To the Pole: The Diary and Notebook of Richard E. Byrd, 1925-1927.

Byrd, Richard Evelyn. Edited by Raimund E. Goerler. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press [1996].
  • 1928-30 First U.S. Antarctic Expedition (Byrd on City of New York).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Goerler’s edition has nothing to do with Antarctica other than Byrd’s having read about Scott’s death on returning from the South Pole:

Antarctica Sixty Years Ago: A Re-appraisal of the British Expedition 1934-1937.

Bertram, Colin. Polar Record 32 (181) April 1996, p. 98-183.
  • 1934-37 British Graham Land Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p. 151: Our reading matter, our library, was limited and exiguous. We had a pleasing special bookplate that may be a collector’s item one day. We had a good collection of Antarctic exploratory histories of past expeditions, a few basic reference books, to which each of us had added a personal collection limited, I think it was, to 10 volumes each. The voyage of the Beagle and Anson’s voyage I read while we sailed the Southern Ocean, and we compared the size and shape of Beagle with that of Penola. Darwin was a gentleman scientist; for him no hauling on the ropes watch by watch, by day and by night. Nor did Darwin nor Anson cook for the entire ship’s company, baking bread and washing up: times had changed, and they have changed again since. Darwin in Beagle started out at age 22, whereas I was already 23. The incredible genius of Darwin must astonish us all. Would that one could say with him in his biography: ‘My industry has been nearly as great as it could have been in the observation and collection of facts. What is far more important, my love of natural science has been steady and devout.’

Fort Monmouth Communications Museum

Fort Monmouth, NJ.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

An extensive collection of Greely material, much of it given to Fort Monmouth by Mrs. Stafford in March 1964, shortly before her and her brother’s gifts to the Explorers Club. This included chinaware from Fort Conger (brown floral design) and from the Proteus (2 eggcups), botanical specimens, other artifacts, and a good number of manuscripts and printed material. These were materials retrieved by Peary in 1899 and included letters, condensed meteorological and other observations, etc. The Collection was moved to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland, in 2008.

A Gipsy of the Horn.

Clements, Rex. London: Hart-Davis, 1951. First edition. (London: Heath, Cranton, 1924).
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

An account of a young mariners first voyage, including this passage on reading during a voyage around the world:

Lieutenant Danenhower’s Narrative of the “Jeannette”

Danenhower, John W. Boston: Osgood, 1882.
  • 1879-81 US North Pole Expedition (commanded by George De Long aboard Jeannette).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

A well-written and sympathetic account by the syphilitic officer who actually served fairly well despite his periodic illnesses, and the opprobrium of having concealed his condition in order to join the expedition.

Account of the Russian Discoveries between Asia and America.

Coxe, William. Second ed. London: J. Nichols for T. Cadell, 1780.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
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p. 30: at some distance from thence lies a great island called Sabya, of which the inhabitants are denominated Rogii: these inhabitants, as the Russians understood or thought they understood him, made crosses, had books and fire-arms, and navigated in baidars or leathern canoes.

Review of J. M. Barrie’s Half-Hours,London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1914, and The Voyages of Captain Scott, by Charles Turley, London: Smith Elder, 1914.

London Evening Standard, Nov. 12, 1914.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
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Anonymous review of an early piece of Scott hagiography: The other book is a memorial of one of the most gallant Englishmen who ever went forth on a high adventure and snatched lasting victory out of failure and death…. Mr. Turley has retold, in Captain Scott’s own words as far as possible, the two great stories, putting them into so convenient a form that no boy or man can be repelled by the presence of detail, scientific or otherwise, inessential to the greatness of the tale.

The Franklin Expedition from First to Last.

King, Richard. London: John Churchill, 1855.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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King was among the most ascerbic critics of most explorers other than himself, carrying his battles through the press and elsewhere. His expedition was ???

Overland to Starvation Cove: With the Inuit in Search of Franklin 1878-1880.

Klutschak, Heinrich. Trans. and edited by William Barr. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. xix, re McClintock’s finding of the boat: In the boat lay two skeletons, both minus the skull, as well as five watches, two double-barrelled guns, and some small books including a Bible and a copy of The Vicar of Wakefield.

A Story of British Whaling in Antarctica

McLaughlin, W R D. London: White Lion Publications, 1962.
  • 1962 Pelagic Whaling Voyage to South Georgia.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

By a ship’s doctor, participant on a pelagic whaling expedition to South Georgia, etc. in 1962.

The Arctic Whalers.

Lubbock, Basil. Glasgow: Brown, Son and Ferguson, 1937.
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

An engaging history of Arctic whaling.

The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1971.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

p. 502, on Martin Frobisher’s first voyage: More impressive than the ships was the equipment…. The literature included two works by André Thever: his Cosmographie universelle, just out, and Singularitez de la France antarctique; and Medina’s Arte de Naviguar, one of the best available treatises on navigation. Strangely enough, Frobisher did not carry William Bourne’s more recent Regiment of the Sea (1574). Probably more for amusement than anything else, he had a copy of Sir John Mandeville’s famous book of whoppers. Also, for good measure, a ‘great’ English Bible. This was probably the ‘Bishop’s Bible’ of 1572, whose title page includes a portrait of the Queen, useful to show the natives…. [Can’t tell the source of Morison’s list but he does suggest there was a complete list somewhere—see Stefansson ed. of Best, v. 2, p. 77-78]

South Polar Times

SPRI MS 505/4: Typescript.
  • 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Only copy, owned by Cherry-Garrard and largely produced by him. Introduction written later by Frank Debenham. No mention of Scott’s Polar party. “Ed., typed & illus. largely by me”—ACG. Drawings by Cherry have a remarkable delicacy.

90° South: The Story of the American South Pole Conquest.

Siple, Paul. New York: Putnam’s, 1959.
  • 1957- Operation Deep Freeze.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Essentially the story of the establishment of the first base at the South Pole, now called the Amundsen-Scott Station, by the scientific leader of the expedition. As so often in the science/military relationship, Siple seems not to have gotten on too well with the military leader of Operation Deep Freeze, George Dufek, but is only mildly sarcastic in his criticism. The book contains a good deal more science than many of these accounts, and little on the recreational activities of the winter night. He attributes this to the lack of time for pastimes while getting and keeping the base operational. There are a few passages dealing with reading: