Antarctic Night

Bursey, Jack. New York: Rand McNally, 1957.
  • 1928-56 Expeditions of Rear Admiral Richard Byrd.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Bursey participated in three Byrd-related expeditions in 1928-1930; 1931-41; and 1955-57. He grew up in northern Newfoundland and claims to have read everything he could find on Antarctica while a youth and went on to be an apparently successful dog handler in all three expeditions. His book is a paean to the continent and its sheer magnetism to the smitten, and he expresses its pull chiefly through cliché. If he read more about Antarctica or anything else you won’t find out from this book. He does refer to the fine libraries in the first and third expeditions, but mainly he describes parts of the end of the world where no man has ever tread before, and similar bromides.

Before the Heroes Came: Antarctica in the 1890s.

Baughman, T. H. Lincoln, NE: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1994.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
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A solid but rather dry account of exploration in Antarctica during the decade before Robert Falcon Scott’s first expedition aboard the Discovery, and centered on Carsten Borchgrevink, his first landing on the Antarctic Continent, and his 1898-1900 Southern Cross expedition. In his concluding chapter, “Lessons not Learned,” Baughman explicitly accuses Clements Markham and Scott of failing to learn the lessons from the previous decade, thus leading to their “heroic” failure. In particular Markham insisted on naval leadership by the wrong people, avoiding scientific expertise, bypassing William Speirs Bruce for Scott, etc.

The Lost Men: The Harrowing Saga of Shackleton’s Ross Sea Party.

Tyler-Lewis, Kelly. New York: Viking, 2006.
  • 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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An extensive and comprehensive study of the archival and printed sources related to Shackleton’s depot-laying party which had been intended to provide for the final 400 miles of his Trans-Antarctic expedition. This Party succeeded in its depot mission, but Shackleton failed to get there when his ship was frozen and then sank in the Weddell Sea. Tyler-Lewis seems to have a good eye for the reading occasions of the Party.

A Narrative of Arctic Discovery, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, with the Details of the Measures Adopted by Her Majesty’s Government for the Relief of the Expedition under Sir John Franklin.

Stillinglaw, John J. London: William Shoberl, 1850.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

p. 114, Luke (Lucus) Fox on his own book: “Gentle reader,— expect not here any florishing phrases or eloquent tearmes, for this child of mine, begot in the north-west’s cold clime (where they breed no scholleers), is not able to digest the sweet milke of Rethorick, &c.”

Only Yesterday.

Allen, Frederick Lewis. New York: Harper, 1931.
  • 1933-35 Byrd Second Antarctic Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p. 353, re Byrd: Yet the noble art of ballyhoo, which had flourished so successfully in the nineteen-twenties, had lost something of its vigor. Admiral Byrd’s flight to the South Pole made him a hero second only to Lindbergh in the eyes of the country at large, but in the larger centers of population there was manifest a slight tendency to yawn: his exploit had been over-publicized, and heroism, however gallant, lost something of its spontaneous charm when it was subjected to scientific management and syndicated in daily dispatches. [See also chapter 8, “The Ballyhoo Years,” p. 186ff.]

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
 Preview 

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.

Ice Window: Letters from a Bering Strait Village 1892-1902.

Lopp, Ellen Louise Kittredge, 1868-1947. Ed. and annotated by Kathleen Lopp Smith and Verbeck Smith. Fairbanks, AK: Univ. of Alaska Press, 2001.
  • Arctic Reading: Inuit and other indigenous people
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p. 55, April 1893: I have learned a great deal about the Natives and their language and customs. Mr. Lopp preached his illustrated sermon all the way up and once on the way back. The folks asked for it twice, but once his throat was too sore to give it. We had two charts illustrating the life of Christ—two quarters’ lessons. Everyone who saw them was interested and gave good attention. We read from the Bible and had prayer every time and sang sometimes.

The Southern Ice-continent: The German South Polar Expedition aboard the Gauss 1901-1903.

