PARRY, William Edward Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific; performed in the Years 1819-1820, in His Majesty's Ships Hecla and Grir ... With an Appendix, containing the scientific and other Observations. London, John Murray, 1821.
4to. Contemporary calf, spine panelled in gilt and blind, raised flat bands, double green labels, covers bordered in gilt and blind, marbled endpapers and edges; pp. [viii], xxx, [ii half-title], 310, [ii], clxxx pp., errata slip, 20 engraved or aquatint maps and plates; a few minor scratches to boards, light offsetting from engravings; otherwise a clean and crisp copy.
~b~First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by Parry to Acheson Maxwell Esq. with the Author's best Compliments. With two contemporary manuscript pen and ink maps inserted, on thin Whatman paper watermarked 1829, of the southern end of the Gulf of Boothia (200 x 247mm.), and the Gulf of Boothia as far north as Barrow Strait (400 x 248mm). Acheson Maxwell was a friend of Parry's father and also of John Barrow, through whom Parry obtained the commission to lead his first Arctic expedition, one of the most successful early scientinfic explorations of Arctic regions. After wintering on Melville Island 'the two ships returned safely, and came into the Thames in mid-November 1820, with much scientific material. Parry's dispatches, sent in advance by a whaler, had reached the Admiralty on 4 November, on which date he was promoted to the rank of commander. He received the freedom of his native city and many other honours; in the following February he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society and, with the officers and men of the expedition, he received the parliamentary grant previously offered as a reward for those who should first pass the meridian of 110° W within the Arctic circle. Parry's care for his men, his solution of many of the problems of wintering in the ice, and his meticulous scientific work set a pattern of Arctic exploration for a generation. Many of his young officers (notably James Clark Ross) went on to be famous explorers themselves. The overland explorations of his good friend John Franklin were intended to be complementary to Parry's expeditions' (ODNB).
Hill (2004) 1311; Sabin 58860; Staton & Tremaine 1205.
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