites are Saxo Grammaticus who is in “the very first rank of medieval writers about the north” and who wrote about geysers and volcanoes in Iceland, and Finnish use of skies. See his History of the Danes, 2 volumes, 1978-9.

The Frigid Mistress: Life and Exploration in Antarctica.

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

Voyages from Montreal, on the River St. Laurence, Through the Continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans; In the Years 1789 and 1793. With a Preliminary Account of the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Fur Trade of that Country.

Mackenzie, Alexander, Sir. Philadelphia, PA: John Morgan, 1802.
  • 1789-93 Overland Voyages of Mackenzie Exploring the Far North.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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Mackenzie was the first white man to cross the Rockies, discover the river named for him, following it to the Arctic Ocean, and to write the early history of the fur trade.

English Writings about the New World,

Maclaren, I. S. in History of the Book in Canada. Volume 1. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004). p. 33-.
  • Maritime Reading
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p. 38: “At least by the nineteenth century, most expeditions of exploration considered a well-stocked library an essential component of their cargo. Obviously, those in ships could afford a greater tonnage; just how many men on Franklin’s two land expeditions hauled books and charts over portages and across the tundra remains a nice question. Certainly, when the first expedition was reduced in the fall of 1821 to a straggling line of men marching back from Bathurst Inlet to the hoped-for refuge of Fort Enterprise, a copy of Samuel Hearne’s A Journey from the Prince of Wales’s Fort, in Hudson’s Bay, to the Northern Ocean, the only book then available about the region, remained part of the load. The party of twenty men lost their way more than once. Were they consulting the charter in the inferior but lighter-weight octavo edition of Hearne’s book, issued in Dublin in 1796? It would have made a more logical traveling companion than the larger quarto first edition (London, 1795). Yet the map in the octavo showed Hearne’s return route across the Barrens differently from the first edition’s map. The discrepancy could have confused Franklin, whose men suffered more than one delay, and contributed to the number of deaths. Certainly, the matter of a book’s size bears materially on this dramatic possibility.”

Sails over Ice.

Bartlett, Bob (Robert A.). New York: Scribner’s, 1934.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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Bartlett’s slightly whimsical account of his cruises aboard his schooner, the Effie M. Morrisey. Although Bartlett was a prodigious reader (see accounts of him on the Karluk), there is little indication of his reading here, perhaps because most of the adventures recounted here took place during summer in the Arctic when he worked with his student sailors.

Mark Well the Whale! Long Island Ships to Distant Seas.

Schmitt, Frederick P. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1971.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

A rather light bit of local history re Cold Spring Harbor and whaling out of Long Island, incl. Sag Harbor, and descriptions of voyages and disasters.

Safe Return Doubtful: The Heroic Age of Polar Exploration.

Maxtone-Graham, John. New York: Scribner’s, 1988.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

p. 1: On the night of January 30, 1916, a frail, white-haired gentleman retired to the bedroom of his house in London’s Eccleston Square. Once undressed, he swung expertly into a hammock and, as he had done for more than seven decades, read himself to sleep in traditional Royal Navy fashion: One hand held his book, the other a candle, exactly as he had learned as a midshipman in 1844.

Saga of the White Horizon.

Olsen, Magnus L. Lymington, UK: Nautical Publishing Company, 1972.
  • 1901-04 Swedish Antarctic Expedition (Otto Nordenskjöld).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Olsen was a Norwegian aviator who participated in the Ellsworth/ Trans-Antarctic/Polar Star expedition between 1933 and 1936 as support on the three attempts to make the trip. On one occasion, during the later portion of these trips, the Wyatt Earp anchored at Snow Hill Island and the men visited the place where Otto Nordenskjöld wintered and built a winter house over thirty years earlier.

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.

Statistische und ethnographische Nachrichten uber die russischen Besitzungen an der Nordwestkuste von Amerika.

Wrangell, Ferdinand Petrovich, baron. St. Petersburg, 1839.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

An important work relating to the Northwest Coast, with much material concerning the native tribes of Alaska and the Indians of the Northwest, including quite detailed explanations of the Aleutian language and vocabularies of two California tribes. Wrangel was appointed governor of Russian America in 1827 and deserves much credit for initiating the development of civilization in Alaska. He was responsible for surveying much of the Northwest Coast, commenced the building of roads and other internal improvements, reformed the administration, and promoted missionary work among the natives. He foresaw the great future of Alaska and was keenly aware of the need for inducements for capitalistic investment there. He opened and regulated the operation of mines in Alaska, introduced potato culture, and urged the mother country to organize a fur company. This work is a compendium of valuable ethnographic and geographic data, and in addition to Wrangel's work, includes Father Veniaminov's description of Aleut character, a vocabulary of the Kuskikvims, and a survey of American sources regarding the peoples of the Northwest Coast. Also found herein is a description of the climate of Sitka and other locations in Alaska, and an interesting comparative vocabulary of eight Northwest Coast tribes. The folding map depicts the mainland of Alaska and the adjoining islands. A nice copy of a scarce work about Russian Alaska, and a mine of Northwest Coast ethnographic data. The NUC locates nine copies of this work. HOWES W689, "aa." SABIN 105519, 2711 (refs). LADA-MOCARSKI 106. WICKERSHAM 5875. APPLETON'S

Hunting with the Eskimos: The Unique Record of a Sportsman’s Year among the Northernmost Tribe….

Whitney, Harry. New York: Century Co., 1910.
  • Arctic Reading: Inuit and other indigenous people
 Preview 

Whitney traveled with Peary to Greenland in 1908 and spent the year only with Eskimos north of Etah at Annootok, while Peary was making his north pole attempt. Whitney is the complete hunter, rich and well-provided, and demonstrates some intellectual curiosity about the natives and about the natural resources, and does try to master their language, but he evidently reads little except under the duress of prolonged inactivity.

Peter Fidler’s Library: Philosophy and Science in Rupert’s Land.

Lindsay, Debra. Readings in Canadian Library History. Edited by Peter F. McNally. (Toronto: Canadian Library Association, 1986). p. 209-29.
  • Hudson's Bay Company.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

p. 209: Peter Fidler, Hudson’s Bay Company servant [surveyor] 1788-1822, was one of the first owners and collectors of books in Rupert’s Land. His penchant for books was not an isolated case of individualism gone berserk, but his permanent acquisition of vast numbers of books was a unique occurrence in Rupert’s Land…. Fidler’s library eventually reached five hundred volumes, a massive collection for a man of modest means.