The Antarctic Manual for the Use of the Expedition of 1901.

Murray, George, editor. With a Preface by Sir Clements R. Markham…, Presented to the Expedition by the Royal Geographical Society. London: Royal Geographical Society, 1901.
  • 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

p. vii: Baron Nordenskiöld has told me that, during the voyage of the Vega, when the North-East Passage was discovered, the books most in request were the “blue book” and the “white book,” as they called the Arctic manuals.

Arctic Adventure: My Life in the Frozen North

Freuchen, Peter. . New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1935.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

One of two or three autobiographies by Freuchen, this mainly of his life and adventures with Rasmussen during the Thule expeditions. A few things stand out: his total admiration for Robert Peary (of course for Rasmussen as well), his growing sensitivity to Inuit culture (thanks to his marriage with Navarana), and his lack of any literary pretentions. He scarcely mentions anything he does during his leisure time.

Under the Pole Star: The Oxford University Expedition, 1935-6.

Glen, Alexander Richard. London: Methuen, 1937.
  • 1935-36 Oxford University North East Land Spitzbergen Expedition (led by Alexander Glen).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

A British expedition to North East Land of Spitsbergen, with a mixture of English and Norwegian crew, scientists and sailors. Glen was the expedition leader and wrote this account with a debonair and detached style. The assignment was to survey the north east region of the archipelago. Obviously this was a bookish group who did a good deal of reading but seldom reporting on what they were reading. The author himself seems prone to boredom and speaks of it fairly often.

H.M.S. Resolute: A Study in International Relations,

Dunbar, Moira. Beaver Outfit 292 (Winter 1961) 11-17.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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A crisp account of the abandonment, drift, recovery, refurbishment, and return of HMS Resolute to the Royal Navy, and its subsequent breakup, with its oak timbers used for a desk given to the United States. Of the refurbishment it states (p. 16) that “She was refitted with the greatest care and in the minutest detail (even the officers’ libraries, musical boxes, and pictures were preserved and restored to their original position).”

Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape.

Lopez, Barry. New York, Bantam Books, 1987.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

This is simply one of the best-written books of Arctic history and description: This is a land where airplanes track icebergs the size of Cleveland and polar bears fly down out of the stars. It is a region, like the desert, rich with metaphor, with adumbration. In a simple bow from the waist before the nest of the horned lark, you are able to stake your life, again, in what you dream. (Preface, p. xxix.)

Chances for Arctic Survival: Greely’s Expedition Revisited.

Wesławski, Jan Marcin, and Joanna Legeżyńska. Arctic 55 4 (Dec. 2002) 373-79.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

The caloric requirements of the expedition survivors could not have been met by their available resources exclusive of cannibalism.

The Seaman’s Friend; Containing A Treatise on Practical Seamanship; A Dictionary of Sea Terms; Customs and Usages of the Merchant Service; Laws Relating to the Practical Duties of Master and Mariners.

Dana, Richard Henry. Fifth Edition.Boston, MA: Thomas Groom, 1847.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

A comprehensive manual of most aspects of seamanship at the height of sail, and near the beginning of steam. There are a few rudimentary references to books and reading, rather surprisingly few for a man of Dana’s literary tastes.

David Thompson’s Narrative of His Explorations in Western America 1784-1812.

Thompson, David. Edited by J. B. Tyrrell. (Toronto: The Champlain Society, 1916). [Volume XII of The Publications of the Champlain Society. A new edition edited by Richard Grover, with additional material, was published by the Society in 1962.].
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

David Thompson (1770-1857), after early education at a London charity school where he studied mathematics and navigation, signed on as an apprentice with the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1784, and worked as surveyor for both the HBC and the North West Company.

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 Bibliographical Miscellany.

Petheram, John, ed. 5 numbers printed. (London: John Russell Smith,1859).
  • 1812-13 British Naval Expedition in Northwest Passage Search (commanded by Thomas Button aboard Resolution).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

The first three numbers of this journal deal with the North-West Passage and the 1612-13 voyage of Sir Thomas Button.