Sledge: The British Trans-Greenland Expedition 1934.

Lindsay, Martin. London: Cassell, 1935.
  • 1934 British Trans-Greenland Expedition (commanded by Martin Lindsay).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

An account of the traversal of the Greenland Ice-Cap, between Jakobshaven, near Disco Island on the west coast, and Angmagssalik on the east coast.

“Congering” the Past: The Books of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition (1881-84), Before and After.

Stam, David H. In North by Degree. Edited by Susan Kaplan and Robert Peck. (Philadelphia, PA: American Philosophical Society, 2014). p. 240-56,.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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An account of the library at Lady Franklin Bay, its planning under Henry Howgate, its active use under Adolphus Greely, and its disposition under Robert Peary.

Toughing it Out: The Adventure of a Polar Explorer and Mountaineer.

Hempleman-Adams, David. London: Orion, 1992.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
    Arctic Reading: General
    Maritime Reading
    Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

Includes solo trip to South Pole, yacht trip to South Magnetic Pole, and various North Pole attempts. Mills calls him a “pole-grabber” and his great disappointment is failure to achieve the North Pole.

Under the Ocean to the South Pole; or, The Strange Cruise of the Submarine Porpoise.

Rockwood, Roy. New York: Cupples & Leon, 1907.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
 Preview 

This is a sequel to Through the Air to the North Pole, in which some boys reached the North Pole but fought some savage Eskimos. Professor Henderson, probably modeled on Peary [who incidentally called himself Professor in Snowfolk], has a black companion named Washington White, probably modeled on Henson: “The Negro, who was a genius in his own way, though somewhat inclined to use big words, of the meaning of which he knew little and cared less” (p. 5). The novel posits land and an open sea at the SP, says he had read all the explorer accounts (p. 11). Professor Henderson is the Mate and the inventor of the ship (cf. Roosevelt). The ship after many adventures makes it to the SP amidst a sea of boiling water. Next adventure promised is a balloon to the center of the earth.

Seamen’s Missions: Their Origin and Early Growth.

Kverndal, Roald. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1986.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

p. 106-7, on the influence of Lieutenant Richard Marks as an evangelical in the Napoleonic Wars who as minister expanded seaboard services on Nelson’s Conquerer including reading of Sunday prayers, a ship’s choir, and on arrival at home ports: Marks obtained Bibles for every mess, and several hundred tracks for distribution. (Henceforth, he seldom went between decks ‘without seeing some of the crew reading them.) He also organized a ship’s library of evangelical books, with over 150 subscribing members.

She Went a-whaling: the Journal of Martha Smith Brewer Brown.

Brown, Martha Smith Brewer. (Orient, NY: Oysterponds Historical Society, 1993).
  • 1847-48 Whaling Voyage to South Pacific (aboard Lucy Ann).
  • Maritime Reading
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An example of a whaling captain’s wife going to sea with him. Whaling wives were usually known for their New England piety amidst the rough-hewn crews of 19th-century whaling ships. This is the diary of one of them, Martha Brown, who sailed from Orient NY aboard the Lucy Ann on August 31, 1847, on an eastward voyage round the world that eventually passed Cape Horn:

Antarctic Scout

Chappell, Richard Lee. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1959.
  • 1957- Operation Deep Freeze.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Chappell was part of a program to send Boy Scouts on Antarctic expeditions, in his case to Operation Deep Freeze II when he was a winterover at Little America. Paul Siple was an earlier participant who became an important American explorer and encouraged this young man who later went to Princeton. The writing is wooden and generally sanctimonious, betraying the author’s youth. Reading is minimal, mostly confined to the Bible (p. 81), though he does find a copy of Murphy’s Oceanic Birds of South America to help his pursuit of ornithology, and he did participate in Little America’s “University of the Antarctic.” At those sessions he studied Morse code and did manage to send off a sample message. He ends with a rather fundamentalist homily based on Matt 28:20: “lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” Chappell does not appear to have published anything else.

Life Aboard: The Journals of William N. and George F. Smith.