Drygalski, Erich von. Bluntisham, UK: Bluntisham Books, 1989.
  • 1901-03 German South Polar Expedition (Drygalski on Gauss).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Drygalski led the first German Antarctic Expedition in 1901-03, as part of Germany’s growing status in the international community with its own colonial aspirations. Its emphasis was scientific research and its chosen region the southern Indian Ocean as centered on the Kerguélen Islands.

The Cruise of the Corwin: Journal of the Arctic Expedition of 1881 in Search of De Long and the Jeannette

Muir, John. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
  • 1879-81 US North Pole Expedition (commanded by George De Long aboard Jeannette).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

This work collects reports from Muir’s trip, mainly dealing with glaciology and other naturalist interests. His is a graceful and easy style and he has an observant eye, down to the hair on the bottom of a polar bear’s foot.

The Flag Ship: Or A Voyage Around the World, in the United States Frigate Columbia; Attended by Her Consort The Sloop of War John Adams, and Bearing the Broad Pennant of Commodore George C. Read.

Taylor, Fitch Waterman. By Fitch Waterman Taylor, Chaplain to the Squadron. [Two Volumes] New.York: D. Appleton & Co., 1840.
  • 1838-39 American Circumnavigation (aboard Columbia commanded by George Campbell Read).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

p. 154-55: Previous to our leaving the harbour of Rio de Janeiro, I preached in the English chapel. The congregation was very respectable. The English chaplain who has charge of the congregation, and the chaplain of the Stag [a Brazilian naval ship], were present—the former reading the service.

Schwatka’s Search: Sledging in the Arctic in Quest of the Franklin Records.

Gilder, William H. New York: Scribner’s, 1881.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

Not to be confused with his Greely rescue, much of this earlier journey was published in the New York Herald for whom Gilder was a correspondent who also had gone in search of the Jeannette. The book credits the Schwatka expedition with confirming the loss of Franklin records (at Starvation Cove), the burial of the men and bones of the victims, the transport of one body home, and the recovery of the relics that went to Greenwich.

Voyage to Desolation Island.

Kauffmann, Jean-Paul. London, Harvill Press, 2000.
  • 1970 French Expedition to Kerguélen Islands.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

This Frenchman seems a bit obsessed with boredom, as shown on his travel book to the Kerguélen Islands. The week-long voyage provides “the indispensable prelude to getting to know any unknown country: waiting and boredom.” “Isn’t having nothing to do the supreme test, more even than suffering? Whoever can fill the emptiness of his being, where there is nothing more to occupy it, will survive. He will overcome the cruelest torture: time without limit and without end. Pain keeps one occupied; the man who suffers sees himself in his torment.

From Edinburgh to the Antarctic: An Artist’s Notes and Sketches during the Dundee Antarctic Expedition 1892-93, with a Chapter by W. S. Bruce.

Burn Murdoch, William Gordon. Bungay, Suffolk: Paradigm Press, Bluntisham Books, 1984. [Facsimile of 1894 London first edition.].
  • 1892-93 British Whaling Expedition(Alexander Fairweather aboard Balæna et al).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

One of the most delightful, witty, sardonic, and intelligent of early Antarctic accounts. Burn Murdoch shipped aboard the Balæna with his friend William Speirs Bruce in 1892. This is an account of that journey. Bruce, later well-known for the Scotia expedition, was the ship’s surgeon and naturalist and Murdoch assistant surgeon and ship’s artist. This expedition recorded the first photographs of Antarctica. Murdoch has a good deal of respect for the intelligence of the foc’sle men.

A Frenchman in Search of Franklin: De Bray’s Arctic Journal, 1852-1854.

De Bray, Emile Frederic. Trans. and ed. by William Barr. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

De Bray was influenced by Joseph-René Bellot’s service on an English expedition as a volunteer for the Franklin Search with Sir Edward Belcher aboard HMS Resolute. He served in the Arctic from 1852 to 1854, commanded a number of sledge expeditions, and left the Resolute shortly before it was abandoned. He was a friend of Jules Verne who used De Bray’s Arctic knowledge in a novel based on the Franklin Search.