The Rescue of Captain Scott.

Aldridge, Don. East Lothian, Scotland: Tuckwell Press, 1999.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

A judicious debunking of the Scott myths which had in turn rescued him from mediocrity. Draws on Huntford and many others to show Scott as inept, petulant, and egomaniacal.

Antarctic Destinies: Scott, Shackleton and the Changing Face of Heroism.

Barczewski, Stephanie. London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Deals largely with the reversal of reputations of Scott’s decline and Shackleton’s growth throughout the 20th century, and the balancing of the two in the first decade of the 21st century. Unfortunately, this is a long book that should have been a short one. She insists on recounting the set pieces of all the voyages with individual chapters on the English expeditions (Discovery, Nimrod, Terra Nova, and Endurance), with minimal nods to Bruce, Filchner and others less preoccupied with the Pole that the two Englishmen. She tries hard to achieve a balance between the two but seems by the epilogue to be favoring late arguments on behalf of Scott, even when the arguments are weak (e.g. Fiennes claim that only one who has been there can assess Scott in the Antarctic). There is nothing that I found about reading or any non-curricular activity to help keep the men sane, though she suggests that a number went bonkers. A disappointing work which ignores the “destiny” of its title.

A Naturalist at the Poles: The Life, Work & Voyages of Dr. W. S. Bruce the Polar Explorer.

Brown, R. H. Rudmose. London: Seeley, Service, 1923. [Five early chapters by W. G. Burn Murdoch].
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Rudmose Brown, as he is often called, participated in only one Antarctic expedition, the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition organized by William Spires Bruce. But his influence in polar studies was extensive through his academic career, his high status in the geographical community, and his exceptional writing ability of which this book is a prime example.

High Latitude.

Davis, John King. Melbourne, Victoria, NZ: Melbourne University Press, 1962.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

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 Southwest Pacific since 1900: A Modern History.

Grattan, C. Harley. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1963.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

This survey of the history of Australia, New Zealand, The Islands, and Antarctica includes a substantial chapter on “The Heroic Age” (p. 561-91), a derivative but very serviceable summary. Unlike some others he ends the Heroic Age with the completion of Shackleton’s Endurance debacle in 1916 rather than with Shackleton’s death on South Georgia in 1922 during the Quest expedition. His summary of the age rings true: “Thus ended the Heroic Age in a wild burst of blazing ambition, disaster, valor, fortitude, squalor, squabbles, and tragedy” (p. 591).

The Last Place on Earth

Huntford, Roland. New York, Modern Library, 1999. [First published as Scott and Amundsen in 1979.].
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

This tendentious work has split the community of Antarcticans woefully, with attacks on all sides: against Amundsen, particularly against Scott by the Huntford adherents, and fighting malice with malice, against Huntford himself. Few are wholly objective in this war, but it can be said that Huntford does present useful information when he stays away from anti-Scott speculation. Here are excerpts about reading on the various expeditions he covers.

Race for the South Pole: Expedition Diaries of Scott and Amundsen.

Huntford, Roland. London: Continuum, 2010.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Uses a clever device of presenting chronologically the diary entries by Amundsen and Scott, together with the shorter diary entries from Amundsen’s colleague, Olav Bjaaland, from September 1, 1911, to March 5, 1912, when Amundsen and the Fram reached Tasmania. The substantial introduction and epilogue by Huntford are informative but characteristically mean-spirited and vituperative in his loathing for Scott, and by implication the British people for making him into a false hero. I found nothing related to any reading by the three diarists.

Shackleton.

Huntford, Roland. New York: Ballantine Books, 1987.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

This is a strong, balanced, and helpful biography of Shackleton, marred by Huntford’s invidious detestation of Scott for whom he loses no opportunity, real or speculative, to denigrate, carrying on much as he did in The Last Place on Earth.

Scott of the Antarctic.

Huxley, Elspeth. New York, Atheneum, 1978.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

p. 14: It is perhaps significant that among the few possessions he was to pack for his first southern journey—possessions so carefully rationed for weight that he had to choose between a pair of socks and their equivalent weight in tobacco—Darwin’s Origin of Species was the book that went into his kit.

Under Scott’s Command: Lashly’s Antarctic Diaries

Lashly, William. Ed. by A. R. Ellis…, with an Introduction by Sir Vivian Fuchs. New York: Taplinger, 1969.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Lashly was a leading stoker on the Discovery and the Terra Nova, and was part of the South Pole expedition, making all but the final cut. He comes across well in a jingoistic book, e.g. Fuchs introduction: “This book is a further contribution to our knowledge of the happy atmosphere which pervaded two polar expeditions. It was the combination of great leadership and loyal support which added an epic to our history” (p. 10). The book certainly shows loyal support, esp. from Lashly, but scarcely hides the inadequacy of Scott’s leadership.

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.

Scott’s Last Biscuit: The Literature of Polar Travel.

Moss, Sarah. Oxford: Signal Books, 2006. Published in NY as The Frozen Ship.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

p. 73: In place of Parry’s fanfare about the “rational amusements” of the officers, Nansen remarks simply: A good library was of great importance to an expedition like ours, and thanks to publishers and friends both in our own and in other countries we were well supplied in that respect.

Shackleton Collection.

Rendell, Kenneth. Exhibited at Boston Museum of Science, March 2001.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Included in the exhibit were: Tennyson, Alfred Lord. Complete Works. Given in 1908 to Lt. Shackleton and the Officers of the Nimrod, and kept in officer’s mess; Swinburne Poems. Signed by Shackleton; South. First ed. Signed by Shackleton; Nautical Almanac. 1908. Shackleton’s copy from the Nimrod; Inscribed portrait of Shackleton; Signed 1914 solicitation letter for the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition; Signed photograph of Frank Hurley’s Winter Night; Cover illustration of South, presented to a Mrs. Pearson.

Edward Wilson of the Antarctic: Naturalist and Friend.

Seaver, George. With an introduction by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. London: John Murray, 1933.
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
 Preview 

Although Wilson was known to be an assiduous reader, as well as deeply religious, not much of his reading appears in this biography. Here are a few related references: