A Voyage Around the World with the Romanzov Exploring Expedition in the Years 1815-1818 in the Brig

Chamisso, Adelbert von. Rurik, Captain Otto von Kotzebue. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986).
  • 1815-18 Russian Exploring Expedition (Captain Otto von Kotzebue aboard Rurik).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

p. 27, a paean to Kotzebue as author, the father of this Captain: How often in the far ends of the earth, namely on O-Wahu [O’ahu], Guaján [Guam], etc., have I been praised for my small share in the enterprise of his son, in order to cast a hem of the mantle of his fame over me. Everywhere we heard his name mentioned. American newspapers reported that The Stranger had been performed to extraordinary applause. All the libraries in the Aleutian Islands, as far as I have investigated them, consisted of a single volume of the Russian translation of Kotzebue.”

A Woman’s Way through Unknown Labrador: An Account of the Exploration of the Nascaupee and George Rivers.

Hubbard, Mrs. Leonidas. New York: McClure Co., 1908.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

Preface: This book is the result of a determination on my part to complete Mr. Hubbard's unfinished work, and having done this to set before the public a plain statement, not only of my own journey, but of his as well. For this reason I have included the greater part of Mr. Hubbard's diary, which he kept during the trip, and which it will be seen is published exactly as he wrote it, and also George Elson's account of the last few days together, and his own subsequent efforts.

Weird and Tragic Shores: The Story of Charles Francis Hall, Explorer.

Loomis, Chauncey C. New York: Knopf, 1971.
  • 1870-73 US North Pole Expedition of Charles Hall (aboard USS Polaris).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

An excellent account of the life of the most eccentric of Arctic explorers who essentially abandoned his family in Cincinnati to pursue his Arctic dreams. Unprepared and inexperienced in Arctic ways, he adopted to and adapted Eskimo ways of living and survival by living with them for long periods and learning from them their secrets of survival. Both his origins and demise are clouded in mystery.

The Man who Mapped the Arctic.

Steele, Peter. (Vancouver, BC: Raincoast Books, 2003).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

A complete biography of George Back, covering all aspects of his background and explorations: Franklin’s two overland journeys; his Great Fish River Expedition; and his HMS Terror debacle, including his teenage five-year Napoleonic captivity in Verdun. Many maps.

Siberia in Asia: A Visit to the Valley of the Yenesay in East Siberia….

Seebohm, Henry. London: John Murray, 1882.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
 Preview 

Seebohm was a knowledgeable ornithologist who occasionally mentions books and reading on his long trips in Siberia. In his Preface he compares his earlier volume on Siberia in Europe (1876?) to these later travels in which he had no expert birder: It is possible, however, that the general reader may not regret the change, and may find the

Blizzard and Fire: A Year at Mawson, Antarctica.

Béchervaise, John. London: Angus and Robertson, 1964.
  • 1959-60 Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

This book concerns the ANARE trip to Mawson in 1959. A somehwat odd book in that it is an epistolary account of a year at an Australian base by letters to a variety of friends and relatives, interspersed with a series of newsletters ostensibly for a public audience. He does tell some exciting stories as the base commander, but his references to reading are more utiitarian than inspirational, for example the use of The Australian Pilot to find repair facilities in various places (p. 24). A discussion of Plato and death is more speculative and a rarity for this book (p. 135). However, there are some quietly meditative passages that make the book valuable and are reproduced here even though unrelated to Antarctic reading.

The Seaman’s Library Manual.

Howe, Herbert L. Prepared by Herbert L. Howe, Librarian. (New York: American Merchant Marine Library Association, 1939). unpaged.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Intro. By Christopher Morley: I have seen the Green Box [American Seamen’s Friend Society library boxes] in use aboard American ships at sea, and I know what it means…to the reader off duty.

No Latitude for Error.

Hillary, Sir Edmund. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1961.
  • 1955-58 TAE: Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs and Hillary).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Re Trans Antarctic Expedition of 1956-57, with Vivian Fuchs. Unlike their joint book, Hillary’s at least shows some interior pictures with shelves of books, incl. one opposite p. 97 with one title legible, Into China.

Born Adventurer: The Life of Frank Bickerton, Antarctic Pioneer.

Haddelsey, Stephen. Stroud, UK: Sutton Publishing, 2005.
  • 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (Mawson).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Bickerton was a member of Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition, but resigned from Shackleton’s Endurance to join the war effort before Shackleton left for Antarctica. Although this is a full biography of Bickerton, the story of the AAE takes up the first half of the book, followed by a separate chapter on the Endurance. John King Davis, a multi-facited friend of Mawson, served as captain of Aurora, irritating a good number of officers and men, though seldom Mawson.

Under the Ocean to the South Pole; or, The Strange Cruise of the Submarine Porpoise.

Rockwood, Roy. New York: Cupples & Leon, 1907.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
 Preview 

This is a sequel to Through the Air to the North Pole, in which some boys reached the North Pole but fought some savage Eskimos. Professor Henderson, probably modeled on Peary [who incidentally called himself Professor in Snowfolk], has a black companion named Washington White, probably modeled on Henson: “The Negro, who was a genius in his own way, though somewhat inclined to use big words, of the meaning of which he knew little and cared less” (p. 5). The novel posits land and an open sea at the SP, says he had read all the explorer accounts (p. 11). Professor Henderson is the Mate and the inventor of the ship (cf. Roosevelt). The ship after many adventures makes it to the SP amidst a sea of boiling water. Next adventure promised is a balloon to the center of the earth.

The Winter Night Trip to Advance Base Byrd Antarctic Expedition II 1933-35.

Poulter, Thomas Charles. Mimeograph. “Copyrighted 1973 by Thomas C. Poulter.” 1914.
  • 1933-35 Byrd Second Antarctic Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Poulter was in command of Little America while Byrd spent his four months alone at Advance Base. Poulter was chosen by Byrd over the older Harold June and Paul Siple. Byrd thought Siple less mature and June unable to stay away from or hold his liquor. This book consists of notes from Poulter’s diaries and memos that passed among the men while at Little America or Advance base. A good deal is about Poulter’s problems in controlling liquor consumption, including his draining many gallons onto the ice.

Danish Arctic Expeditions, 1605 to 1620. In Two Books: Book I. The Danish Expeditions to Greenland…; Book II. The Expedition of Captain Jens Munk.

Gosch, C.C.A. Edited, with Notes and Annotations by C.A. Gosch. Two Volumes. London: Hakluyt Society, 1897.
  • 1605-1620 Danish Arctic Expeditions.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

Book I: The Danish Expeditions to Greenland in 1605, 1606, and 1607; to which is Added Captain James Hall’s Voyage to Greenland in 1612.