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
 Preview 

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.

The Wilkes Expedition: Tthe First United States Exploring Expedition (1838-1842).

Tyler, David B. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1968. (Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 73).
  • 1838-42 U.S. Exploring Expedition (Wilkes).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

p. 41, Titian Peale quoted from letter to his daughters about his stateroom: I have a little bed over and under which is packed clothes, furs, guns, Books and boxes without number, all of which have to be tied to keep them from rolling and tumbling about, and kept off the floor as it is sometimes covered with water.

Innocents in the Arctic: The 1951 Spitsbergen Expedition.

Bull, Colin. Fairbanks, AK: University of Alaska Press, 2005.
  • 1951 British Spitsbergen Expedition.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

p. 115: Otherwise, when confined to the tent, they talked and, when all subjects had been exhausted, either slept or read. In addition to a few books they had newspapers galore, generously supplied by a Birmingham dealer for safely wrapping the fossils and rock samples. The newspapers were used for extra insulation and to mop up penetrating precipitation. When the level of water in the tent exceeded the mopping capabilities of the newspapers, the occupants encouraged the water into a sump and made a suitable drain hole in the sewn-in ground sheet. They, and we three in the other inland party, were all much disappointed to find that all of the copies of the newspaper were of the same date and the same edition. Consequently we all learned some of the text by heart.

Seasons with the Seahorses; Or, Sporting Adventures in the Northern Seas.

Lamont, James. New York: Harper, 1861.
  • 1858-59 British Private Journeys of "Sport and Discovery" (James Lamont).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

p. 80, in a description of the cabin: As for reading, it is next to impossible, for I defy any body to read long sitting on a locker nine inches broad; also, the bunks are too dark, and if we try to read in them we generally go to sleep.

Melville in the South Seas.

Anderson, Charles Roberts. New York: Columbia University Press, 1939.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

Melville joined the navy in August 1843, and joined the United States in Honolulu in 1844, spending fourteen months on U.S. naval duty between Honolulu and Boston, arriving there in October 1844.

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. Fifth ed. Exeter: W. C. Featherstone and sold by the author, 1843.
  • 1820-22 British South Seas Sealing Voyage (Princess of Wales).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 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.

Beyond the Barrier: The Story of Byrd’s First Expedition to Antarctica.

Rodgers, Eugene. Annapolis, Naval Institute Press, 1990.
  • 1928-30 First U.S. Antarctic Expedition (Byrd on City of New York).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A rather damning account of Byrd’s expedition and his handling of publicity in covering up anything that might reflect poorly on him, and there were many such things.

With Byrd at the Bottom of the World: The South Pole Expedition of 1928-1930.

Vaughan, Norman D. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1990.
  • 1928-30 First U.S. Antarctic Expedition (Byrd on City of New York).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

This is an adulatory, almost pandering book of Vaughan’s participation in the first Byrd Antarctic expedition (1928-30), by Byrd’s principal dog handler. It reads as compellingly as the Boy Scout accounts. His chapter on life in camp was mostly about the dogs, but also on some psychological troubles, nothing about coping other than card-playing and purloined alcohol.

Arctic Justice: On Trial for Murder, Pond Inlet, 1923.

Grant, Shelagh D. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002.
  • 1923 Canadian Murder Trial at Pond Inlet.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

Fascinating book on the introduction of European-based law into a culture that had no reason to understand it, in its communitarian consensual approach to justice. Well-written and badly proofed, but worth the read.

I Went to the Soviet Arctic.

Gruber, Ruth. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1939.
  • 1938 Russian.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
 Preview 

p. 16-17, for her journey north: Accordingly I packed into one pocket of the duffel bag the Compleat Explorer’s Equipment…. The other pocket was filled with notebooks, typing paper, pencils and a little library of books and newspapers which I would leave with the people who were starving, I was sure, for culture.

The White Desert.

Barber, Noel. New York: Thomas W. Crowell, 1958.
  • 1955-58 TAE: Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs and Hillary).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Barber was a British journalist under contract to write for the Daily Mail on the Fuchs/Hillary Trans-Antarctic Expedition. He spent the austral summer of 1957-58 in Antarctica, mainly at McMurdo but making two substantial visits to the South Pole and was there when Hillary and then Fuchs arrived in 1958. He takes a British anti-Hillary stance on the controversy over Hillary’s arrival at the SP and makes him into a quite unattractive figure. But he is not uncritical of Fuchs either, finding him stuffy, portentous, too proud to accept help offered by the Americans, but accepting it on a number of dire occasions. Nor does he note how Adm. Dufek is complicit in the feud of Fuchs and Hillary by encouraging Hillary to go to the Pole on his plane when it should have been none of Dufek’s business. He rather simply sees Dufek as an innocently generous American with little agenda of his own.

Under Scott’s Command: Lashly’s Antarctic Diaries

Lashly, William. Ed. by A. R. Ellis…, with an Introduction by Sir Vivian Fuchs. New York: Taplinger, 1969.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Lashly was a leading stoker on the Discovery and the Terra Nova, and was part of the South Pole expedition, making all but the final cut. He comes across well in a jingoistic book, e.g. Fuchs introduction: “This book is a further contribution to our knowledge of the happy atmosphere which pervaded two polar expeditions. It was the combination of great leadership and loyal support which added an epic to our history” (p. 10). The book certainly shows loyal support, esp. from Lashly, but scarcely hides the inadequacy of Scott’s leadership.