The North Pole and Bradley Land.

Balch, Thomas Willing. Philadelphia: Campion, 1913.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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An exploration of the Cook-Peary controversy, with excerpts below based on his reading experience and that of others.

Lost in the Arctic, Being the Story of the ‘Alabama’ Expedition, 1909-1912.

Mikkelsen, Ejnar. London: William Heinemann, 1913.
  • 1909-12 Danish Expedition in Search of Mylius-Erichsen (aboard Alabama led by Ejnar Mikkelsen).
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
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p. 171: When I got back to camp Iversen has prepared a little feast. He has opened a new case of provisions in which we find two cigars, that Laub had packed away as a surprise for us. They are pretty badly damaged, but we fix them up somehow, and are soon enjoying the rare treat of a good smoke, together with the further delight of looking at the pictures in an old number of an illustrated paper that had been used to pack them in. The sheets are greasy and torn, but we put the pieces carefully together—here is reading matter for many days, even though we take a little foretaste of it now by glancing at the text here and there. There are bits of several stories, with neither beginning nor end, but that doesn’t matter—we make up the rest ourselves—a splendid way of passing the time, and an excellent subject for conversation on lying-up days.

Journal of the lst 2 months Dec 1910, Jan 1911 of the Terra Nova expedition

Taylor, Griffith. some of which was published in the Melbourne Argus.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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[Griffith] Taylor Collection. “Journal of the lst 2 months Dec 1910, Jan 1911 of the Terra Nova expedition, some of which was published in the Melbourne Argus, and in fact he was composing this journal with that publication in mind (see p. 34).

Soviets in the Arctic: An Historical, Economic and Political Study of the Soviet Advance into the Arctic

Taracouzio, T. A. . New York: Macmillan Co., 1938.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
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Chapter III (p. 73ff) spells out quite explicitly the purpose of this book: The Russian government must be completely Sovietized…. Politically, within the territory geographically located within the boundaries of the U.S.S.R., no tolerance can be shown toward any other form of government than that which was established by Lenin in 1917. The portion of the Arctic to be studied here is part of the Soviet Union.

The Light that Failed.

Kipling, Rudyard. Revised ed. New York 1899.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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The Memorial University in St Johns, Newfoundland, has a copy of Kipling’s The Light that Failed. (Revised ed. New York 1899). It has a note on the cover that “This book was on the “Roosevelt” 83 degrees North, the time Perry [Peary] discovered the North Pole 1909.” Question is whether this might have been a title from the American Seamen’s Friend Society portable library that went on that voyage and is now at Mystic Seaport library, but lacking the books from the box.

Dartmouth College Archives. Mss. 98

Stefansson, Vilhjalmur. Finding Aid 1982.
  • 1913-16 Canadian Arctic Expedition (Led by Stefansson with Captain Bob Bartlett commanding the Karluk).
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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Box 5: Diary, April 27, 1914 (Canadian Arctic Expedition); folder 2 has inventory of all equipment and supplies that includes “Stork’s books 10 lbs.”

A Relic of Ross.

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

Round the Horn before the Mast

Lubbock, Alfred Basil. New York: E. P. Dutton. 1907.
  • 1899- American Schooner Voyage from San Francisco to Europe and Round the Horn aboard Royalshire.
  • Maritime Reading
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p. 17, after a day of shoveling coal he and his new English friend cleaned up and went to the opera to see “Carmen.”

Journeyman Taylor: The Education of a Scientist.

Taylor, Griffith. London: Hale, 1958.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Has three or four short chapters on his participation in Scott’s Terra Nova expedition.

By Airplane towards the North Pole: An Account of an Expedition to Spitzbergen in the Summer of 1923.

Mittelholzer, Walter, et al. Translated from the German by Eden & Cedar Paul. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1925.
  • 1923 German Air Expedition to Spitsbergen.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
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This expedition had the two-fold purposes of aerial photography of the Spitsbergen interior, and making the case (albeit in the interests of the Junker aircraft corporation) for the utility of aircraft in polar exploration. In a book devoted to exploration by air it would appear unsurprising that there is no apparent reference to reading as appears in most other exploration literature. It does have this curious reference to Robert Peary’s claim to the North Pole discovery of 1909: “But Peary’s aim had been the establishment of a sporting record, rather than the advancement of science” (p. 164-65).

The Voyage of Captain Bellingshausen to the Antarctic Seas 1819-1821

Bellingshausen, Thaddeus von. 2 vols. Trans. from the Russian. Edited by Frank Debenham. London: Hakluyt Society, 1945.
  • 1819-21 First Russian Antarctic Expedition commanded by Captain Thaddeus Bellingshausen (aboard Vostok and Mirny).
  • “Discovery” of Antarctica.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Only a fraction of Fabian Gottlieb Benjamin Bellingshausen’s (aka Thaddeus, 1778-1852) long career in the Russian Navy was devoted to Antarctic exploration, his two-year expedition exploring Antarctic in 1819-21. It was nonetheless a notable venture as the second circumnavigation of the continent (the first was by Captain Cook in 1773-74), and the first actual sighting of the Continent in January 1820. His discovery of Alexander Island and the naming of the Bellingshausen Sea were not much honored in Russia since they were of little immediate practical use, but his achievements are now much more fully recognized, At least as translated and then edited in this version, Bellingshausen appears to have an easy-going if formal style of writing and shows himself to be a most judicious man in both his navigation and his leadership of the voyage, a character much doubted by his critics.

Cherry: A Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard.

Wheeler, Sara. New York: Random House, 2002.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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A splendid biography of one of the most valuable members of Scott’s Terra Nova expedition.

Elisha Kent Kane and the Seafaring Frontier

Mirsky, Jeannette. . Edited by Oscar Handlin. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1954).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 55-56, on setting off on the first Grinnell expedition: I collected as I could some simple instruments for thermal and magnetic registration, which would have been of use if they had found their way on board. A very few books for the dark hours of winter, and a stock of coarse woolen clothing…constituted my entire outfit; and with these I made my report to Commodore Salter at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.