An even-handed account of Dickens’ attack in Household Words on John Rae’s reports of cannibalism among the Franklin party, reporting Rae’s eventual vindication.
The Content of the Kettles.
[Dickens] Stone, Ian. Dickensian 83 (1987) 7-16.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Preview
Moby Dick, or The Whale.
Melville, Herman. Illustrated by Rockwell Kent. New York: Modern Library, 1930.
- Whalemen's Reading
Preview
Among so many other things, Moby Dick is a key text on the reading of sailors, especially the quote on p. 159, and this edition with Kent’s wood engravings is especially desirable.
Little America: Town at the End of the World
Carter, Paul Allen. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979.
- 1928-56 Expeditions of Rear Admiral Richard Byrd.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
Carter’s is a fairly well-written although wholly derivative account of the various bases known as Little America, including a solid chapter on the first winterover experience.
Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal: Or, Eighteen Months in the Polar Regions, in Search of Sir John Franklin’s Expedition, in the Years 1850-1851.
Osborn, Sherard. (New York: Putnam’s, 1852). Putnam’s Semi-Monthly Library. [There was another 1852 edition published in London by Longman Brown with different pagination (320 p.) and some variants.].
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Preview
p. 21, re Brit. chauvinism: The whaler from bonnie Scotia, or busy Hull, fresh from the recollection of his laird and home, no doubt shudders at the comparative misery and barbarity of these poor people; but those who have seen the degraded Bushmen of South Africa, the miserable Patanies of Malayia, the Fuegians of our southern hemisphere, and remember the comparative blessings afforded by climate to those melancholy specimens of the human family, will, I think, exclaim with me, that the Esquimaux of Greenland are as superior to them in mental capacity, manual dexterity, physical enterprise, and social virtues, as the Englishman is to the Esquimaux.
The Private Life of Polar Exploration.
Scott, James Maurice. Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1982.
- Arctic Reading: General
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p. 65, re Scott’s Northern Party: Levick used to read aloud in the evening, first a chapter a night of David Copperfield, then the Life of Stevenson, then Simon the Jester [William Locke novel]. That was their library, and thus rationed lasted them about half way through the winter…. On Sunday nights they sang with a religious bias.
The Cruise of the Florence; Or, Extracts from the Journal of the Preliminary Arctic Expedition of 1877-78.
Tyson, George E. Edited by Captain H. W. Howgate, U.S.A. Washington, DC: James J. Chapman, 1879.
- 1877-78 US Preliminary Arctic Expedition for IPY 1881-84 (led by Howard Howgate).
- Arctic Reading: United States
Preview
This expedition had three stated objectives, preparation for a colony at Lady Franklin Bay, collection of scientific data, and commercial whaling (p. 8-9). Despite Howgate’s description of books aboard Florence (see below), there are no references to reading in Tyson’s abstracts, though he has an engaging and easy-going style.
Arctic Frontiers: United States Explorations in the Far North.
Caswell, John Edwards. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1956.
- Arctic Reading: United States
Preview
p. 43, in 1859 Charles Francis Hall petitioned the British government to make the Resolute available to him for a further Franklin search. No success there.
What books were taken to the Antarctic 100 years ago?
Kerley, Paul. BBC News Magazine 2/24/16 Found on the Internet at https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35633374.
- Antarctic Reading: General
Preview
The BBC News Magazine of 24 February 2016 has an article by Paul Kerley which lists the books found in a photograph of the book shelves in Shackleton’s cabin aboard Endurance. The titles were deciphered from a digitized image of the shelves in Shackleton’s cabin. The list consists primarily of mostly undistinguished light fiction, about a dozen reference works, and a smattering of books of Arctic (not Antarctic) exploration
Voyage to the End of the World, with Tales from the Great Ice Barrier.
Burke, David. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado, 2005.
- 2001 Russian Tourist Expedition (Kapitan Khlebnikov).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
This modest book is quite a beautiful evocation of the southern continent, contrasting the author’s own tourist voyage aboard the Kapitan Khlebnikov in January 2001 with a select history of other voyages, adventures, and explorers. Well chosen and nicely illustrated. Little on reading but does tell brief story of a lone watchman at Framheim in 1911 who feared an attack by some Englishmen. After loading his rifle, he dug out an English grammar and looked up “and how are you this morning?” so he’d be prepared for the assault.
Count Benyowsky; Or The Conspiracy of Kamtschatka: A Tragic-Comedy.
Kotzebue, August von. Translated by Wilhelm Render. Second Edition. London: Printed for W.J. and J. Richardson, 1798.
- Arctic Reading: Russia
Preview
Kotzebue, a German dramaist wrote this play about Benyovzky in 1798.In 1769, while fighting for the Polish armies under theBar Confederation, he was captured by the Russians and exiled toKamchatka. He subsequently escaped and returned to Europe viaMacauandMauritius, arriving in France.
The Race.
Holt, Kare. Trans. from the Norwegian by Joan Tate. London, Michael Joseph, 1976.
- 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
A fictional account of the Scott-Amundsen race for the South Pole, which mentions Scott’s use of the Bible twice: p. 144-6: “His desk was a couple of old crates which he had covered with oilcloth. A Bible lay on the desk, and two other books, paper and pens…. He held a service every Sunday. It was the only time the other ranks also congregated in the officers’ room. It wasn’t a matter of choice. No one was allowed to absent himself. Every man clasped his hands, even though some fingers were covered in frostbite sores. A meeting with God prescribed a sanctity here as back home in England. He read from the Bible in a clear, well-modulated voice, and prayed using ordinary familiar words. Outside the blizzard raged.”
Journal of a Voyage Around the World: A Year on the Ship Helena(1841-1842).
King, Thomas Worthington. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2003.
- Arctic Reading: General
Preview
Although not strictly Antarctic bound or a circumnavigation, this voyage did round Cape Horn and reached almost 59 degrees south. King was a recent Harvard graduate when he took this voyage from New York to Canton, and after brief work there he continued on another ship back to New York. He was a fast reader and regular in his comments about reading. What follows is taken verbatim from the journal of his voyage.
Confessions of A Leigh Hunt.
Hunt, A. Leigh. Wellington, NZ: Reed, 1951.
- 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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No relation to Leigh Hunt, this one founded the NZ Antarctic Club and knew several explorers, and gave lantern lectures to schools about Scott etc.
Man the Ropes.
Courtauld, Augustine. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1957).
- 1930-31 British Greenland Air Route Expedition.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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A short autobiography that covers his early Greenland trip with Gino Watkins, the British Arctic Air Route Expedition of 1930.
Bentley Historical Library Archives: Carlton Frank Wells Papers, File 1-53-A, Box 14, folder 14
Rawlins, Dennis.
- Arctic Reading: United States
Preview
Wells was a Michigan professor of English who corresponded extensively with Rawlins about Rawlins’ very critical Peary book: Peary and the North Pole: Fact or Fiction (1973).