The People of the Twilight.

Jenness, Diamond. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1959. [Phoenix Books. Preface by Fridtjof Nansen, dated March 4th, 1928. First published New York: Macmillan, 1928].
  • 1913-16 Canadian Arctic Expedition (Led by Stefansson with Captain Bob Bartlett commanding the Karluk).
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

This version of Jennes’s account of the Stefansson Canadian expedition of 1913 to 1916?? mirrors Dawn of Arctic Alaska but told apparently as a young adult tale. There is no need to repeat passages from that book, but relevant passages can be found on these pages of the Chicago edition: 14, 26, 30, 46, 47, 53, 58, and 62. A few are worth noting here:

Arctic Voyages of Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, 1858-1879.

Leslie, Alexander. London: Macmillan, 1879.
  • 1872-73 etc. Swedish Arctic Expeditions led by Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

This volume covers all of Nordenskiöld’s polar exploration including the Vega voyage, but is notable for its coverage of the hygiene issues encountered in 1872-73. It should be noted that Adolf Nordenskiöld was an important collector of maps and atlases, and that references to maps and charts occur throughout this volume.

The Canadian Journal of Lady Aberdeen, 1893-1898.

Aberdeen and Temair, Ishbel Gordon, Marchioness of. Edited with an Introduction by John T. Saywell. [Vol. 38] Toronto: Champlain Society, 1960. [First published 1916.].
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

Ishbel Marie Marjoribanks Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair, better known as Lady Aberdeen (1857-1939), was a British social reformer devoted to women’s rights, philanthropy, and other causes. “As Vice-Regal Consort to Governor General John Campbell Hamilton-Gordon, Earl of Aberdeen, from 1893 until 1898, Lady Aberdeen organized the National Council of Women in Canada, became first sponsor of the Women’s Art Association of Canada and helped found the Victorian Order of Nurses” [Canadian Encyclopedia ].

Arctic Regions, Voyage to Davis’ Strait.

Duncan, David. By David Duncan, Master of the Ship Dundee…July 1826-27. (London: E. Billing, 1827).
  • 1826-27 British Whaling Expedition (aboard Dundee, commanded by David Duncan).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
    Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

Claimed to be the only fishing ship to winter over with crew on board, in company with another ship which was wrecked. Nothing found on reading but an unusual early adventure.

A Frenchman in Search of Franklin: De Bray’s Arctic Journal, 1852-1854.

De Bray, Emile Frederic. Trans. and ed. by William Barr. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

De Bray was influenced by Joseph-René Bellot’s service on an English expedition as a volunteer for the Franklin Search with Sir Edward Belcher aboard HMS Resolute. He served in the Arctic from 1852 to 1854, commanded a number of sledge expeditions, and left the Resolute shortly before it was abandoned. He was a friend of Jules Verne who used De Bray’s Arctic knowledge in a novel based on the Franklin Search.

Son of the North.

Roberts, Osseannah. Boston, MA: C. M. Clark Publishing Co., 1908.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

A fictional romance of North Canada about immigrants from Scotland, with a few reports of reading incorporated into the novel.

A Sequel to the North-West Passage, and the Plans for the Search for Sir John Franklin. A Review.

Brown, John. Second edition.flattered London: E. Stanford, 1860.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

This second edition of Brown updates the summary beyond the significant date of 1859 and McClintock’s report. A final section is an unpaginated “Opinions of the Press,” ending with an encomium to Brown from Alexander von Humboldt (August 16, 1858), on the last printed [but unpaginated] page of the book. An excerpt is included here as a remarkable example of a reading experience from an unusual source:

Adventurous Life.

Mountevans, Edward Racdcliffe, Admiral Lord. London: Hutchison, 1946.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
 Preview 

Mountevans was involved in relief expeditions for both of the Scott journeys. He writes with good humor and amusing anecdotes. He tells one involving a salvage expert, Commodore Sir Frederick Young, about the Magellan Straits and a salvage ship on which the Commodore happened to see a notice from the Independent Press Association offering a £500 reward for anyone who could “discover and forward to them the Bible of the explorer Louis de Rougemont which was lost in the steamer, Ananias, wrecked in Magellan Straits. The Bible can well be identified, since the explorer’s name is written on the fly-leaf in his own blood.” The Commodore and fellow sailors decided to create one, found a Bible, soaked it in sea water, found de Rougemont’s signature in a signed article in Wide World Magazine, and used the Commodore’s blood (he was chosen by lot) to forge Rougemont’s signature on the fly-leaf. They then sent the Bible off to the Press Association and claimed the reward. After two months they received this reply: …I am also directed to state that although the sea has worked many marvels, the Directors of the Independent Press Association cannot believe that it has succeeded in translating completely a French Bible into English!” (p. 134-36)

Trial by Ice: The True Story of Murder and Survival on the 1871 Polaris Expedition.

Parry, Richard. New York: Ballantine Books, 2001.
  • 1870-73 US North Pole Expedition of Charles Hall (aboard USS Polaris).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

A rather pedestrian and purple account of the Polaris expedition of 1871, the death of Charles F. Hall, the separation of the ship from several of the crew, the stranded sailors’ remarkable survival, and the whitewash of the inquiry into the fate of Hall and the expedition.