This expedition had three stated objectives, preparation for a colony at Lady Franklin Bay, collection of scientific data, and commercial whaling (p. 8-9). Despite Howgate’s description of books aboard Florence (see below), there are no references to reading in Tyson’s abstracts, though he has an engaging and easy-going style.
The Cruise of the Florence; Or, Extracts from the Journal of the Preliminary Arctic Expedition of 1877-78.
Tyson, George E. Edited by Captain H. W. Howgate, U.S.A. Washington, DC: James J. Chapman, 1879.
- 1877-78 US Preliminary Arctic Expedition for IPY 1881-84 (led by Howard Howgate).
- Arctic Reading: United States
Preview
Lady Spy, Gentleman Explorer: The Life of Herbert Dyce Murphy.
Rossiter, Heather. Sydney: Random House Australia, 2001.
- 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (Mawson).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
A thoroughly fascinating account of a participant in Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911 which thoroughly debunks Mawson, only slightly more gently than Huntford did Scott.
Down the Mackenzie and Up the Yukon in 1906.
Stewart, Elihu. London: The Bodley Head; New York: John Lane, 1913.
- 1906 Canadian Overland Journey of Elihu Stewart.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Preview
Stewart in this book seems to dwell on monotony. The monotony of the treeless plains (p. 34); of the river journey which made him fall asleep (p. 131); “we had left behind us the misery and want as well as the dull monotony of civilized life” (p. 152); “…the white man acts as if there were no tomorrow,” while the native is never in a hurry: “The dull monotony of life at a trading post in unsettled Canada could hardly fail to have this effect. Procrastination is common enough everywhere, but the complacent way in which these people, The dull monotony of life at a trading post in unsettled Canada could hardly fail to have this effect. Procrastination is common enough everywhere, but the complacent way in which these people…” (p. 250-51); all this “to break the dull monotony of their lives” even with the danger of sleepiness (p. 256).
Siberia in Europe: A Visit to the Valley of the Petchora in North-East Europe.
Seebohm, Henry. London: John Murray, 1880.
- Arctic Reading: Russia
Preview
p. 3-4: My friend Harvie-Brown had been collecting information about the river Petchora for some time, and it was finally arranged that we should spend the summer of 1875 there together. We were under the impression that, ornithologically speaking, it was virgin ground, but in this we afterwards discovered that we were mistaken. So far as we were able to ascertain, no Englishman had travelled from Archangel to the Petchora for 250 years. In that curious old book called ‘Purchas his Pilgrimes,’ published in 1625, may be found the narrative of divers merchants and mariners who visited this river between the years 1611 and 1615 for the purpose of establishing a trade there in furs and skins, especially beaver, for which Ust-Zylma on the Petchora was at that time celebrated.
Shackleton’s Dream: Fuchs, Hillary and the Crossing of Antarctica.
Haddelsey, Stephen. Stroud, UK: The History Press, 2012.
- 1955-58 TAE: Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs and Hillary).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
A solid, workmanlike account of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition (TAE) which for a time pitted Fuchs and Hillary in a race to the pole. The author calls it “the greatest polar expedition ever forgotten” (p. 251). He alludes to men reading occasionally, but never with any helpful details of which books or how read. General tone at times seems “a pox on both your houses” re the stubbornness of both Fuchs and Hillary.
Salt Water Bubbles; Or, Life on the Wave.
Sleeper, John Sherburne. [Hawser Martingale, pseud.]. Boston, MA: W.M.J. Reynolds, 1854.
- Arctic Reading: United States
Preview
Stories which originally appeared in the Boston Journal, all dealing with all aspects of nautical life in the American merchant service in the early part of the nineteenth century
Come North with Me: An Autobiography.
Balchen, Bernt. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1958.
- Antarctic Reading: General
Preview
Balchen, Bernt, 1899-1979—Norwegian/American Explorer and Pilot. From a very early age Balchen was fascinated by the allure of the Polar regions and the prospect of using aviation to explore them. From 1925 until well after World War II he was involved in many of the most dramatic and often dangerous exploits of many of the Polar explorers and he knew most of them: Amundsen, Nobile, Ellsworth, Byrd, etc. and he is widely believed to be the first person to fly over both Poles, with Amundsen in the North and Byrd in the South. He held dual citizenship of both Norway and the United States, and served in the US Army Air Force in secret operations supporting the Norwegian resistance during the World War II.
