Looking for Arctic/Antarctic Exploration Recommendations

Any suggestions? Thanks!

The Wilkes led United States Exploring Expedition has quite a bit of early US Antarctic exploring history. Two histories of the expeditions that I would reccomend are: The great United States Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842 by William Ragan Stanton and Sea of glory : America's voyage of discovery : the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 by Nathaniel Philbrick A forgotten book written at the time of the exploration that I like is: Lights and shadows of sailor life.
As far as Arctic reading I've done lately, one book that stands out is F. A. Golder's Russian expansion on the Pacific, 1641-1850; an account of the earliest and later expeditions made by the Russians along the Pacific coast of Asia and North America; including some related expeditions to the Arctic regions

Far and away my favourite book about antarctic exploration is The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard.

I'd also heartily recommend I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination.

I've not added all my ice-related books into LT yet, but here are some

>3 heyokish:, heyokish - wow, THANK YOU! What an interesting collection.

i agree with heyokish, the cherry-garrard is excellent. you might also try the two books about the good ship karluk. tha last voyage of the karluk and the karluk's last journey one is a mate's diary and the other the captain's. the genre is rife with excellent works, both diaries and historical studies.

Some of my favorites:

Unknown Shore: The Lost
History of England's Arctic Colony by Robert Ruby
(search for the Franklin expedition turns up relics and oral history of a much earlier expedition)

Disaster at the Pole: The Crash of the Airship Italia by Wilbur Cross

Fatal Passage: The Untold Story of John Rae, the Arctic Adventurer Who Discovered the Fate of Franklin by Ken McGoogan

It's been years since I read Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape by Barry Lopez and hardly recall what it was about other than I really enjoyed. Better go back and reread.

Endurance by Alfred Lansing
The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
Alone by Richard E. Byrd
Mawson's Will by Lennard Bickel

Similar genre (cold weather survival):

The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz
Great Heart by James West Davidson and John Rugge
We Die Alone by David Howarth
Deborah and Mountain of My Fear by David Roberts
Touching the Void by Joe Simpson

I am reading Two in the Far North by Margaret Murie and enjoying it, and have had In a Far Country by John Taliaferro recommended and I plan to read it soon!

I have several other Arctic and Alaska books on my wishlist/reading list because we traveled to the Arctic this past summer in Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Alaska, so if you go to my profile and look at the tag cloud, you may find some more ideas, too.

douglas mawson home of the blizzard is another great Antarctic read

I was thinking of suggesting Arctic Dreams too - its message that the Arctic is not a barren, useless wasteland would make it an interesting counterpart to the exploration stories.

Yes, Barry Lopez's Arctic Dreams is a well written account to enrich any Arctic trip. I found E C Pielou's A Naturalist's Guide to the Arctic a handy preparation for my frst trip to Alaska, but have been surprised on subsequent visits by how little is available in the semi-popular literature. Any more recommendations for Alaska?

Which are the best books for a first trip to the Antarctic Peninsula? I have only Hadoram Shirihai's A Complete Guide to Antarctic Wildlife.

There's a 40 minute ABC Radio National "The Book Show" programme on this topic available for download / Podcast at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2008/2125630.htm . It features Barry Lopez, Tom Griffiths, author of Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica and Robert McGhee The Last Imaginary Place: A Human History of the Arctic World.

Fiction covering the area includes The Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett which covers a journey of exploration to the seas west of Greenland. And the last part of TC Boyle's Drop City is set in Alaska and is the part of the book I enjoyed most especially when we read something of the life of an old-hand trapper. And one episode has somebody killing themselves (not intentionally) by drinking sub-zero whisky.

Endurance by Caroline Alexander is a good read and the accompanying photographs and maps add greatly to the story of Shackleton and his shipmates.

I'll second the recommendations for The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard and Endurance by Alfred Lansing.

It's fictionalized but I also really liked The Birthday Boys by Beryl Bainbridge.

It's also worth remembering some of the folks who didn't lead expeditions and there's a very interesting biography of Tom Crean by Michael Smith.

As for the Arctic, Frozen in Time by Own Beattie & John Geiger changed my mind about Franklin.

I second The Birthday Boys for fiction and also recommend The Voyage of the Narwahl by Andrea Barrett.

Shadows on the Wasteland by Mike Stroud gives a more modern take on polar exploration than some works already mentioned. He and Ranulph Fiennes managed the first unsupported crossing of Antarctica on foot in 1992. Stroud is a doctor and the book is quite heavy on the alarming things that happen to a human who puts himself to this sort of test. Some British understatement.

