A Voyage of Discovery….

Ross, John, Sir. 2nd ed. Two volumes. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1819.
  • 1818 First British Northwest Passage Expedition (John Ross aboard Isabella with the Alexander).
  • Maritime Reading
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Ross was encouraged to attempt this early expedition searching for the Northwest Passage, but severely criticized by John Barrow for failing in that search. He had some significant accomplishments but this trip effectively ended his career with the Admiralty.

N by E.

Kent, Rockwell. New York: Brewer & Warren, 1930.
  • 1929 Private US Voyage to Greenland (aboard Direction with Arthur Allen and Rockwell Kent).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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An account of Kent’s small-boat journey with Arthur Allen on the yacht Direction from New York to Greenland, its wreck, and other adventures.

On Polar Trails.

Goodsell, John W. Revised and edited by Donald W. Whisenhut. Austin, TX: Eakin Press, 1983.
  • 1891-1920 Robert Peary and the Search for the North Pole.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Mercer Co. Historical Society has Goodsell’s ms which in 650 pages shows his transition from Peary admirer to bitter enemy. This 200 p. revision is extensively cut and edited by Whisenhut from Goodsell’s diaries.

The Gifts of Reading.

Macfarlane, Robert. Penguin Random House, UK, 2017.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 31-32: As I work on this essay, over the Christmas of 2015, I know that a copy of my book The Wild Places is being sledge-hauled to the South Pole by a young Scottish adventurer called Luke Robertson, who is aiming to become the youngest Briton to ski there unassisted, unsupported and solo. Robertson’s sledge weighs seventeen stone, and he is dragging it for thirty-five days over 730 miles of snow and ice, in temperatures as low as -50˚C, and winds as high as 100mph. Under such circumstances I felt impossibly proud that The Wild Places (paperback weight: 8.9oz) had earned its place on his sledge, and impossibly excited at the thought of my sentences being read out there on the crystal continent, under the endless daylight of the austral summer.

Cruise of the United States Frigate Potomac Round the World, During the Years 1831-34, Embracing The Attack of Quallah Battoo…..

Warriner, Francis. New-York: Leavitt, Lord; Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1835.
  • 1831-34 US Circumnavigation (Downes aboard Potomac ).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
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First destination on this US cruise was Sumatra where an American vessel had been attacked by Malay natives. The cruise is most well known for the Potomac’s vindictive and intentionally revengeful attack on those Malays, the people of Quallah Battoo for their earlier attacks. Much of the beginning of the book deals with the skirmishes between the Western and Malay forces, but they need not concern us. Rather we have here some passages dealing with instruction in literacy and religion, the reading of Scripture, and accounts of libraries on the cruise route.

Hunting with the Eskimos: The Unique Record of a Sportsman’s Year among the Northernmost Tribe….

Whitney, Harry. New York: Century Co., 1910.
  • Arctic Reading: Inuit and other indigenous people
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Whitney traveled with Peary to Greenland in 1908 and spent the year only with Eskimos north of Etah at Annootok, while Peary was making his north pole attempt. Whitney is the complete hunter, rich and well-provided, and demonstrates some intellectual curiosity about the natives and about the natural resources, and does try to master their language, but he evidently reads little except under the duress of prolonged inactivity.

Seasons with the Seahorses; Or, Sporting Adventures in the Northern Seas.

Lamont, James. New York: Harper, 1861.
  • 1858-59 British Private Journeys of "Sport and Discovery" (James Lamont).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 80, in a description of the cabin: As for reading, it is next to impossible, for I defy any body to read long sitting on a locker nine inches broad; also, the bunks are too dark, and if we try to read in them we generally go to sleep.

Diaries.

James, Reginald. SPRI MS 1537/3/2/.
  • 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Physicist on the Endurance. Kept diaries which he presumably turned over to Shackleton as he was contracted to do.

A Man’s Woman.

Norris, Frank. New York: Doubleday & McClure, 1900.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Norris’s turn-of-the-century novel is loosely based on George Washington De Long’s U.S. North Polar expedition aboard the Jeannette (1879-81). It borrows freely from the locale (Wrangell Island and environs), the beset and crushed ship, the forced march on ice and pressure ridges, the heroic commander, the few survivors finally rescued. He adds the love interest, a strong-minded woman who resists the commander, succumbs, marries, and subtly convinces the hero that he is the one who must achieve the North Pole for the United States, knowing his safe return to be doubtful. He sails from New York in a new ship clearly modeled on Nansen’s Fram. Sources in Greely’s expedition and parallels with Robert E. Peary, who had already begun his North Pole quest and was in Northern Ellesmere land at the time of publication, are easily drawn.

Trial by Ice: The Antarctic Journals.

Davis, John King. Edited by Louise Crossley. Bluntisham, UK: Bluntisham Books, 19.
  • 1929-31 BANZARE Expedition (aboard Discovery II).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

This is one of three volumes based on the Davis journals, and some of the Davis journals printed here also appear in his earlier autobiographical work, High Latitude. Davis was the complete sea master, but not an explorer. For the most part his journal entries, written while in command, tend to be short simply because he is very busy, and appears to have no time for reading except as it might be work related. What stands out in this volume is the section on the MawsonDavis BANZARE expedition of 1929-30 where Davis constantly laments the problems of divided command, where Mawson constantly asks Davis to take risks which, according to Davis, Mawson would not take responsibility for if things went wrong. Mawson on the other hand found Davis far too conservative and timid in his concern for the safety of ship and men. Davis may be a somewhat dull and conservative character, but he does come across as the more sympathetic, at least in his own account.

My Arctic Journal: A Year among Ice-fields and Eskimos….

Peary, Josephine Diebitsch. New York: Contemporary Publishing Company, 1894.
  • 1891-1920 Robert Peary and the Search for the North Pole; 1891-97 and 1898 US Northern Greenland and North Pole Expeditions (Commanded by Robert E. Peary).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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An account of Mrs. Peary’s Greenland journey accompanying her husband in 1891-92. She comes across as fairly demure but domineering over both Henson and the natives.

James Eight and the Palmer-Pendleton Expedition of 1829-1831,

Bertrand, Kenneth J. Chapter 9 in Americans in Antarctica, 1775-1948. New York: American Geographical Society, 1971, p. 144-58.
  • 1829-30 First Preliminary US Exploring Expedition (Annawan and Seraph with Captains Nathaniel Palmer and Benjamin Pendleton).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p. 146-47: The scientific program of the expedition was sponsored by the Lyceum for Natural History of the City of New York. Newspapers encouraged private citizens to lend books, charts, and instruments to the expedition, and when the Annawan sailed it was said to have on board a fine collection of instruments and several hundred books.

Shackleton’s Forgotten Men: The Untold Tragedy of the Endurance Epic. [1914-17].

Bickel, Lennard. Foreword by Rt. Hon. Lord Shackleton. New York, Thunder’s Mouth Press and Balliett & Fitzgerald, 2000. (Adrenaline classics).
  • 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p. 72, May 6, 1915: Outside, they heard the bluster grow to gale force winds. Irvine Gaze and Stevens went early to their bunks. Spencer-Smith, as ever, was reading a book by the light of the acetylene lamp.

In Search of a Polar Continent, 1905-1907.

Harrison, Alfred H. London: Edward Arnold, 1908.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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p. 22, re the Catholic mission at Resolution: The children are not only educated but clothed and fed. The girls are taught how to sew and how to make their own clothes, as well as how to read and write; whilst the boys, who are also trained in these latter academic, if elementary, exercises, acquire a variety of crafts which will be useful—in fact indispensable—to them in afterlife.