1910 The Great White North: The Story of Polar Exploration by Helen S. Wright Illustrated Antiquarian First Edition Hardcover

1910 The Great White North: The Story of Polar Exploration by Helen S. Wright Illustrated Antiquarian First Edition Hardcover

<Condition is Fair+ as Pictured> (normal wear with markings, both hinges are cracked with cover boards detached from text block, bumped/rubbed/tattered corners, visible edge-wear, top of spine is chipped, toning to interior pages, previous owners name is written inside front cover & on title page) size is approximately 7.75” x 5.75”

— From a Review… “I was completely enthralled with this 1910 book that recounts all of the known historical expeditions whose goal was to find the Northwest Passage, which ultimately climaxed with the discovery of the North Pole by Commander Peary in 1909. You have to consider that the world was in a tizzy after that momentous occasion and this book was published right on the heels of that.

The author provides a lot of detail about every known expedition (to date) going back to the 16th Century. It covers their quests, their challenges, and their fates. A lot of these expeditions ended in death but several helped map Northern Canada and Greenland.

I would have to surmise that much of this book is based on surviving Captain's logs, Captain's diaries, ship specs and manifests and so on. In that regard, it could be slow reading because it felt like reading a checklist sometimes. On the other hand, some expedition leaders painted brilliant and eloquent descriptions of the cold, the darkness, the hunger, the death, and the sense of despair that they faced. The book is illustrated throughout.

Considerable amount of attention is given to the lost expedition of Sir John Franklin in the 1840's. Franklin was and still is considered a British hero and after his two ships and their crews disappeared, there were countless expeditions sent to find out what happened. Some of those brought back artifacts, human remains, and even some rare documents that had frozen in the Great White North untouched. The author of this book could not have realized that one hundred years after its publication, Franklin's two ships the Erebus and the Terror would be eventually found in the deep dark icy worlds of the Arctic.

Another fascinating chapter relates to the 1897 hot air balloon expedition from the Dutch explorer Andree, which crashed and was never heard from again. In the 1930's, twenty years after this book was published, the remains of that expedition were recovered including a frozen camera that still had film in it. Thanks to the unbearable cold, almost 100 photographs from this expedition were thawed out and developed giving an eerie look into the past and the ultimate tragedy of Andree and his team.

The book touches on the "who got there first" argument between Commander Peary and Frederick Cook, which was probably raging about the time of its publication. Even to this day there are still disputes. These two stories are well known today. I knew nearly nothing about the dozens of expeditions that had gone before.

Personally, I think The Great White North by Helen S. Wright would be a great basis for a History Channel Docudrama or even a straight up documentary. And I can't help but to wonder how many other pieces of the distant past remain buried in the ice of the Arctic”


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