Ninety Degrees North: The Quest for the North Pole.

Fleming, Fergus. London: Granta Books, 2001.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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This is a fairly standard account of high Arctic exploration, well-written and readable but offering little by way of new insights into the phenomenon. Chiefly deals with British and American explorers, but includes Nansen, Andree and others.

Correspondence, 1908-1912. AMNH Mss. B67

Borup, George.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Folder 1: Long letter to his father from Peary expedition, an account of his experience starting Thurs, July 23 from Turnavik in 1908:

Abandoned: The Story of the Greely Arctic Expedition, 1881-1884.

Todd, Alden L. Introduction by Vilhjalmur Stefansson. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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A compelling account of the tragedies and muted triumphs of the Adolphus Washington Greely Expedition. Stefansson’s introduction is fascinating for its discussion of cannibalism and what he calls “rabbit starvation” or “protein poisoning” which makes the case that those who died were the more likely cannibals than the survivors. Todd himself calls his story “essentially one of the physical and moral courage displayed by a small group of men abandoned to hunger and cold in the distant, early days of Arctic work” (p. xix).

A Voyage Round the World, in His Britannic Majesty’s Sloop, Resolution, Commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the Years 1772, 3, 4, and 5.

Forster, Johann Reinhold. Two volumes. London: B. White, J. Robson, P. Elmsly, and G. Robison, 1777.
  • 1772-75 British Naval Expedition–Second Voyage (Captain James Cook aboard the Resolution).
  • “Discovery” of Antarctica.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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This is the first appearance of Forster’s volumes. For a modern edition and further transcripts, see the Hakluyt Society edition below.

Report on the Dominion Government Expedition to the Hudson Bay and the Arctic Islands onboard the D.G.S. Neptune.

Low, A. P. Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau, 1906.
  • 1903-04 Canadian Hudson Bay Expedition (aboard Neptune).
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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p. 65: Anchoring at the lower place, we were visited in the evening by a number of natives from the encampment. Several books, given for distribution by the Rev. Mr. Peck, were handed out to them, and they immediately held on deck a service of song and prayer. These natives had never seen a missionary, but had learned to read from others at Fort Chimo who had come in contact with the missionaries on the east coast of Hudson bay.

Antarctic Command

Ronne, Finne. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1961.
  • 1957-58 Operation Deep Freeze I. Ellesworth Station. (Finn Ronne).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Ronne’s self-justifying and self-pitying account of his disastrous command of the IGY expedition at Ellsworth Station in the Weddell Sea in 1956-58, mainly acknowledging the extreme tensions between military and civilian scientists.

Nordenskiöld’s Voyage Round Asia and Europe. A Popular Account of the North-East Passage of the “Vega,” 1878-80.

Hovgaard, Andreas Peter. Translated from the Danish by H. L. Brækstad. London: Sampson Low, 1882.
  • 1878-80 Swedish Northeast Passage Expedition (Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld aboard Vega).
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
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p. 192: The life on board the “Vega” was consequently somewhat monotonous, but owing to the anything but pleasant watches in the observatory, the time passed swiftly by. A great deal of our time was occupied with studies of different kinds. Nordenskiöld brought with him an excellent library, consisting of course mostly of books of Arctic travels and scientific works. Every morning a new number of the Gothenburg Commercial and Maritime News, of which we had brought a set of last year’s numbers. Was placed upon the table, and we read again, with the greatest interest, about the war between Russia and Turkey, and discussed other well-known topics and events.

‘One cannot help but liking them’: Terra Nova meets Fram.

Hooper, Meredith. Polar Record 49 (April 2012) p. 184-191. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0032247411000271.
  • 1910-12 Norwegian National Antarctic Expedition (Amundsen on Fram); 1910-14 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott on Terra Nova).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p. 187: Curious eyes ranged over each other's ships. ‘While we are waiting events we have not been by any means idle,’ wrote Priestley on Saturday morning (Priestley: p. 50). Officers and scientists were busy using Terra Nova as a platform for vigorous scientific work for example sounding, hauling the plankton net, taking water samples, and dredging. According to Bruce, ten of Fram's crew including Amundsen lunched on board Terra Nova and ‘were very friendly, but didn't give away much or get much’ (Bruce: 1911c). On a return visit to Fram ‘to have a look round’ according to Browning, Amundsen asked him if there were any spare newspapers on Terra Nova as he had not read any since September. Browning ‘collected all I could get also a few magazines – he was very pleased’ (Browning: 1911). Priestley did not go. Instead, he showed a Norwegian Lieutenant over Terra Nova.

Among Unknown Eskimo: An Account of Twelve Years Intimate Relations with the Primitive Eskimo of Ice-bound Baffin Land: with a Description of Their Way of Living, Hunting Customs & Beliefs.

Bilby, Julian W. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1923.
  • Arctic Reading: Inuit and other indigenous people
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A detailed description of Baffin Island and the Inuit way of life, with an appendix of Eskimo deities, including the vampiric Aipalookvik who 'Has a large head and face, human in appearance but ugly like a cod's. Is a destroyer by desire and tries to bite and eat the kyakers.' (p.266). His account is also notable for descriptions of euthanasia: a blind man is willingly led to an ice hole where 'He went right under, then and there under the ice and was immediately drowned and frozen. A handy piece of ice served to seal the death trap, and all was over. Nandla had died on the hunt, and had entered the Eskimo heaven like the other valiant men of his tribe, and taken his place with the doughtiest of them, where there would be joy and plenty for evermore.' (p. 153) [From John Bockstoce collection catalogue, item 10, from McGahern Books, 2019.]

From Pole to Pole: The Life of Quintin Riley, 1905-1980.

Riley, Jonathan P. Bluntisham, UK: Bluntisham Books, 1989.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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Quinton Riley was the Quarter Master of the British Graham Land Expedition, and this biography includes one full chapter on his participation in the BGLE (p. 55-95). He is described as a good-natured but argumentative colleague, of firm religious convictions, and a valuable member of the expedition staff.

High Latitude.

Davis, John King. Melbourne, Victoria, NZ: Melbourne University Press, 1962.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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John King Davis participated in three epochal Antarctic expeditions as 1) Chief Officer of Shackleton’s Nimrod expedition in 1907, 2) as Mawson’s Second in Command and Master of the Aurora in 1911, and 3) he commanded the Ross Sea Relief Expedition in search of Shackleton’s transcontinental party stranded on Ross Island in 1916. Covering his many other assignments before and after, Davis gives a comprehensive autobiography of his career. He is a fine but not dramatic story teller who handles the crises of his expeditions with a certain detachment. He speaks of loneliness but not with how it was relieved, and therefore little about reading. His descriptions of preliminary planning for voyages is particularly good.

The Adelie Blizzard: Mawson’s Forgotten Newspaper 1913.

Preface by Emma McEwin. Introduction by Elizabeth Leane and Mark Pharoah. Adelaide: Friends of the State Library of South Australia…, 2010.
  • 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (Mawson).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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An elegant facsimile of the newspaper of Douglas Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1913, taken from the only extant copy. The AAE had a well-stocked library, and though much of the content of the Blizzard was poetic doggerel, there was both serious and satiric discussion of books and also a series in each issue on Polar exploration, based on some of the library’s books.

A Voyage Around the World 1826-1829.

Litke, Frederic. Edited by Richard A. Pierce. Kingston, ONT: Limestone Press, 1987.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
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Trip on Seniavin to survey coast of Kamchatka, the Okhotsk Sea, and the Shantar Islands. Travels from Kronstadt to Portsmouth, Rio, Valparaiso, Sitka, & Kamchatka. Stop in Sitka to observe the Russian colonies there under the Russian-American Company in New Archangel. Baron Wrangell was governor and the fort itself had been rebuilt after being destroyed by the Americans.

Soviets in the Arctic: An Historical, Economic and Political Study of the Soviet Advance into the Arctic

Taracouzio, T. A. . New York: Macmillan Co., 1938.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
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Chapter III (p. 73ff) spells out quite explicitly the purpose of this book: The Russian government must be completely Sovietized…. Politically, within the territory geographically located within the boundaries of the U.S.S.R., no tolerance can be shown toward any other form of government than that which was established by Lenin in 1917. The portion of the Arctic to be studied here is part of the Soviet Union.