Obituary.

James, Reginald. Online.
  • 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Throughout most of the expedition, James regularly kept a diary, and his account of the time spent on Elephant Island gives perhaps the best insight into what conditions were really like for the 22 men left stranded there. Paper being scarce, he was forced to write some of his diary on spare pages in the copy of Lang’s Translation of the “Iliad”, which was one of the few books the men rescued from the sinking Endurance. The book is still in the safe keeping of the James family. His diary includes a number of maps and sketches.

The Man who Mapped the Arctic.

Steele, Peter. (Vancouver, BC: Raincoast Books, 2003).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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A complete biography of George Back, covering all aspects of his background and explorations: Franklin’s two overland journeys; his Great Fish River Expedition; and his HMS Terror debacle, including his teenage five-year Napoleonic captivity in Verdun. Many maps.

The Voyage of Captain Bellingshausen to the Antarctic Seas 1819-1821

Bellingshausen, Thaddeus von. 2 vols. Trans. from the Russian. Edited by Frank Debenham. London: Hakluyt Society, 1945.
  • 1819-21 First Russian Antarctic Expedition commanded by Captain Thaddeus Bellingshausen (aboard Vostok and Mirny).
  • “Discovery” of Antarctica.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Only a fraction of Fabian Gottlieb Benjamin Bellingshausen’s (aka Thaddeus, 1778-1852) long career in the Russian Navy was devoted to Antarctic exploration, his two-year expedition exploring Antarctic in 1819-21. It was nonetheless a notable venture as the second circumnavigation of the continent (the first was by Captain Cook in 1773-74), and the first actual sighting of the Continent in January 1820. His discovery of Alexander Island and the naming of the Bellingshausen Sea were not much honored in Russia since they were of little immediate practical use, but his achievements are now much more fully recognized, At least as translated and then edited in this version, Bellingshausen appears to have an easy-going if formal style of writing and shows himself to be a most judicious man in both his navigation and his leadership of the voyage, a character much doubted by his critics.

Travel and Adventure in the Territory of Alaska, Formerly Russian America—Now Ceded to the United States—and in Other Parts of the North Pacific.

Whymper, Frederick. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1869.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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p. 22: Enroute from England to Vancouver in June 1862 viâ the Horn on a steamer called Tynemouth: On board were some three hundred passengers, two-thirds of whom showed a total loss of dignity and self-respect during these early days, and made our vessel much resemble a floating hospital. But there is an end to all things; and by the time we reached the tropics, our friends had recovered their appetites, and, clad in light attire, lounged, smoking, chatting, and reading under the awnings, giving our decks the appearance of a nautical picnic. Our passengers were a study in themselves. They included a number of young men, much too large a proportion of whom .had apparently no profession, business, or definite aim in life, to auger well for their future career in a new country.

The Krassin.

Parijourire, Maurice. Trans. by Lawrence Brown. New York: Macaulay Co., 1929.
  • 1928 Russian Rescue Operation for Nobile.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
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Russian ice-breaker involved in Nobile rescue in 1928. A romanticized and heavily pro-Soviet account.

A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World… Performed in the Years 1790, 1791, 1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795, in the Discovery Sloop of War, and Armed Tender Chatham.

Vancouver, George, Captain. A New Edition… in Six Volumes. (London: John Stockdale, 1801).
  • 1791-95 English Exploring Expedition to North Pacific and Round the World (George Vancouver commanding aboard Discovery with Chatham).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
 Preview 

Heald Sale Catalog of December 2017 lists this copy: "One of the most important [voyages] ever made in the interests of geographical knowledge" (Hill). This copy from the on-board library of the USS John Hancock during its mid-19th century exploration of the Pacific.”

Such is the Antarctic.

Christensen, Lars. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1935.
  • Whalemen's Reading
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Christensen was from a Norwegian whaling family who took three expeditions to Antarctica to study conditions of the whaling industry at the time. He owned his own whaling ship, the M.T. Thorshaven, which he used for these trips. It is an engaging account from the perspective of a businessman, sentimentally attached to whaling. There is little about reading on these trips but a few indications of materials available. The book is notable for its discussions of the history of Bouvet and Norwegian attempts to occupy the island, despite its unsuitability for any whaling purposes and its only apparent use as a meteorological station. He also discusses the exploration of Enderby Land, and Riiser-Larsen’s discovery of Queen Maud Land.

Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic A dventure.

Doyle, Arthur Conan. Edited by Jon Lellenberg & Daniel Stashower. (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2012).
  • 1880 British Whaling Voyage to Iceland (Conan Doyle, Surgeon).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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A facsimile and transcript of a diary Conan Doyle kept on an Arctic whaling trip in 1880 as ship’s surgeon aboard the S.S. Hope. It includes a good bit about his reading during this six-month summer trip to Greenland. All quotations here are from the transcript.

The Remarkable History of the Hudson’s Bay Company Including that of the French Traders of North-Western Canada and of the North-West, XY, and Astor Fur Companies.

Bryce, George. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1900.
  • Hudson's Bay Company.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
 Preview 

A general history of the Company from the seventeenth century until the end of the Reil Rebellion until after 1870 and the Company’s “great prospect” at the beginning of the twentieth century. He tries to recount with fairness the problems of the Company, its dubious Charter, the feud with Dobbs over Hudson Bay as the route to the NW Passage, problems with both Catholics and the metis, but he is too pro-British and anti-Catholic to be totally convincing. But he does show the urbane education and wide reading of many of the traders.

Arctic Researches and Life among the Esquimaux: Being the Narrative of an Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin, in the Years 1860, 1861, and 1862.

Hall, Charles Francis. (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1865).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

p. xxvii: On the 29th of May [1860], accompanied by Mr. Grinnell and several citizens of New London… [I] entered the boat that was to convey me on board. A few strokes of the oars, however, had only been made, when we returned at the voice of Mr. Haven hailing us. It was to give me a present, in the shape of a little book called “The Daily Food,” which, though small in size, was great in its real value, and which proved my solace and good companion in many a solitary and weary hour.

Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica.

Griffiths, Tom. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.
  • 2002-03 Australian Base Resupply (Griffiths).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Recounts a summer 2002-03 resupply trip, combining diary entries, with reflections, historical discursions, and thoughtful reporting on the trip. Some reading tidbits:

Safe Return Doubtful: The Heroic Age of Polar Exploration.

Maxtone-Graham, John. New York: Scribner’s, 1988.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

p. 1: On the night of January 30, 1916, a frail, white-haired gentleman retired to the bedroom of his house in London’s Eccleston Square. Once undressed, he swung expertly into a hammock and, as he had done for more than seven decades, read himself to sleep in traditional Royal Navy fashion: One hand held his book, the other a candle, exactly as he had learned as a midshipman in 1844.