Pictures of Arctic Travel. Greenland.
Hayes, Isaac I. New York: G.W. Carleton & Co., 1881.
- 1860-61 US North Pole Expedition (aboard United States, commanded by Isaac Hayes).
- Arctic Reading: United States
Preview
Hayes short book consists of three prose pictures: The Doctor; The Savage; Snow and Ice.
“Samuel Hearne’s Accounts of the Massacre at Bloody Fall, 17 July 1771”
Maclaren, I. S. Ariel No. 1 (1991) 25-51.
- Hudson's Bay Company.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Preview
By comparing Hearne’s field notes to the posthumous published vision of Hearne’s Journey, Maclaren calls into question the later Hearne account of the young woman at Bloody Fall. George Back was the first to call it into question. The horrid elaboration comes in the published version, not before, and indicates a good deal of editorial meddling. In his notes Hearne is only a neutral onlooker; in publication he is a reluctant participant.
The Boss
Cherry-Garrard, Apsley. Nation (December 1919) p. 396, 398.
- 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
Review by Cherry-Garrard of Shackleton’s South: The Story of Shackleton’s Last Expedition 1914-1917, though not a very substantial one. J.M. Wordie found it very irritating, according to some notes at NLS.
Of Whales and Men.
Robertson, R. B. New York: Knopf, 1954.
- Whalemen's Reading
Preview
A delightful account of a ship’s doctor on an 8-month cruise of a whaling factory ship, with something of a psychological emphasis on the men he was with.
Arctic and Antarctic: A Prospect of the Polar Regions.
Bertram, Colin. Cambridge: Heffer, 1957.
- Arctic Reading: General
Preview
p. 121: Outside the expedition’s little home the land is Nature’s own; there are no man-made contrivances issuing forth smoke and filth, no noise of wheels and engines, no newspapers lying and spreading scandals, and no ugliness of any kind. The land is as God made it, filled with peace and beauty.
Narrative of a Voyage to the South Seas, and the Shipwreck of the Princess of Wales Cutter, with an Account of Two Years Residence on an Uninhabited Island.
Goodridge, Charles Medyette. 6th ed. Exeter: W. C. Featherstone and Sold by the Author, 1852.
- 1820-22 British Sealing Voyage (aboard Princess of Wales).
- Maritime Reading
Preview
Account of a sealing voyage (starting May 1820) off the Cape of Good Hope which led to shipwreck and abandonment (in Crozet Islands). Curious blend of adventure, piety, and natural history (esp. birds). The unpaginated preliminaries include a preface, index (contents), opinions of the press, and lengthy subscriber lists organized by place and edition.
The Whale and the Supercomputer: on the Northern Front of Climate Change.
Wohlforth, Charles P. New York: North Point Press, 2004.
- Whalemen's Reading
Preview
A traditional Eskimo whale-hunting party races to shore near Barrow, Alaska, while their trapped comrades drift out to sea on ice that should still be solid. Elsewhere, a team of scientists transverses the tundra, measuring the thinning snow every ten kilometers in a quest to understand the effects of albedo the heat-deflecting property of snow that helps regulate the planet's temperature. Journalist and lifelong Alaskan Charles Wohlforth here crystallizes how climate change isn't an abstraction in the far North; it's a reality that has already dramatically altered daily life. He describes how Alaskan Natives and scientists attempt to reconcile their radically different ways of observing changes in the environment, and the implications for us all. (Daedalus Books Description)
A Tenderfoot with Peary.
Borup, George. with a Preface by G. W. Melville. New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1911.
- 1891-1920 Robert Peary and the Search for the North Pole; 1908-09 US North Pole Expeditions under Robert E. Peary (aboard Roosevelt).
- Arctic Reading: United States
Preview
p. 6: …as we were leaving Hawkes’ Harbor, the Commander put the Doctor and us [Borup and Macmillan], the tenderfeet of the expedition, to work sorting the hundreds of magazines which were down in the lazarette and were filling every available space. There were fairly complete files of all the principle ones back to January, 1907 [as of June 1908], and as some one has said, ‘If the serial stories weren’t good, the cereal advertisements were,’ and so for that matter were the open-work yarns in the ladies’ journals.