Arctic and Antarctic: A Prospect of the Polar Regions.

Bertram, Colin. Cambridge: Heffer, 1957.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

p. 121: Outside the expedition’s little home the land is Nature’s own; there are no man-made contrivances issuing forth smoke and filth, no noise of wheels and engines, no newspapers lying and spreading scandals, and no ugliness of any kind. The land is as God made it, filled with peace and beauty.

Polar Attack.

Weber, Richard and Mikhail Malakhov. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1996.
  • 1988-95 Canadian-Russian Journeys to North Pole.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
 Preview 

On Soviet-Canadian treks to North Pole in 1988, 1992, and 1995, recounted by one of each of them.

Narrative of the Wreck of the ‘Favorite’ on the Island of Desolation [Kerguélen Island]

Nunn, John. London: William Painter, 1850.
  • 1825-26 British Sealing Voyage (from London, with Royal Sovereign and Favorite).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

p. 22: …according to the captain’s promise [the whalers] received their extra allowance of grog, with which they retired to their cabins and wiled away the evening in happiness and joviality, telling merry tales and drinking to their absent wives and sweethearts, a prosperous season in the whale and seal fishery, and a happy return to old England!” [The traditional officer’s toast to “wives and sweethearts, may they never meet,” dated appropriately enough from Nelson’s era until January 2014 when it was banned by the Royal Navy.]

The Church and the Sailor: A Survey of the Sea-Apostolate Past and Present.

Anson, Peter F. London: John Gifford, 1948.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

Catholic missions to seamen clearly lagged behind the Protestant efforts throughout the 19th century, most Catholic activity as outlined here occurring in the late 19th century and concentrating on the liturgical rather than literary needs of seamen. There was some interest in developing seaman’s institutes, including some reading rooms, but the efforts seem modest at best.

General Greely: The Story of a Great American

Mitchell, William. . (New York: Putnam’s, 1936).
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

p. 76: Greely had brought along a very good library, which proved to a great source of interest and comfort during the dark months. Besides the scientific works, encyclopedias and books related to the Arctic, there were over one thousand novels and magazines. Private Schneider, a young German, played the violin, his favorite selection being “Over the Garden Wall.

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.)

Cruising in the Antarctic.

Solyanik, A. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1956.
  • 1952-53 Russian Whaling Voyage.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Recounts a whaling journey from Odessa to Antarctica in 1952-53 in a flotilla of 16 ships. Rather typical Soviet narrative with great harmony, a few problems heroically overcome, and excellent discipline:

Cruises in the Bering Sea: Being Records of Further Sport and Travel .

Niedieck, Paul. Translated by R. A. Ploetz. London: Rowland Ward, 1909. [Reprint Camden, SC: John Culler, 1995.].
  • 1906 German Hunting Expedition in Alaska and Siberia.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

The German author hunted bear and sheep in Alaska and Siberia and his book is now especially current as he hunted on the fabled Kamchatka Peninsula where hunting has just been opened. The author bagged many brown bears and snow sheep.

Zebulon: Or, The Moral Claims of Seamen Stated and Enforced.

Harris, John. First American revised edition. Boston: Gould, Kendall & Lincoln, 1837.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

A polemical tract about the neglect of the moral condition of seamen in evangelical work. The proposed solutions include development of safe Christian sailor’s homes in all major ports, banking and credit institutions so sailors will save rather than spend their money on drink and prostitutes, and provision of Bibles and literacy training for all.

Memo

Osborne, Henry Fairfield. From AMNH Central Archive 488, Febr. 10, 1913.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

AMNH President, Henry Fairfield Osborne: I am inexpressibly shocked and grieved to learn of the disaster that has overtaken the members of the Scott Expedition to the South Pole. The blow is as unexpected as it is crushing. Captain Amundsen confidently expected that the Scott party would reach the tent, records and welcome which he left at Solheim. Only recently in conversation, both Captain Amundsen and Sir Ernest Shackleton have expressed to me their expectation of soon hearing favorably from this fourth attempt to conquer the South Pole. Neither expressed the least doubt as to the result. It is a fresh demonstration of the great hazards attending extreme Arctic exploration. …

Secrets of Polar Travel.

Peary, Robert E. New York: Century, 1917.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

A chapter on winter quarters describes lodges he built for wintering in Greenland.

Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic A dventure.

Doyle, Arthur Conan. Edited by Jon Lellenberg & Daniel Stashower. (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2012).
  • 1880 British Whaling Voyage to Iceland (Conan Doyle, Surgeon).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

A facsimile and transcript of a diary Conan Doyle kept on an Arctic whaling trip in 1880 as ship’s surgeon aboard the S.S. Hope. It includes a good bit about his reading during this six-month summer trip to Greenland. All quotations here are from the transcript.