MURRAY, James & George MARSTON. Antarctic Days. Sketches of the homely side of Polar life by two of Shackleton's men … introduced by Sir Ernest Shackleton. London, Andrew Melrose, 1913.
8vo. Original blue cloth; spine lettered in gilt; front board lettered in black, with single fillet in black; pp. xxi, 199; 28 plates (photographic and after drawings); text illustrations by the authors; spine faded; unobtrusive marks to front board; minor marginal repair to one fly-leaf, one plate and one page; Provenance: inscribed on front paste-down by Sir Webb Gillman, British Army General during WWI; a very good and exceptionally clean copy of a scarce work on an extensive Antarctic expedition.
First trade edition. The authors, members of Shackleton's 1907-9 Nimrod expedition, set out in the present work to illustrate the lighter side of Polar exploration. Rosove: "The authors spin yarns of the personal and human experiences of the expedition with gentle humour and the gift of storytelling. After an amusing, lighthearted introduction by Shackleton, an occasion on which he lets down his formality, the authors describe the voyage to New Zealand, they excerpt stories, axioms, verse, and sketches from the shipboard magazine, The Antarctic Petrel, summarise the observations of a naturalist at sea, tell tattling tales on themselves, relate experiences in New Zealand and on the southern ocean amidst the gales, describe Antarctic wildlife, and present their chanteys." - Both Webb Gillman and Shackleton had been educated at Dulwich College.
Spence 830; Renard 1121; Taurus 61; Rosove 236.A2
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