Antarctica, 1958,

Stone, Robert. New Yorker (June 12, 2006), p. 52-54 [Talk of the Town].
  • 1957- Operation Deep Freeze.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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In 1958, I was a duty helmsman on the bridge of the U.S.S. Arneb, an ungainly naval transport ship with the lines of a tramp steamer…. When I went below to crash, taking to my rack, which was at the top of a four-high tier. I lay down to read with my pocket flashlight. I had “Ulysses” checked out from the Norfolk, Virginia, public library, and plenty of time to be patient with it. When we started sliding to port, I’d stay with Leopold Bloom for as long as I could tough it out, waiting for the big lumbering ship to arrest its roll and come back to starboard…. Then I’d set my book aside and ponder my fortune….

A Voyage to the South Sea, Undertaken by Command of His Majesty, for the Purpose of Conveying the Bread-Fruit Tree to the West Indies, in His Majesty’s Ship The Bounty, Commanded by Lieutenant William Bligh….

Bligh, William. London: Printed for George Nicol, 1792.
  • Maritime Reading
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p. 156, in the course of the mutiny: The boatswain and seamen, who were to go in the boat, were allowed to collect twine, canvas, lines, sails, cordage, an eight and twenty gallon cask of water, and Mr. Samuel got 150 lbs. of bread, with a small quantity of rum and wine, also a quadrant and compass; but he was forbidden, on pain of death, to touch either map, ephemeris, book of astronomical observations, sextant, time-keeper, or any of my surveys or drawings.

South Polar Times

SPRI MS 505/4: Typescript.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Only copy, owned by Cherry-Garrard and largely produced by him. Introduction written later by Frank Debenham. No mention of Scott’s Polar party. “Ed., typed & illus. largely by me”—ACG. Drawings by Cherry have a remarkable delicacy.

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
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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.

Matthew Flinders Private Journal, from 17 December 1803 at Isle of France to 10 July 1814 at London.

Flinders, Matthew. Edited and with an Introduction by Anthony J. Brown and Gillian Dooley. Adelaide, NSW, Australia: Friends of the State Library of South Australia, 2005.
  • 1801-03 British Exploring Expedition to Terra Australis (Captain Matthew Flinders aboard Investigator).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
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Captain Matthew Flinders RN (16 March 1774 - 19 July 1814) was an English navigator and cartographer, who was the leader of the first circumnavigation of Australia and identified it as a continent. Flinders made three voyages to the southern ocean between 1791 and 1810. In the second voyage, George Bass and Flinders confirmed that Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) was an island. In the third voyage, Flinders circumnavigated the mainland of what was to be called Australia, accompanied by an Aboriginal man, Bungaree. (From ABEBooks description, retrieved 5/14/17, of another Flinders work.

90° South: The Story of the American South Pole Conquest.

Siple, Paul. New York: Putnam’s, 1959.
  • 1957- Operation Deep Freeze.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Essentially the story of the establishment of the first base at the South Pole, now called the Amundsen-Scott Station, by the scientific leader of the expedition. As so often in the science/military relationship, Siple seems not to have gotten on too well with the military leader of Operation Deep Freeze, George Dufek, but is only mildly sarcastic in his criticism. The book contains a good deal more science than many of these accounts, and little on the recreational activities of the winter night. He attributes this to the lack of time for pastimes while getting and keeping the base operational. There are a few passages dealing with reading:

Cosmogony: or Thoughts on Philosophy.

Merrill, John. East Canaan, NH: Published by G. F. Kimball, 1860.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Merrill was apparently on Kane’s 2d expedition for which he kept a journal and meteorological record (p. 14), and worked with Dr. Vreeland in observing auroras (p. 18-9, citing Kane I, p. 425)

Daily Journal. Lady Franklin Bay Expedition (primarily temperature, animal, auroral, and magnetic observations). Explorer’s Club Inventory 2003-007. Each page bears stamp reading: “Recovered by Robert E. Peary, C. E., U.S.N., from Fort Conger, May, 1899, under the auspices of the Peary Arctic Club, and by it restored to the United States, December, 1899.

Greely, Adolphus W. These volumes are in good condition and show none of the wear seen in other Fort Conger books.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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The official records of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition (1881-84) at the Explorers Club include the Daily Journal, copies of Letters sent, and the Sledge Journal.

Fighting the Polar Ice.

Fiala, Anthony. New York: Doubleday, Page, 1906.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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p. 61-62: The Christmas and the New Year holidays passed happily. We celebrated them with banquets, to which our hard working steward contributed many delicacies. A Christmas issue of the Arctic Eagle, our camp newspaper, was printed, Assistant Commissary Stewart making up the forms and running the press, and Seaman Montrose, who had once been a printer, acting as compositor. Nearly all the members of the party contributed to its columns and much amusement at its quips and personals was the result.*

Obituary.

James, Reginald. Online.
  • 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Throughout most of the expedition, James regularly kept a diary, and his account of the time spent on Elephant Island gives perhaps the best insight into what conditions were really like for the 22 men left stranded there. Paper being scarce, he was forced to write some of his diary on spare pages in the copy of Lang’s Translation of the “Iliad”, which was one of the few books the men rescued from the sinking Endurance. The book is still in the safe keeping of the James family. His diary includes a number of maps and sketches.

James Eights, 1798-1882: Antarctic Explorer, Albany Naturalist, His Life, His Times, His Works.

McKinley, Daniel L. Albany, NY: State Education Department, 2005. New York Museum Bulletin 505.
  • 1829-30 First Preliminary US Exploring Expedition (Annawan and Seraph with Captains Nathaniel Palmer and Benjamin Pendleton).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Eights was listed as “Naturalist and Surgeon” on the Annawan Antarctic voyage of 1829-1831 and there are fragmentary results of his work on natural history in the published record, but he is an enigmatic figure, excluded like Reynolds from the Wilkes ExEx in 1838. I see no signs of his readings in the impressive library he helped create for the preliminary expedition.

Weird and Tragic Shores: The Story of Charles Francis Hall, Explorer.

Loomis, Chauncey C. New York: Knopf, 1971.
  • 1870-73 US North Pole Expedition of Charles Hall (aboard USS Polaris).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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An excellent account of the life of the most eccentric of Arctic explorers who essentially abandoned his family in Cincinnati to pursue his Arctic dreams. Unprepared and inexperienced in Arctic ways, he adopted to and adapted Eskimo ways of living and survival by living with them for long periods and learning from them their secrets of survival. Both his origins and demise are clouded in mystery.

Little America: Town at the End of the World

Carter, Paul Allen. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979.
  • 1928-56 Expeditions of Rear Admiral Richard Byrd.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Carter’s is a fairly well-written although wholly derivative account of the various bases known as Little America, including a solid chapter on the first winterover experience.