Nansen

Hall, Anna Gertrude. Illustrated by Boris Artzybasheff. New York: Viking Press, 1940.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

p. 67, on equipping the Fram for Nansen’s North Pole voyage: There were a library of a thousand books and a supply of games and musical instruments to help pass the time.

The Great White South, or with Scott in the Antarctic. Being an Account of Experiences with Captain Scott’s South Pole Expedition and of the Nature Life of the Antarctic… and an Introduction by Lady Scott.

Ponting, Herbert G. London: Duckworth, 1921.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

p. 1: I might almost say that I first met Captain Scott in Siberia. I may at least state that it was there that I first got to know him, for I occupied myself during a journey over the Trans-Siberian railway in January, 1907, by reading his recently published work ‘The Voyage of the Discovery.’ I had bought the two volumes in Tokyo, thinking that they might furnish appropriate reading for a journey in the frigid conditions of climate which prevail in Siberia at that time of the year; and during my two weeks’ incarceration in the train, as it meandered over a third of the circumference of the globe, from Vladivostock to Moscow, I found that virile story of adventure of absorbing interest. Little then did I imagine that I should one day meet the great explorer in the flesh; much less that before four years had elapsed I should be accompanying him on his second voyage to the Antarctic regions. Wonderful, indeed, are the ways of Fate in the framing of our destinies!

Cold Burial: A True Story of Endurance and Disaster.

Powell-Williams, Clive. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

An account of a disastrous winter in the Barrens of the Northwest, of three patrician adventurers, led by a rather irresponsible John Hornby. All three died of starvation in 1927.

A Man-of-War Library,

Melville, Herman. in White-Jacket, or The world in a Man-of-War. (New York: Library of America, 1983) p. 522-24:.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

Chapter 41. A Man-of-War Library

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

Loomis, Chauncey C. New York: Knopf, 1971.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

Excellent account of the life of the most eccentric of Arctic explorers who essentially abandoned his family in Cincinnati to pursue his Arctic dreams. Uneducated 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.

The Frigid Mistress: Life and Exploration in Antarctica.

Doumani, George A. Baltimore, MD: Noble House, 1999.
  • 1957- Operation Deep Freeze.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A personal account of five trips to the Antarctic, mainly to Byrd Station. Probably the worst book of Antarctic exploration I’ve encountered. To quote one review of this account of five visits to Antarctica: “He is no writer.” There is one paragraph about the library room at Byrd Station: if the publisher had remembered to provide pagination I would provide a citation—it’s near the beginning of the book.

Bellingshausen and the Russian Antarctic Expedition, 1819-21.

Bulkeley, Rip. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2014.
  • 1819-21 First Russian Antarctic Expedition commanded by Captain Thaddeus Bellingshausen (aboard Vostok and Mirny).
  • “Discovery” of Antarctica.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

In an excellent overview of the Bellingshausen expedition, comprising both translations of relevant materials and commentary about the journey, Bulkeley’s Chapter 4, “Wanted on Voyage,” begins with an important section on Books and Instruments, telling us more about specific titles available on this trip than any other early voyage, with the possible exception of La Pérouse (q.v.):

Mawson’s Forgotten Men: The 1911-1913 Antarctic Diary of Charles Turnbull Harrisson.

Harrisson, Charles Turnbull. Edited by Heather Rossiter. Miller’s Point, NSW: Pier 9, 2011.
  • 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (Mawson).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

p. 68, Friday March 8, 1912: After tea I fitted up the batten floor of the canoe (which was not loaded) as a bookshelf, & Hoadley opened the Library—some of the books damp. Rather disappointed in them. Not a poet in the lot. [Footnote 19, p. 291: The ‘Library’ was a selection of books donated by a rich benefactor, Campbell Mackellar.]

Notes from Discovery Journal & Sledging Diaries of R W Skelton

Skelton, Reginald W. Extracts concerning the reading of books. prepared by Judy Skelton, his grand-daughter.
  • 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Ms Skelton subsequently published her grandfather’s diaries as The Antarctic Journals of Reginald W. Skelton: “Another Job for the Tinker. (Cheltenham, UK: Reardon Publishing, 2004):

Operation Tabarin: Britain’s Secret Wartime Expedition to Antarctica 1944-46.

Haddelsey, Stephen. By Stephen Haddelsey, with Alan Carroll. Stroud, UK: History Press, 2014.
  • 1944-46 British Covert FIDS Expedition (leaders James Marr and Andrew Taylor).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A thorough account of the British Secret Operation Tabarin by FIDS attempting to preempt any American or Argentine territorial claims in the Antarctic Peninsula region.This description has only a few indications of reading experiences during a hastily prepared and accident-prone mission.

The Hazen Court-Martial: The Responsibility for the Disaster of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition Definitely Established with Proposed Reforms in the Law and Practice of Courts-Martial.

Mackey, Thomas J. New York: Van Nostrand, 1885.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

Mackey held Secretary of War Robert T. Lincoln responsible for the tragedy by withholding necessary support because of his animosity to Hazen, Chief Signal Officer. Secondly he blamed Garlington for not following the plan as ordered, a plan on which Greeley depended for survival. (p. 7). On p. 6 Mackey refers to the North Pole as “the crown jewel of the Arctic dome.”

The Autobiography of a Seaman.

Thomas Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald. (London: Richard Bentley, 1872).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

This author is one very aristocratic sailor who had his troubles with the Royal Navy and the British government in the early nineteenth century. Suffice it to say that this is not a voice from the forecastle, but of petulant complaints concerning the “injustice and folly” of the government court (p. 493). There is nothing I could find in this book about polar reading, or any reading at all.

Cruises in the Bering Sea: Being Records of Further Sport and Travel .

Niedieck, Paul. Translated by R. A. Ploetz. London: Rowland Ward, 1909. [Reprint Camden, SC: John Culler, 1995.].
  • 1906 German Hunting Expedition in Alaska and Siberia.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

The German author hunted bear and sheep in Alaska and Siberia and his book is now especially current as he hunted on the fabled Kamchatka Peninsula where hunting has just been opened. The author bagged many brown bears and snow sheep.