The Journal of Jens Munk 1619-1620.

Munk, Jens. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum, 1980.
  • 1619-20 Danish Expedition to Hudson’s Bay (commanded by Jens Munk on Lamprey and Unicorn).
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
 Preview 

Munk led two Danish ships, the Lamprey and Unicorn, to Hudson’s Bay and wintered over at Churchill in 1619-20. Many men including the surgeon died at Churchill, undoubtedly of scurvy.

The Terror, a Novel.

Simmons, Dan. (New York: Little, Brown, 2007).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

A completely fanciful attempt to explain what might have happened to the Franklin expedition.

Alone on the Ice: The Greatest Survival Story in the History of Exploration.

Roberts, David. New York: Norton, 2013.
  • 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (Mawson).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A straightforward rehash of the Mawson story, at somewhat greater length than others, but competently done. He doesn’t neglect the books and reading which is fairly well documented for this expedition. He makes the mistake of taking Huntford as gospel truth, assuming for example Kathleen Scott’s affair with Nansen. He also disparages Bickel’s Mawson’s Will, though that book is a much more dramatic telling of Mawson’s story.

Shackleton’s Dream: Fuchs, Hillary and the Crossing of Antarctica.

Haddelsey, Stephen. Stroud, UK: The History Press, 2012.
  • 1955-58 TAE: Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs and Hillary).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A solid, workmanlike account of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition (TAE) which for a time pitted Fuchs and Hillary in a race to the pole. The author calls it “the greatest polar expedition ever forgotten” (p. 251). He alludes to men reading occasionally, but never with any helpful details of which books or how read. General tone at times seems “a pox on both your houses” re the stubbornness of both Fuchs and Hillary.

“There she blows:” A Narrative of a Whaling Voyage, in the Indian and South Atlantic Oceans.

Ely, Ben-Ezra Stiles. Edited…by Curtis Dahl. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1976. [First published 1849.].
  • Whalemen's Reading
 Preview 

Originally published in 1849, this modern edition of Ben Ely's personal account of whaling off Madagascar aboard the bark Emigrant includes a biographical introduction and much additional information by Ely's great-grandson. Facsimile of original title page. ALBION, p. 202.

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.

Clement Markham: Longest Service Officer, Most Prolific Editor,

Savours, Ann. in Compassing the Vaste Globe of the Earth: Studies in the History of The Hakluyt Society, 1846-1996. (London: Hakluyt Society, 1996) p. 165-88.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

p. 168, on Markham’s 1850-51 Greenland expedition: Confined to a tent by a storm, he ‘Read Pickwick aloud, ate, drank, slept and read Johnson’s life of Pope, alternately. Had a duck and sandpipers stewed in green pea soup, for dinner.’ See Markham’s MS. Journal in the Royal Geographical Society, Archives, CRM 3. This entry is from 7 July 1851.

Climbing the Pole: Edmund Hillary & the Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1955-1958.

Thomson, John. Norwich, UK: Erskine Press, 2010.
  • 1955-58 TAE: Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs and Hillary).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

An excellent book which skewers Hillary for his disingenuous claim that his trip to the South Pole, upstaging Vivian Fuchs, was a spur of the moment decision, while convincingly documenting that it was Hillary’s intent from the outset of his involvement with TAE.

The White Betrayal.

Unger, Hellmuth. Translated by Derick Wulff. New York: Brentano’s, 1928.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

Translation of Eisland, a romanticized juvenile novel about the Greely expedition, concentrating on the last year, what he calls “the greatest tragedy in the annals of the Arctic” (pace Franklin, etc).

First on the Antarctic Continent, Being an Account of the British Antarctic Expedition 1898-1900

Borchgrevink, Carsten E. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1980 [Reprint 1901].
  • 1898–1900 British Antarctic Expedition (Carsten Borchgrevink on Southern Cross).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Borchgrevink comes across as a sanctimonious sycophant, at least at the beginning, full of himself and his role in “the world’s history.” For contrast from an antagonist, see Louis Charles Bernacchi who detested Borchgrevink. Pretty clear that this is one of those self-serving travel accounts which conceals the depths of animosity that developed within his staff.

International Polar Expedition. Report on the Proceedings of the United States Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay, Grinnell Land.

Greely, Adolphus Washington. Two volumes.Washington: Government Printing Office, 1888. [U.S. House of Representatives. 49 Congress, 1 Session. Misc. Doc. No. 393].
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

Greely’s official report is only 93 pages and records, mostly in monthly segments, the chief events of the expedition. It does not amplify what he already had published more expansively in his Three Years of Arctic Service (1886), but continues the defensiveness over some disputed actions. He is always concerned about the safety of the scientific records and other journals prepared by the expedition.

The North-West Passage by Land. Being the Narrative of an Expedition from the Atlantic to the Pacific, Undertaken with the View of Exploring a Route across the Continent to British Columbia through British Territory, by One of the Northern Passes in the Rocky Mountains.

Milton, Viscount, William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, and W. B. Cheadle. [By] Viscount Milton and W. B. Cheadle. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1865.
  • 1862-64? British Private Overland Expedition in Search of North-West Passage by Land.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
 Preview 

A very curious, almost quixotic account of a couple of aristocratic travelers seeking an overland route to the gold fields of British Columbia.

Survival in Antarctica.

National Science Foundation. 1974 Edition. Washington, DC: NSF Office of Polar Programs, 1974.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
 Preview 

On the purpose of this manual: Today people go from the United States to Antarctica in hours. Warm buildings and home comforts shield them from months-long darkness, high winds, and temperatures sometimes below -75°C. (-100°F.). At stations like McMurdo, life seems so normal that it is easy to forget Antarctica's dangers. Tragedy and disaster can strike unexpectedly. It has happened, and it will happen again. This manual will help you prepare for the possibility, when all seems to be going well, of suddenly being in a survival situation.

The Daily Journal of an Antarctic Explorer 1956-1958.

Warren, Guyon. Edited by Karen Warren. Nelson, NZ: Copy Press Books, 2014.
  • 1955-58 TAE: Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs and Hillary).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Warren was a geologist on the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (TAE) led by Vivian Fuchs (UK) and Sir Edmund Hillary (NZ). When not on surveying journeys to the Polar Plateau and the Dry Valleys, he was mainly at the Scott Base near McMurdo and he mentions the library at McMurdo a couple of times. His notes about reading occur mainly during the winter period, as outlined here: