The Home of the Blizzard, Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914.

Mawson, Sir Douglas. Philadelphia: Lippincott; London: Heinemann, [1915].
  • 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (Mawson).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Mawson is certainly one of the legendary explorers of the Heroic Age, one who participated in a number of important expeditions, starting with Shackleton’s Nimrod journey. His expeditions were also among those best supplied with books and other reading matter.

The North-West Passage by Land. Being the Narrative of an Expedition from the Atlantic to the Pacific, Undertaken with the View of Exploring a Route across the Continent to British Columbia through British Territory, by One of the Northern Passes in the Rocky Mountains.

Milton, Viscount, William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, and W. B. Cheadle. [By] Viscount Milton and W. B. Cheadle. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1865.
  • 1862-64? British Private Overland Expedition in Search of North-West Passage by Land.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

A very curious, almost quixotic account of a couple of aristocratic travelers seeking an overland route to the gold fields of British Columbia.

Shackleton: By Endurance We Conquer.

Smith, Michael. London: Oneworld Publications, 2014.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

This full-scale biography of Shackleton, though not terribly well written is a well-balanced combination of adulation and judicious criticism of Shackleton the man, his psychological difficulties always moderated during times of crisis. The book often lacks the drama of the best Shackleton narratives and yet is well worth reading.

Across the Top of Russia

Petrow, Richard. . New York: David McKay, 1967.
  • 1965 US Coast Guard Surveillance Voyage to Russia’s Kara Sea (aboard USCGC Windward).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

On the 1965 Coast Guard icebreaker, CGS Northwind, trip to the Kara Sea for scientific and spying purposes.

Andrée’s Story: The Complete Record of his Polar Flight, 1897. From the diaries and journals….

Translated from the Swedish by Edward Adams-Ray. New York: Viking Press, 1960.
  • 1897 Swedish Polar Flight Attempt (commanded by Solomon Andrée).
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

In the diaries and journals of the three participants there is little or nothing on the materials they had with them except mention of their logbooks. On the other hand, the following accounts of the discovery of the men’s remains and artifacts show some interesting discoveries.

The Three Voyages of Edmond Halley in the Paramore 1698-1701.

Halley, Edmond. Edited by Norman J. W. Thrower. London: The Hakluyt Society, 1981. [Vol. II is a Portfolio of Maps].
  • 1699-1701 English Naval Expedition (Edmond Halley aboard Paramore).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

[Note]: Halley retained the confidence of the Admiralty, and his second cruise from September 1699 to September 1700 was successful. He went south as far as 52° into the ice field north of the site of the modern Halley Bay Geophysical Observatory and was in considerable danger, as he was later from a storm off the coast of Africa. (ODNB)

With the Battle Fleet: Cruise of the Sixteen Battleships of the United States Atlantic Fleet from Hampton Roads to the Golden Gate, December, 1907—May, 1908.

Matthews, Franklin. Illus. by Henry Reuterdahl. New York: B. W. Huebsch, 1909.
  • 1907-09 US Circumnavigation by the Great White Fleet.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

p. 103, on the bluejackets in Rio: The first thing that greeted the eye of every man who landed at the beautiful park that used to be an eyesore in the central part of the waterfront was a big sign reading : "Information Bureau for American Seamen." It was an information bureau, a real one. It was the most useful kind of a welcome ever provided in a foreign port for the sailors of any people. The American and English residents, aided by those of other countries, had been busy preparing for weeks for the visit of Jack ashore. Every safeguard, every assistance that was possible to make his liberty comfortable, profitable, enjoyable was looked after. It took hard cash to do it, but the money was raised and it amounted to thousands of dollars. In the first place, the ferry company to Nictheroy set apart a large room in its commodious new building. Counters were put up for information booths, postal card booths, exchange of money, sale of various kinds of tickets for things with guides by the score and attendants anxious to answer all kinds of questions. Men and women worked there from twelve to fourteen hours a day for ten days in the stifling heat, all eager to be of assistance to Jack ashore. A pamphlet was provided giving a map of the city and displaying all the chief places of interest. Full information was printed about everything that a man bent on rational enjoyment could desire. The pamphlets told all about transportation, about the places to see, about postage and the many general and special excursions that had been planned.

The View from the Masthead: Maritime Imagination and Antebellum American Sea Narratives.

Blum, Hester. Chapel Hill NC: University Press of North Carolina, 2008.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

As much literary history as exploration narratives, this fascinating study examines both several classics of American fiction and the reading habits of sailors. Blum has gathered a great deal of information about the working-class forecastle men and their interest in reading. For transcripts of their reading reactions, their dealing with ennui, and the production of literature for their use see entries in these anthologies for Cheever, Colnett, Dana, Delano, Little, Mercier, Porter, and several other whalemen.

A History of Antarctic Science.

Fogg, G. E. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
 Preview 

A humanistic study of the development of Antarctic science (not much different from science elsewhere apart from the extreme conditions); as such it constitutes a quite comprehensive history of most Antarctic exploration as well. Antarctic science grows out of mainstream science but has a different relation to politics. Contrasts the “heroic” explorers with the scientists for whom deprivation was no virtue. Fogg defines Antarctic as within the Antarctic Convergence (aka Polar Front), below 50 degrees south, not the 60 degrees of the Antarctic Treaty.

Longitude and Empire: How Captain Cook’s Voyages Changed the World.

Richardson, Brian W. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2005.
  • 1768–79 British Naval Expeditions of Captain James Cook.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

In a daring, almost reckless shift, Richardson moves the discussion of what Cook may have read to who may have read Cook’s voyages and how the reading of Cook’s voyages changed the Western view of the world. Cites library statistics from late 18th-century Bristol to show Hawkesworth the most circulated book, with its description of Cook’s first voyage, as the most circulated book in the decade of 1773-1784. By its very organization, he sees the library as a statement about the world and the places in it. As Captain Cook had authority over his ships just as his printed voyages took on the authority of the printed word. He thus sees Cook as an important point of origin for empire as a collection of places as well as a sovereign authority over them (p. 200).

A Voyage of Discovery, Made under the Orders of the Admiralty, in His Majesty’s Ships Isabella and Alexander, for the Purpose of Exploring Baffin’s Bay, and Inquiring into the Probability of a North-West Passage.

Ross, Sir John. Second edition. Two volumes.(London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1819).
  • 1818 First British Northwest Passage Expedition (John Ross aboard Isabella with the Alexander).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

The first nineteenth-century attempt to locate a Northwest Passage was commanded by John Ross, a moderately successful expedition that ruined his reputation. John Barrow of the Admiralty was so outraged at Ross’s failure to explore fully Lancaster Sound that he did everything in his power to discredit Ross after this expedition.

A Voyage to Terra Australis; Undertaken for the Purpose of Completing the Discovery of that Vast Country, and Prosecuted in the Years 1801, 1802, and 1803, in His Majesty’s Ship the Investigator….

Flinders, Matthew. In Two Volumes, with an Atlas. (London: Printed by W. Bulmer./.and Published by G. and W. Nicol, 1814).
  • 1801-03 British Exploring Expedition to Terra Australis (Captain Matthew Flinders aboard Investigator).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

p. 5-6: On the 22nd [1801], a set of astronomical and surveying instruments, for the use of myself and officers, was sent down by direction of the Navy Board, as also various articles for presents to, and barter with, the native inhabitants of the countries to be visited, and many for our own use and convenience. Amongst the latter were most of the books of voyages to the South Seas, which, with our own individual collections, and the Encyclopedia Britannica, presented by the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, formed a library in my cabin for all the offices. Every chart at the Admiralty, which related to Terra Australis and the neighbouring islands, was copied for us under the direction of the late hydrographer, Alexander Dalrymple, Esq.; who also enriched our stock of information by communicating all such parts of his works as were appropriate to the voyage.