The Ice and the Inland: Mawson, Flynn, and the Myth of the Frontier.

Hains, Brigid. Melbourne, AU; Melbourne University Press, 2002.
  • 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (Mawson).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A comparative study of two frontiersmen, Douglas Mawson’s work in Antarctica (mostly 1911-14) and John Flynn, a Presbyterian minister of the Australian Inland Mission. Concentrating on the AAE (1911-14) Hains has gone through many if not all of the diaries of participants, taking special note of their books and reading, more so than any expedition I know of.

Alexander Mackenzie and the North West.

Daniells, Roy. London: Faber and Faber, 1969.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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p. 97, concerning his first Arctic trip in 1789: In this voyage I was not only without the necessary books and instruments, but also felt myself deficient in the science of astronomy and navigation. I did not hesitate therefore to undertake a winter’s voyage [to England] in order to procure the one and acquire the other.

The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1971.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 502, on Martin Frobisher’s first voyage: More impressive than the ships was the equipment…. The literature included two works by André Thever: his Cosmographie universelle, just out, and Singularitez de la France antarctique; and Medina’s Arte de Naviguar, one of the best available treatises on navigation. Strangely enough, Frobisher did not carry William Bourne’s more recent Regiment of the Sea (1574). Probably more for amusement than anything else, he had a copy of Sir John Mandeville’s famous book of whoppers. Also, for good measure, a ‘great’ English Bible. This was probably the ‘Bishop’s Bible’ of 1572, whose title page includes a portrait of the Queen, useful to show the natives…. [Can’t tell the source of Morison’s list but he does suggest there was a complete list somewhere—see Stefansson ed. of Best, v. 2, p. 77-78]

Tragedy and Triumph: the Journals of Captain R. F. Scott’s Last Polar Expedition.

Scott, Robert Falcon. New York: Konecky & Konecky [n.d.].
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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These journals include rather little on reading. The expedition’s lecture series implies a good library available to the lecturers, all 13 of them. Subjects included mostly scientific matter: parasitology, scurvy, polar clothing, sledging diets, motor sledges, geology, volcanoes, surveying, Lololand, biology, horse management, Burma, China, India, Japan; Scott himself lectured on the icebarrier and inland ice, and on plays for the Southern Journey. Other topics were coronas, hales, rainbows and auroras, general meteorology, the Beardmore glacier, physiography, flying birds, penguins, ice problems, radium, and the constitution of matter. [see index p. 511-12]

Innocents on the Ice: A Memoir of Antarctic Exploration, 1957.

Behrendt, John H. Boulder, Colorado: University of Colorado Press, 1998.
  • 1957-58 Operation Deep Freeze I. Ellesworth Station. (Finn Ronne).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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An account of the International Geophysical Year expedition to the Weddell Sea with Captain Finn Ronne, 1956-58, with emphasis on the stresses and conflicts between the military captain and the civilian scientists. Behrendt is unusual in noting, mostly from his daily journal, a substantial amount of reading during the winter at Ellsworth Station. These readings included Ronne’s own Antarctic Conquest (p. 24); War and Peace (p. 58); The Rebel (Camus) and Stefansson’s Arctic Manual (p. 114); Gods Graves and Scholars (Ceram: p. 122); Thurber (p. 136); Cold (Gould: p. 140); thesaurus (p. 153); The White Desert (Giaever: p. 158 with a long quote); Mrs Warren’s Profession (Shaw) and Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck: p. 170); The Rain Cave: p. 189); Of Whales and Men (R.B. Robertson: p. 201); Life on the Mississippi (Twain: p. 214); The Life of Greece (Durant: p. 223); Scott’s Last Expedition (p. 320); Time magazine (p. 323); Merck Manual (p. 346); Human Destiny (LeComte de Nouilly: p. 371); The Wall (Hersey: p. 374).

With Peary Near the Pole…

Astrup, Eivind. Translated from the Norwegian by H. J. Bull. London: C. Arthur Pearson, 1898.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Astrup participated in two of Peary’s early Greenland expeditions.

The Sketch Book.

Irving, Washington. Leipzig: Bernard Tauchnitz, 1843. Authorized Edition. [First published serially in 1819-20.].
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 12: This rambling propensity strengthened with my years. Books of voyages and travels became my passion, and in devouring their con-

Ice Bound: A Doctor’s Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole.

Nielsen, Jerri. New York: Hyperion, 2001.
  • 1998-99 South Pole Winterover (NSF) at Amundsen-Scott Base.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

This book created considerable controversy by the author going public with her medical condition, despite commitments not to call for special services in case of serious illness. Her cancer was the cause.

The Arctic in the Middle Ages,

Vaughan, Richard. Journal of Medieval History8 (1982) 313-42.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

An overview of knowledge of the Arctic in the middle ages. Claims that any one of the writers displays woeful ignorance, but collectively they provide a good picture of the medieval Arctic, from cold to frostbite, from skies to polar bears, to unicorn horns. The writers he cites are Saxo Grammaticus who is in “the very first rank of medieval writers about the north” and who wrote about geysers and volcanoes in Iceland, and Finnish use of skies. See his History of the Danes, 2 volumes, 1978-9.

In Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times.

Nansen, Fridtjof. Translated by Arthur G. Chater. Two volumes. London: William Heinemann, 1911.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
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Nansen’s second major work, this book covers only the earliest period of Northern exploration and could well be titled “In Northern Myths.” He is certainly among the earliest and most scholarly, literary, and research-oriented writers of exploration history, the work verges little upon the subject of our inquiry.

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself.

Equiano, Olaudah. [Gustavus Vassa]. Fourth edition. (Dublin: Printed for, and Sold by, the Author. 1791). [First published 1789; also New York: Praeger, 1967.].
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 69: I had often seen my master and Dick employed in reading; and I had a great curiosity to talk to the books, as I thought they did; and so to learn how all things had a beginning: for that purpose I have often taken up a book, and have talked to it, and then put my ears to it, when alone, in hopes it would answer me; and I have been very much concerned when I found it remained silent.

My Antarctic Honeymoon: A Year at the Bottom of the World.

Darlington, Jennie. By Jennie Darlington as told to Jane McIlvaine. New York, Doubleday, 1957.
  • 1946-48 Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

One of two women on Finn Ronne’s 1947-48 Weddell Sea expedition, the other being Edith Ronne, his wife. A rather unflattering portrayal of Ronne as well as Ronne’s wife, the other woman.