Man and the Conquest of the Poles.

Victor, Paul-Émile. Translation by Scott Sullivan. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963.
  • Arctic Reading: General
 Preview 

p. 75: Barents did all he could to keep up the morale of his flock. By the flickering bear-oil lamp he read them Mendoza’s History and Description of the Great Chinese Empire. Seated in a circle around the smoking fire, their backs frozen, the men listened to their chief, the ‘scholar’ who would one day get them out of the spot they were in. [1596]

Life in a Man-of-War, or Scenes in “Old Ironsides” during her Cruise in the Pacific

Mercier, Henry James. By a Fore-top-man. Philadelphia, PA: Lydia R. Bailey, 1841. [Published anonymously in 1841. Another edition published in New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1927.].
  • Maritime Reading
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p. 3, Preface: CRITICS avaunt! curl not your lips with scorn, Do let my humble Sketches pass scot-free— you will find them but the uncouth "YARNS" Of an unlettered wanderer on the sea.

Relics of the Franklin Expedition: Discovering Artifacts from the Doomed Arctic Voyage of 1845.

Walpole, Garth. Edited by Russell Potter. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2017.
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

p. 98-99, relics found at Terror Bay, in boxes found near the sunken ship, with Gilder’s account most focused on the books: Tuktoocheeah said a box containing the bones was outside [the boat] but that a tin box of full of books was in the boat (Stackpole 1965: 74, 75). Gilder recorded that Ogzeuckjeuwock “saw books in the boat place” and confirmed that they were “in the boat,” as was the box of bones (Gilder 2006: 72)…. All of the writers recorded that there were three separate boxes: the first, a metal (tin) box held a number of books; the second, of similar size, contained bones; and the third box, of tin with a red cover held tobacco (Stackpole 1965: 75; Barr 1987: 73; Gilder 2006:73). The box holding the books was variously measured as “about one and half feet wide, one foot deep and nearly two feet long,” (Stackpole 1965:75), “one foot wide and two foot long” (Barr 1987: 73) and “two feet long and a foot square” (Gilder 2006: 72), and was the same size as the box holding the bones, which Schwatka incidentally recorded as two feet long. The different lengths were derived by hand signs from the Inuit (Stackpole 1965: 75). [Has anyone noted that these sizes sound suspiciously similar to the size of ASFS loan libraries. The tin doesn’t sound right however, but these would have been British products.]

The Antarctic Manual for the Use of the Expedition of 1901.

Murray, George, editor. With a Preface by Sir Clements R. Markham…, Presented to the Expedition by the Royal Geographical Society. London: Royal Geographical Society, 1901.
  • 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

p. vii: Baron Nordenskiöld has told me that, during the voyage of the Vega, when the North-East Passage was discovered, the books most in request were the “blue book” and the “white book,” as they called the Arctic manuals.

A Selection of Papers on Arctic Geography and Ethnology/ Reprinted, and Presented to The Arctic Expedition of 1875….

Royal Geographical Society. By Robert Brown, Wrangell, Rink, Collinson, Markham, Simpson. (London: John Murray, 1875).
  • 1875-76 British Naval Expedition in Search of North Pole (Captain George Nares aboard Alert and Discovery).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

Prior to the 1875 British Arctic Expedition to Greenland led by Nares, the RGS reissued articles published in its own Journal and Proceedings "for the use of the expedition". (Preface). Contents include: (1). On the Physical Structure of Greenland, by Robert Brown. (2). On the Best Means of Reaching the Pole, by Admiral Baron Von Wrangell. (3). On the Discoveries of Dr. Kane, U.S.A. (1853-55). by Dr. Rink. (4). The Arctic Current around Greenland, by Admiral C. Irminger. (5). Notes on the State of the Ice, and on the Indications of Open Water from Behring Strait to Bellot Strait, along the Coasts of the Arctic America and Siberia, including the Accounts of Anjou and Wrangell. by Vice-Admiral R. Collinson. - Ethnology - (1). Papers on the Greenland Eskimos. by Clements R. Markham. (2). On the Descent of the Eskimo. By Dr. Rink. (3). The Western Eskimo. by Dr. Simpson. (4). Report on the Anthropological Institute. Questions for Arctic Explorers.

