With the approach of winter, James Cummins Bookseller turns our attention to the polar regions. This week we’re happy to present an online list of books and autographs related to Arctic and Antarctic exploration. The list contains a number of newly catalogued items and many abundantly illustrated volumes, including a very fine set of The Polar Times, a cornerstone to any Antarctic bibliography, a beautiful inscribed copy of Phipps' account of his 1773 voyage towards the North Pole, a congratulatory letter from Frederick Cook to a fellow explorer, and a rare albumen print of one of the images that appears in William Bradford's fabled book of photography, The Arctic Regions.
Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office, 1889. First edition. Read More about Report of the Cruise of the Revenue Marine Steamer Corwin in the Arctic Ocean in the Year 1884
Price: $450
West Brighton and n.p: [1931]. Halpern wrote to Bartlett regarding a previous invitation to visit the “Morrissey” saying that he is ready to go and when is Bartlett ready for him. Bartlett replied that he could come the following Saturday. Bartlett, the noted Newfoundland-born Arctic explorer, who was with the..... Read More about Two autograph notes, first signed in margin of another letter as “R. A. Bartlett” and the...
Price: $150
New York: Doubleday & McClure, 1900. First Pyle Edition. Frederick A. Cook's Copy. This copy has the ownership signature of Arctic Explorer "Frederick A. Cook, 1900" on the title-page. Read More about The Man with the Hoe and Other Poems
Price: $250
Brooklyn, NY: Oct. 4, 1896. Cook Congratulates Operti, 1896. A charming letter between two Arctic veterans. Frederick Cook, founding member of both the Arctic Club and the Explorer's Club, and future rival claimant to Robert Peary as discoverer of the North Pole, writes to his old friend Albert Operti. Both..... Read More about Autograph Letter, signed ("Frederick A. Cook") to the Arctic artist Albert Operti,...
Price: $2,000
[London]: c.1872. A rare survival. This image appears in William Bradford's fabled book of photographs Arctic Regions. It was taken by either Dunmore or Critcherson, the two professional photographers from Boston who accompanied Bradford on his 1869 expedition to the Arctic on the steamship Panther. It was probably taken at..... Read More about Esquimaux Winter Hut and Its Occupants. The Entrance is seen on the Left
Price: $4,500
New York: Doubleday, Page & Co, 1906. First edition. Author's presentation copy. Inscribed on the half-title: "To F.L. Root with remembrance of the days at the Realty Trust and best wishes Anthony Fiala April 29/[19]38". The Ziegler Polar Expedition - or Fiala expedition - was a failed attempt to reach..... Read More about Fighting the Polar Ice
Price: $600
New York: Scribner's, 1938. First American. Flaherty was an explorer and film maker who explored sub-arctic Canada from 1910 to 1916 and made his famous documentary film Nanook of the North in 1922. The Captain of the title is Captain William Grant, master of the three masted barque Eskimo that..... Read More about The Captain's Chair
Price: $200
Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office, 1888. First edition. With Greely's Signature. A handsome set, formerly owned by Henry Cabot Lodge. Referring to Greely's own account of the voyage, the Arctic Bibliography states: "The United States expedition during the First International Polar Year, based at Fort Conger, Lady Franklin Bay, about..... Read More about Report on the Proceedings of the United States Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay, Grinnell Land
Price: $1,250
London: The Richards Press, [1928]. First edition. Read More about Antarctica. A Treatise on the Southern Continent
Price: $250
London: Duckworth, 1920. First edition. Read More about The South Polar Trail...The Log Of Ernest Mills Joyce On The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition
Price: $500
Philadelphia: Childs & Peterson, et al, 1856. First edition. Read More about Arctic Explorations: The Second Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin, 1853, '54, '55
Price: $250
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1854. Sartain. First edition, Second Issue, with "1854" date on title page. Two ships, the Rescue and the Advance, under the command of Lt. DeHaven, went to the Lancaster Sound - Wellington Channel region in search of Sir John Franklin in 1850-51. Kane was the..... Read More about The U.S. Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin. A Personal Narrative
Price: $250
London: William Heinemann, [1915]. First edition. Read More about The Home of the Blizzard: Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914
Price: $1,000
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1917. Curtis, Edward. First edition, No. 186 of 550 Large Paper copies. Read More about The Cruise of the Corwin
Price: $400
London: Andrew Melrose, 1913. Special deluxe edition limited to 280 numbered copies only (this copy is no. 219). SIGNED BY AUTHORS AND SHACKLETON. Read More about Antarctic Days. Sketches of the homely side of Polar life by two of Shackleton's men …...
Price: $6,000
Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co, 1897. First English edition. The first English edition of Nansen's account of his polar expedition abord the Fram and his subsequent attempt on the North Pole by dog sledge. He reached 86°13.6′N, at that time the furthest point north reached by man. Read More about Farthest North Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship "Fram" 1893-96...
Price: $450
New York: Harper & Brother, 1897. First American Edition. Read More about Farthest North Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship "Fram" 1893-96...
Price: $600
London: John Murray, 1824. First edition. Presentation Copy, Inscribed by Parry to one of his Officers. Inscribed by Parry to one of his officers, "Lieut. J. Bushnan RN with the author's best regards." John Bushnan was the assistant surveyor on board the Fury. Bushnan was to have joined the Franklin..... Read More about Journal of a second voyage for the discovery of a north-west passage from the Atlantic to the...
Price: $7,500
Incredible Memento Of Peary's North Pole Expedition. This elaborately bound volume of guest autographs was commissioned for the yacht Sheelah, owned by millionaire industrialist Charles Ross (1848-1913). Originally from Scotland, Ross emigrated to North America in 1868 and built a fortune as a railway engineer, settling finally in Montreal. In..... Read More about Guest book of yacht Sheelah, signed by Robert E. Peary, 21 September 1909, upon his return from...
Price: $10,000
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1910. First UK trade edition. Read More about The North Pole. With an introduction by Theodore Roosevelt
Price: $500
Washington: 3131 O Street NW, [ca. 1930]. Saying that he does not have a photograph available at that time due to similar requests but that Halpern might check the local library and look at his book “Reminiscences.” The eminent arctic explorer and American Army Officer. He commanded the American expedition..... Read More about Autotyped note signed “A. W. Greely,” with 4 manuscript typographical error corrections
Price: $125
Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1974. Facsimile reissue of the 1914 edition, with an added preface. Read More about Antarctic Adventure: Scott's Northern Party. With a new foreword by Sir Vivian Fuchs
Price: $150
London and New York: Harper & Brothers, 1898. Newell, Peter. First English edition, published shortly after the American edition. This work had originally appeared in "Harper's Magazine" Futuristic travel to the North Pole and to the Center of the Earth. A futuristic novel of arctic submarine exploration and journeys to..... Read More about The Great Stone of Sardis. A Novel
Price: $250
St Louis: C.V. Mosby, 1932. First edition. Inscribed to Helen and Michael Lerner, "For Helen and Michael Lerner with every good wish to Friends my father thought of most kindly, Richard L. Sutton, Jr. January 22nd, 1954." Read More about An Arctic Safari With Camera and Rifle in the Land of the Midnight Sun
Price: $250