Has anybody read The Terror by Dan Simmons? I'm thinking about picking it up and was wondering if it's worth it.

I've read The Terror and it was wonderful! It's made me a real Dan Simmons fan.

Roland Huntford's "trilogy" of Nansen, "Shackelton," and "Scott and Amundsen" was pretty good, as was Ranulph Fiennes's response to Huntford's theories about Scott/Amundsen, called "Race to the Pole" … I can also recommend Fiennes' other, modern-day antarctic exploration books, "Mind over Matter" and Ends of the Earth.

(Some wonky touchstones/misremembered titles.)

Rowing To Latitude: Journeys Along The Arctic's Edge - Jill Fredston

Two "extreme" rowers describe their adventures in northern latitudes.

It depends on what angle you're coming from. Many excellent suggestions have already been made, but if you're looking for a text that will tell you what it will be like for YOU to go to Antarctica, then you may want to check out "One for the Road".

The book contains several travelogues, and one of them is from Patagonia and a cruise to Antarctica. The author was not sponsored in any way, so you get a very honest description of what it's like to go there.

While the book is so new that it hasn't entered Amazon's systems yet, you can get the ebook for free from http://bjornfree.com/ .

Full disclosure: I wrote this book. #8D) Mind you, it's not free because it's so bad. I just want anyone who want it to be able to read it, whether they can afford to buy a book or not.

I am rather late to this thread and it isn't strictly arctic. But An African in Greenland by Tete-Michel Kpomassie has to be one of my favorite travel books that deals with northern climes- actually it may just be one of my favorite travel books.

He was the first African to visit Greenland and he worked his way north through France to Denmark and ultimately Greenland and the far north with some inuit communities. It was a striking and unique journey and he has amazing perspective on both his own upbringing and the countries he visits.

24 - Ooh - I've had that on my wishlist for ages and have an Amazon voucher - think that'll be purchased!

A couple that I have read about the Arctic are The Snow People (which was interesting, though the writing was so-so) and Alone Across the Arctic (which retraced Knud Amundsen's path along the Arctic coastline). I enjoyed the insights into dog teams. Books that I've read about the Antarctic are Swimming to Antarctica which dealt with Antarctica only peripherally, Waiting to Fly which was an interesting look at penguins - but slow reading, and Ice Bound about the doctor who came down with breast cancer while serving as the doctor on call at the South Pole. Really interesting things about what life is like living in those extreme temperatures.

25 LyzzyBee, it is well worth it. I hope you enjoy it.

Again, thanks for so many recommendations, people. Ya'll are great!

I've just picked up True North: Peary, Cook, and the Race to the Pole by Bruce Henderson and South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage, which are Ernest Shackelton's memoirs of his exploration of Antarctica. Once I finish them, I will post back and let you all know what I thought of them.

Voyage Through The Antarctic by Richard Adams
Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson
Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett

Only that title by Adams is non-fiction, but the second one was written on an NSF grant after Robinson was actually permitted to visit Antarctica. And Barrett's book is just good.

And if you'd like some melodrama, go for Wilkie Collins' The Frozen Deep which is a novella based on a play he did in conjunction with Charles Dickens.

The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard for me is way up there...

Going to the original narratives is the way to go. Nansen's Farthest North is the most impressive arctic journey I've read. Nansen puts many of the other explorers of his era to shame with his skill at survival in the arctic regions.
He purposefully got his vessel stuck in the ice in order to float across the North Pole with the drifting ice. When he realized the vessel would miss the pole he got out of the ship to make a run for it with one other guy, a dog team, and a kayak. He gave up the goal of getting to the north pole but then he walked back from near the north pole to Spitzbergen across the ice. No one died (exept the dogs) and he accomplished an amazing journey, even though he gave up on his primary goal.

Already mentioned above: Endurance by Alfred Lansing. This book was amazing - it was one of the most exciting and inspirational books I've read.

Two outstanding books from Arctic exploration are:
My Life with the Eskimo, Vilhjalmur Stefansson
Stefansson's work is simply amazing.

In the Land of White Death, Valerian Albanov
This is a powerful story that stayed fresh in my mind for years.