Journal of Transactions and Events, during a Residence of Nearly Sixteen Years on the Coast of Labrador; Containing Many Interesting Particulars, Both of the Country and Its Inhabitants, Not Hitherto Known

Townsend, George. Three Volumes. Newark, UK: Allin and Ridge, 1792.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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Townsend took six voyages to Labrador over sixteen years and this is his personal account of his experiences. Throughout the journal are many references to reading prayers to his family, sometimes twice a day.

On Snow-Shoes to the Barren Grounds,

Whitney, Caspar W. Harper’s New Monthly Magazine XCII (1896) in Five Parts with separate paginations for each.
  • 1894-95 US Overland Journey of Casper Whitney in the Barren Lands.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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p. 360, on the Chipewyans on Athabaska Lake: It is headquarters of one of the four districts into which this vast fur-bearing land of one million square miles is divided by the Hudson Bay Company; the chief forwarding point for the merchandise which the company sends in for trade, and the fur the Indians send out as pay; a general distributing post-office of the four yearly mails which reach this land, where man is but a mere track upon the snow, and not above one hundred of the roughly approximated ten thousand read English writing. It is the most important North-land mission of the Roman Catholic Oblates Fathers, and it is practically the northern boundary of the Cree and the southern boundary of the Montagnaise Indian family, which in its various branches spreads toward the Arctic Ocean.

Ross in the Antarctic: The Voyages of James Clark Ross in Her Majesty’s Ships Erebus and Terror, 1839-1843.

Ross, M. J. Whitby, Yorks., England: Caedmon of Whitby, 1982.
  • 1839-42 British Antarctic Expedition (James Clark Ross/Terror and Erebus).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

An entire volume devoted to the Ross expedition with substantial chapters on each of the three Antarctic summer voyages, as well as material on each of the antipodean winter sojourns in Hobart, Tasmania, Sydney and New Zealand, and the Falklands.

Among the Magi

Sponholz, Martin. https://www.antarctican.org/memoirs-diaries?rq=sponholz.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

This memoir by Society member Martin Sponholz recounts his experiences at Plateau Station and the Japanese Showa Station in the 1960's. It has never been published, but has appeared on other websites in the past. We thought it deserved a home with the Antarctican Society, with Marty's permission.

Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Expedition.

Murdoch, John. Introduction by William W. Fitzhugh. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1988. [First published 1892.].
  • 1881-83 International Physical Year US Expedition to Point Barrow Alaska (Ray).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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p. xvii, re IPY cruise on Golden Fleece to Point Barrow, Aug 8, 1881, Murdoch to Richard Rathbun at Smithsonian: The hold and the deck are filled with our stuff, while we are so crowded in the cabin that we are only able to keep out the simple necessary articles and a few books. … I had hoped to have things so that I might do some work on the voyage up, but the vessel is so small and we have so much material that it is entirely out of the question…. They feed us well and by reading, writing, eating and sleeping we manage to fill up the time.

The Log of the Scotia Expedition, 1902-4.

Bruce, William Speirs. Edited by Peter Speak. With a foreword by Sir Vivian Fuchs. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1992.
  • 1902-04 Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (Bruce on Scotia).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

First Edition of the narrative of the 1902-04 Scotia Expedition to the Antarctic, published 90 years later, including Bruce's log, photographs, and plans as originally intended. Speak has added an introduction, explanatory notes, and a glossary of scientific terms.

A Voyage Round the World; but More Particularly to the North-West Coast of America: Performed in 1785, 1786, 1787, and 1788, in The King George and Queen Charlotte, Captains Portlock and Dixon.

Dixon, George. London: George Goulding, 1789.
  • 1785-88 British Exploring Circumnavigation to Northwest Pacific (Captain Portlock aboard the King George and George Dixon aboard Queen Charlotte).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Not clear who is writing these letters, signed as W.B., since they refer to Dixon. Dixon’s Introduction describes the author as “a person aboard the Queen Charlotte, who has been totally unused to literary pursuits, and equally so to a sea-faring life” (p. xxii). Some editions show Portlock as the author.

Shackleton’s Captain: A Biography of Frank Worsley.

Thomson, John. Toronto: Mosaic Press, 1999.
  • 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A biography of the navigator of the James Caird on the famous boat journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia, this is a poorly written work about a fascinating character that the author somehow dulls. There are very few references to books here (apart from Worsley’s own later works), but there is this passage on p. 85 in the chapter on the boat journey: