A Journal of Voyages & Travels in the Interior of North America, Between the 47th and 58th Degrees of Latitude…

Harmon, Daniel William. Andover, MA: Flagg and Gould, 1820. [See also a later edition called Sixteen Years in the Indian Country,ed. William Kaye Lamb (Toronto: Macmillan, 1957).].
  • Hudson's Bay Company.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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A very long sojourn (1803-1818 or so), by a Christian fundamentalist troubled by sin but trusting in God. Had a common law native wife who is not discussed very much until he finally marries and in reference to children. Tells harrowing tales of native drinking and its consequences, despite the fact that he provided liquor to them. On the death of his son, see p. 238-39.

Stefansson and the Canadian Arctic.

Diubaldo, Richard J. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1978. [Reprinted in paperback 1998.].
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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Tries to analyze as objectively as possible the roots of antagonism between Stefansson and Canadians—sees a degree of arrogance, opportunism, manipulation, and pig-headedness on Stefansson’s part, but also a competence hard to deny. Sees the debacle of Wrangell Island as the final blow to Stef’s reputation in Canada, but there is much else documented here. By 1924 Stef’s connections with Ottawa and Canada were essentially severed and by his choice he ended his Canadian career.

I Went to the Soviet Arctic.

Gruber, Ruth. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1939.
  • 1938 Russian.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
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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 Polar Rosses: John and James Clark Ross and their Explorations.

Dodge, Ernest S. New York: Harper & Row (Barnes and Noble Import), 1973.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
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The Ross family of Uncle and Nephew could be called the dominant English explorers of the first half of the nineteenth century, despite the enmity which John Ross inspired from Sir John Barrow, the kingpin of the Royal Navy’s Arctic and Antarctic aspirations. John Ross was only engaged in the Arctic, with one of the first expeditions seeking the Northwest Passage, and much later the beginnings of the Franklin Search. James Clark Ross, on the other hand, was on his uncle’s first expedition, served with Parry on subsequent voyages, but is chiefly remembered for his command of the British Antarctic Expedition of 1838 to 1842, a long and important voyage bracketed for James Clark by Arctic expeditions. Among their achievements he can claim to have found both Magnetic Poles.

An Evangelical Christian on Franklin’s Last Expedition: Lieutenant John Irving of HMS Terror,

Lloyd-Jones, Ralph. Polar Record 33 (October 1997) 327-32.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Irving, an officer on Franklin’s Terror, died on King William Island, and his bones were found by Lt. Frederick Schwatka in June 1879 between Victory Point and Cape Jane Franklin. His remains were returned to Scotland and he was reburied in Edinburgh in 1881.

The Hookers of Kew 1785-1911.

Allan, Mea. London: Michael Joseph, 1967.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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Joseph Hooker was part of the Erebus and Terror Antarctic expedition led by James Clark Ross, an expedition poorly equipped for scientific investigation.

Among Our Sailors.

Jewell, J. Grey. New York: Harper, 1874.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Contains excerpts “from the laws and consular regulations governing the United States Merchant Service.”

Nelson.

Walder, David. (New York: Dial Press, 1978).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. xii: Meanwhile, The Times of October 10, 1843, reported the presence in Exeter of a rather unusual survival from Trafalgar. Mrs Sara Frank Pitt, the widow of a marine, had been on board Victory, and during the battle had been employed with other sailors’ wives in the customary duty of carrying powder up from the magazines to the guns. Hearing a false report of her husband’s death, she had rushed on deck to be reassured by his presence, but to see Nelson fall, mortally wounded. She subsequently buried a boy of hers at Alexandria and another near Sicily, and now in her old age, without child or husband, she I left totally destitute, without kin or associate, with no consolation but the recollection of the glorious bloody scenes in which she spent the early portion of her married life.’ Naturally enough, perhaps, Mrs Pitt was not anxious to join the procession of 200 Trafalgar veterans now being collected together for the unveiling ceremony [in Trafalgar Square], but she wished it to be known that if there should be ‘any distribution in largesse in commemoration of the victory’ she would ‘be thankful to receive a portion’.

Ancestral Voices.

Lees-Milne, James. (London, New York, 1975).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 31-32, describes a visit to Lord & Lady Kennet's home in 1942: Lord Kennet was luckily in bed with bronchitis so we were alone. K [Scott’s widow] as outgiving as ever. The first glimpse of her showed how she is ageing. Her figure is noticeably spread, and not mitigated by the shapeless, sacklike garments she always wears. She is the worst-dressed woman I know; and rejoices in a sort of aggressive no-taste in clothes and house.

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.

Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen: Ambition and Tragedy in the Antarctic.

Thomson, David. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2002 [1977].
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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A revision of a pre-Huntford critical work on Scott, though he says he didn’t know he was writing a “debunking” biography in 1977. Doesn’t have the acerbic bite of Huntford, but has something critical to say about all three of his subjects.

Sir John Franklin.

Beesly, Augustus H. New York: G. P. Putnam’s, 1881.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 75: And now we come to one of the most tragic histories ever told. One might call it pathetic, but that, as Thackeray says of the circumstances of George the Third's madness, it is too terrible for tears. Nevertheless, no one could read Franklin's diary and not be touched. It was, it must be remembered, written from night to night, after the day had been spent in one of the most frightful of all torments, starvation, and when death seemed to draw visibly nearer hour by hour. It is as if he had written it with his heart's blood, which to the last drop he was determined should be shed for those at home in England. There is no unmanly wailing in it. It is the most matter-of-fact record of appalling suffering. Perhaps the most tragic feature of it is that at one point the dates cease. Whether he had lost count of time or not, it is impossible to say. The diary does not cease, though the dates do. Perhaps the record of those days was added afterwards, because, however willing the spirit was, he found it frequently impossible to pen his notes upon the spot.