This is a great forum - I've grabbed a couple books from here that I haven't heard of before. I would also add The Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett as a fiction addition. Although not entirely arctic, my own book Madness, Betrayal and the Lash: The Epic Voyage of Captain George Vancouver involves the quest for the Northwest Passage in Pacific America (Oregon north to Alaska). The hardships that these people endured on these old sailing ships is truly incredible.

One of my favorites is a ficitonal biography of Alfred Wegener by Clare Dudman: One Day the Ice Will Reveal All Its Dead (UK Title: Wegener's Jigsaw). It covers his expeditions to map unexplored parts of Greenland. A haunting and poetic novel.

I also enjoyed the aforementioned Dan Simmons and Andrea Barrett novels.

#35 I agree. I've read #3's Alone which was riveting. In it Byrd says that weather originates in Antarctica, does anyone know of a book about that?

Now I'm in the middle of The Worst Journey in the World. I skipped the 75 page introduction, it was just too intimidating. He's spending so much time describing the landscape I wish the darn thing was illustrated.

I would suggest Sir Ernest Shackleton's book. I believe it is called Shakleton. Also, I have yet to read it but it sounds good: The Last Explorer

Another novel: The terrors of ice and darkness by Christoph Ransmayr ... there are multiple, interweaving plot lines about a true 1870s polar expedition and a more modern attempt to recreate that trip ... Ransmayr is an excellent author, but I don't think he gets published in the U.S. anymore ... definitely our loss.

Good topic, one that I am interested in as well. I will check out some of the titles suggested.

My suggestions:

The Coldest March: Scott's Fatal Antarctic Expedition by Susan Solomon. A very well researched defense of Capt Scott. Most protray him as an ignorant bungler, she examines that topic. Loved the book. Used a lot of material from The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard which is also very good.

The Crossing of Antarctica; The Commonwealth Transantarctic Expedition, 1955-1958 by Sir Vivian Fuchs. Drove farm tractors across Antarctica, Sir Edmund Hillary was a part of that expedition, which leads me to....

Nothing Venture, Nothing Win: His Autobiography by Sir Edmund Hillary, which devotes a part of the book to the above mentioned expedition. Great book, I love this one. Mt. Everest is another sub-topic that interests me.

The Flight of the Eagle by Per Olof Sundman. This was a unique read. It is a documentary novel based on the great Artic adventure of S. A. Andee, who tried to sail to the North Pole in a baloon. I recommend it.

The Loneliest Continent; the story of Antarctic discovery by Walker Chapman. Gives brief overviews of most Antarctic expeditions. Good for finding out about other expeditions that you may want to research.

There is one more that I read, but can't find the title of it. I checked it out from the library a couple of years ago. Will post that when I find the list I made.

Bill Masom

Douglas Mawson's own account of his expedition, in which he survived on the Antarctic ice alone for a month after the last of his companions died 100 miles from camp, is offered on gutenberg.org for free download or for reading online. It is called The Home of the Blizzard, published in 1914. It has also been reprinted, although for some reason I've always thought the reprint was not complete, but that might just be because I've always wanted to own one of the original 2-volume copies complete with Mawson's maps and Frank Hurley's photos.

Someone else mentioned Mawson's Will, which is a more modern telling of the story and a great introduction.
There are also a variety of bios of Mawson, and I have Mawson: A Life by Philip Ayres on my TBR list for this year.

Earlier this year, I picked up a copy of The Ends of the Earth: An Anthology of the Finest Writing on the Arctic and the Antarctic. It's getting closer to the top of my TBR list, but it may still be a while yet before I get to reading it.

It contains 39 short stories, and has an interesting format. All of the stories about each region are together. In order to read the stories about the ~other~ Pole, you have to flip the book horizontally.

Here is the other book I read, but couldn't remember the title of.

Fatal North: Adventure and Survival Aboard USS Polaris, The First U.S. Expedition to the North Pole by Bruce Henderson. Title pretty much says it all. Good read.

Thanks for all the recommendations, will have to expand my library it seems.

