BERNACCHI, Louis To the South Polar Regions. Expedition of 1898-1900. Introduction by D.W.H. Walton. London, Hurst and Blackett,, 1901.
8vo. Original cloth, gilt; pp. xvi, 348, [4, publisher's catalogue; 2 folding maps (one very large and in colour), mostly full-page illustrations, many after photographs by the author including one folding panorama; minimal wear to cloth, a little offsetting from endpapers, the folding map with one mainly marginal tape repair on verso; otherwise near-fine.
First edition, 'very scarce' (Rosove), even rarer seen with the large map bound in and not in facsimile. One of the foundation stones of Antarctic literature - the first-hand account on the Southern Cross expedition. Sponsored by the publisher Sir George Newnes and led by Borchgrevink, this was the first expedition to winter in Antarctica. 'Bernacchi's account is a gem in the Antarctic literature, even if he did confine most of his personal feelings, not infrequently negative ones, to his journal. To him we are indebted for many beautiful literarary images of the voyage. Bernacchi was only twenty-six at the time of publication but had an unmistakable writing ability … the work is attractively illustrated with photographs taken by the author' (Rosove).
'Even though Borchgrevink’s expedition was marred by controversy and a measure of conflict, his team did make many noteworthy achievements. They conducted significant scientific and meteorological observations, mapped the Cape Adare region, made sledging journeys over the sea ice, and completed a ski journey to a point further south than anyone had previously reached. More importantly they proved that people could survive the long Antarctic winter living on the continent itself. The ten men spent the last winter of the century living in a tiny, cramped hut (with another hut for their supplies), perched on the edge of a narrow wind-swept spit, surrounded by towering cliffs at remote Cape Adare at the northern reaches of the Ross Sea. Today, those huts still stand on Cape Adare, making Antarctica the only continent in the world where the first buildings to be constructed still exist' (Antarctic Heritage Trust, online). - In book auction records of the past there are copies, even signed presentation copies, lacking the map or with the map in facsimile (probably taken out of the 1991 facsimile).
Taurus 25; Conrad p. 90; Spence 123; Rosove 35.A1.
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