Smith, William N. and George F. Edited by Alan D. McNairn. (Saint John, CAN: NBM Publications, 1988.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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Diaries of typical 19th-century voyages by New Brunswick ships to all over the world, usually carrying timber. Nothing polar about it (mostly St John to Liverpool), but an interesting example of a seaman’s journals.

A Sequel to the North-West Passage, and the Plans for the Search for Sir John Franklin. A Review.

Brown, John. London: E. Stanford, 1860.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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This follow-up adds some opinion defending Franklin as the discoverer of the North-West Passage, but doesn’t appear to add much more on the Franklin Search and the earlier book. But the Harvard copy is an interesting one (Harvard Tower 120.) Presentation copy from John Barrow (Sir John Barrow’s son), with letters laid in, one dated Nov. 16, 1860: I am compelled again to differ with high arctic authority which is a matter rather of regret to me.—as you know how much I esteem

The Ice Museum: In Search of the Lost Land of Thule.

Kavenna, Joanna. London: Viking/Penguin Books, 2005.
  • Greenland.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

Joanna Kavenna went north in search of the Atlantis of the Arctic, the mythical land of Thule. Seen once by an Ancient Greek explorer and never found again, mysterious Thule came to represent the vast and empty spaces of the north. Fascinated for many years by Arctic places, Kavenna decided to travel through the lands that have been called Thule, from Shetland to Iceland, Norway, Estonia, and Greenland. On her journey, she found traces of earlier writers and travellers, all compelled by the idea of a land called Thule: Richard Francis Burton, William Morris, Anthony Trollope, as well as the Norwegian Polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen . . . The Ice Museum is a mesmerising story of idealism and ambition, wars and destruction, survival and memories, set against the haunting backdrop of the northern landscape. Bookseller Inventory #0670913952

A Voyage of Discovery….

Ross, John, Sir. 2nd ed. Two volumes. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1819.
  • 1818 First British Northwest Passage Expedition (John Ross aboard Isabella with the Alexander).
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Ross was encouraged to attempt this early expedition searching for the Northwest Passage, but severely criticized by John Barrow for failing in that search. He had some significant accomplishments but this trip effectively ended his career with the Admiralty.

The Resolution Journal of Johann Reinhold Forster, 1772-1775.

Forster, Johann Reinhold. Ed. by Michael E. Hoare. Four volumes. London: Hakluyt Society, 1982.
  • 1772-75 British Naval Expedition–Second Voyage (Captain James Cook aboard the Resolution).
  • “Discovery” of Antarctica.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Forster and his father George were the naturalists on Cook’s Second Voyage, aboard Resolution, replacing Sir Joseph Banks who rejected the expedition in a dispute over cabin space, and possibly a mistress. Banks took his library and instruments with him, but the library was somehow replaced by the Forster collection. Anders Sparrman was another scientist who joined the scientific team for the second voyage. The four volumes of Forster’s Journal are studded with references to many books in several languages, mostly dealing with natural history or anthropology (e.g., plant names, the copulation of sea elephants, tattoos and lip piercing, but he quotes Virgil constantly). One may assume with some degree of likelihood that most of the books cited were aboard the ship. Included here are only page numbers of these references. For all the bookish knowledge of the father there is little indication of reading in the Antarctic regions, other than looking up references. [DS]

A Relic of Ross.

Mill, Hugh Robert. The Polar Record III no. 21 (January 1941) 354-56.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

Identifies a book which James Clark Ross had with him on both his Arctic and Antarctic voyages and which he inscribed twice to so indicate. The book is The Economy of Human Life, 1808, variously attributed to Lord Chesterfield, Robert Dodsley (Johnson’s publisher), John Hill, or even unascribed as a volume from the library of the Grand Lama of Tartary. It is a small book of homilies on the conduct of life, often published; this copy first belonged to Isabella Ross, sister of James Clark Ross. He had it with him as first lieutenant to Captain Edward Parry in H.M.S. Hecla in the high Arctic when he inscribed it: “Written on board the Endeavour [a sledge boat detailed from the Hecla] in Latitude 82 3/4˚ N. 27th July, 1827. Jas. C. Ross.” (p. 355)