Bill Masom

There really isn't any substitute for reading the stories of the men who undertook those first perilous journeys in the heroic age of exploration, and there's more to it than 'the race to the pole'. I'd recommend The Home of the Blizzard too, but it's worth getting the book rather than the gutenberg freebie to see the photos, maps and diagrams. It's also condensed from the original 2 volume version and while the main story is the tale of Mawson's tragic expedition and his solo journey back to base after his two companions were lost, it also includes narratives from other members of the team. See my reviews here on LT and (different) at http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/the-home-of-the-blizzard-by-douglas...
Lisa Hill, ANZ Litlovers
Cross posted at Reading Globally

Wow, I am thrilled to have found this thread: I have a personal and professional interest in all things polar, and I have wanted to read about the great explorations for a long while. Next year I will be embarking on a 1+ year research mission to the french subantarctic island of Kerguelen, and I have been looking for reading suggestions, so big thanks to all those who've already chipped in, and let's keep this thread going! :)

One would think the first book to read about Antarctica would be the account of the first person to actually reach the South Pole. But no one does, everyone reads the account of the person who failed, Captain Scott and/or Worst Journey in the World. Which is fine, if you like depressing literature about guys who kill themselves in the name of glory.

I'm being a little tongue in cheek, but there is some truth to it, few people read Roald Amundsen anymore, yet his book `The South Pole` is one of the better books I've read. No one dies. No one even gets seriously hurt. Everything goes according to plan, and operates like clockwork. There isn't even any real strife among the men, much less between man and dog. It's a such a sharp contrast to the English side of things it's refreshing and fun to hang out with the winners. We learn much about dogs and dog handling, and the chapters on the snow fort they built are super fun.

And the remainder of Amundsen's life was apparently spent in the 'wake' of the Scott expedition. RA also self-published a hand-tinted photobook which I came across in the polar section of a university library. I cannot pick it out of the LT listings, if it is indeed there. Can any of the polar explorationists provide the reference?
Cheers from the tundra

That's a great suggestion to look for Amundsen's book -- I must confess that with all the Scott hoopla, it never occurred to me that Amundsen might have written something too.

The Museum of Natural History in New York currently has an exhibit on the "Race to the Ends of the Earth" and a website to accompany it.

Apologies for cross-postings, but this is too good to miss!

I've been lucky enough to have been sent a review copy of a forthcoming guide to Antarctica wildlife by naturalist / conservationist / photographer James Lowen. The book is entitled "Antarctic Wildlife - A visitor’s guide to the wildlife of the Antarctic Peninsula, Drake Passage and Beagle Channel" and is published by WILDGuides. Sample pages of the new guide are to be found at: https://www.wildguides.co.uk/our-titles/all-titles/antarctic-wildlife-a-visitor-... . The book will be published in the northern spring. From a quick perusal it seems to me that this outstanding book will become the best portable guide to Antarctic wildlife.

For those not familiar with WILDGuides, they are a publisher worth patronising, not just because many of their guides are the best available for field identification, but also because profits from sale go to conservation NGOs - in this case "Save the Albatross Campaign".

@ #45 Stbalbach

I have since read both Amundsen's South Pole, and Nansen's Farthest North. The "Fram" was the ship both parties used. And in case anyone didn't know, Amundsen was on Nansen's crew locked (on purpose) in the arctic ice.

And yes, I did find the comparison between the Scott and Amundsen efforts quite interesting. Amundsen's dash was a "walk in the park" compared to Scott's slog to hell.

But in defence of Scott, read The Coldest March: Scott's Fatal Antarctic Expedition by Susan Solomon. Her hypothises, built on detailed weather data of the time through the present, indicates that it was the unexpected very bitter cold March weather that did Scott in, not his incompetence. Good read if you have read both Amundsen and Scott accounts.

I have always wondered if Scott (or anyone in his party) would have made a bigger effort to get back, had they been first? Did the fact that they knew Amundsen beat them to the pole demoralize them enough to give up, since they had lost? Could they, or at least one of them, have made it the 11 miles to the depot?

And don't discount the fact that most Anglos like the underdog. We like a scrappy fight, pluck and fights against the odds. Amundsen did it too easily to be truly heroic (if you buy into it). They went, they conquered, they left. Where is the romance and heroism of that? (tongue in cheek eyeroll) Same with Nansen, he did it way too easy, because he was very well perpared for what he did. That is why I think Scott gets more ink and simpathy than either of the others.

And if you want further British (Anglo) incompetence, read Franklin's The Journey to the Polar Sea. How anyone made it back alive from that little trip is beyond me, it was a major fluster cluck.

Happy reading,

Bill Masom

>48 chrisharpe:

Oh dear, another addition to the want list. That looks superb.

ETA - OK, I'll admit I went ahead and preordered it via Amazon. It'll be a welcome spring treat (and probably a surprise by then).

#49, I am also a fan of Susan Solomon's The Coldest March, and especially enjoyed how she combines the diaries and letters of the Scott expedition members with modern scientific information. It doesn't quite let Scott off the hook for inadequate preparation, but it adds a lot of insight into the mixed purpose of his expedition (science as well as exploration) and to the conditions they faced.

@ 49: Bill_Masom

Glad you ventured off the beaten track with Amundsen's South Pole, and Nansen's Farthest North. I started Nansen's book, which was very influential and important, but got hung up on it after a hundred pages or so. I know I need to stick with it until they get stuck in the ice when things should get more interesting, the writing in the parts I read is superb at times.

STbalbach,

Farthest North is a very good book. I am looking forward to reading his The First Crossing of Greenland.

It isn't so much about me venturing off the beaten track. It is more about opportunity.

I am under employed at the moment, and so I can only read what I can find, either free Ebooks, or very cheap used books. Most of my DTB are bought used, from either thrift shops or library book sales. So I can only purchase what I find, not always what I want. And as far as Ebooks go, I can only download those that I can find as well. So while there are tons of books I want to read, I have to find them first, and then can only get them if they are super cheap.

My local library has a very poor selection of material in the genre, though I have read some I have borrowed from there.

So, I am almost totally dependent on what I find in thrift shops and library book sales. Or else on Ebooks that I can download for free. I have nearly 70 books in this genre, mostly Ebooks, but since my Kindle's screen got broken, I am down to reading DTB right now.

I am always looking for more suggestions in this genre, or exploration in general. Mt. Everest and Space (i.e. NASA) are also big interests of mine.

Have a Happy New Year,

Bill Masom

I recently learned I had a relative on the 1939 Byrd III expedition and would like to find a book or two about that.

Cool! (In both senses of the word!)

Seems to be an interesting fellow. He was lost at sea off Alaska in the mid '50s.

benjclark,

My interest in Antarctica is enhanced by the fact that my father was on Operation Deep Freeze Five, a US Navy mission to resupply the Antarctic bases. My dad was a Coast Guardsmen on the Ice Breaker Northwind, breaking ice for the two freighters loaded with the supplies.

One of the things he said they did was bring Admiral Byrd's plane back with them when they left. It was the plane he flew to the South Pole. (all of this is from my father's recollections, and therefore may not be historically accurate).

My dad took thousands of pictures of the cruise, of which only a small handful, about three hundred survived (ex wife took most of them when they divorced). But ever since I first saw those pictures I have been fascinated by the Polar regions.

I to am looking to learn more about Byrd, and the Deep Freeze operations. I understand now that the Deep Freeze is being run by a Air National Guard unit from New York. It is an Air Force mission now, not a US Navy. As stated above, my father was in the Coast Guard, and I was in the Air Force, so it is kind of neat that it passed from one service to the other.

Bill Masom

Fatal Passage by Ken McCoogan

Cherry-Garrard's book has to be the best in this genre, and one of the most moving non-fiction books I ever read.

Further to # 48, earlier this month I got to test Lowen's new guide in earnest, in the field, and it was very impressive: as far as I know it is now the best portable guide to identifying Antarctic wildlife. The other book that I found very useful - though as a cabin reference rather than a field guide - was Shirihai's Complete Guide to Antarctic Wildlife. Chester's Wildlife Guide to Chile also came in handy, as did Jaramillo's Birds of Chile (though the latter is missing some of the commoner birds of the Drake Passage, like Soft-plumaged Petrel). Lowen's book is out at the end of next month.

In the Antarctic I shared a cabin with Prof. David Walton, who runs Bluntisham Books, a British publisher specialising in polar books. Their catalogue may be of interest: http://www.bluntishambooks.co.uk/catalogue.htm

>61 chrisharpe: Oh, thanks for that!

#60, 61, chrissharpe, How cool (sorry!) that you were in the Antarctic! And thanks for the link.
#59 I've had the Cherry-Garrard for several years; will have to get to it.

Kabloona in the Yellow Kayak by Jason is good. It's a memoir of a woman who travels by kayak through the North West Passage.

I recently read This Cold Heaven; Seven Seasons in Greenland by Gretel Ehrlich. Very interesting reading about her contemporary exploration of life in Greenland.

Quite different from the rest but I very much enjoyed "The expedition" by Bea Uusma.

Veering a bit off topic, I just finished Never Look a Polar Bear in the Eye, a campy, snarky gem about Churchill, MB.

Aaron Linsdau's Antarctic Tears was good -- a more recent solo expedition. Fascinating.

Check out my library. I have a great many listed.