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Bainbridge, Beryl

The Birthday Boys

This 1991 novel is beautifully constructed in five parts.Each is recorded by one member of Scott's final polar party. In turn, P.O. Evans, Dr. Wilson, Scott himself, Lt Birdie Bowers and Capt. Oates, each tell a slice of their famous and tragic story. Since everyone already knows how the story comes out, the book doesn't offer the reader a chronological plod through well-worn events Instead, it skips. Refracted through the multiple viewpoints, we get not only different views of events and personalities. We catch the heroes in consistencies and outright lies, spot their self-deceptions and fatal delusions. It's a fascinating trick to render depth of character, something like the old stereopticon pictures. This is a book about that depends upon character and point of view - and what crucially and tragically does not. Bainbridge is a master of the period and has researched her material thoroughly, rarely putting a foot wrong. The bits that's she's made up are so seamlessly worked in that you really do feel that this is how it must have happened. There are relatively few works of fiction about Scott, and this is surely one of the best.

This review was written by Brenda W. Clough, author of Doors Of Death and Life, available from Tor Books.

BEGBIE, H.

Shackleton- A Memory

A whitewashed Shackleton biography from an unusual publisher- Mills & Boon. Published 1922. This is another very rare book and good copies are fetching £50 - £100.

BERNACCHI, Louis Charles

That First Antarctic Winter. The Story of the Southern Cross Expedition of 1998-1900 as told by the Diaries of Louis Charles Bernacchi.

Written and edited by Janet Crawford (Grand-daughter of LC Bernacchi). Published by South Latitude Research 1998. In actual fact the book is much more than that sub-title. It deals with the British Antarctic Expedition of Carsten Borchgrevink to Cape Adare where the first wintering on the continent took place in 1899.

A Very Gallant Gentleman

The first biography of Captain Oates. It really has only two chapters on his early life the rest in devoted to his experiences and death on the Terra Nova expedition. Mainly, factual it is devoid of deeper aspects in Oates as a person. His mother to whom Oates was devoted rarely gets a mention probably because she refused to cooperate with the author. However, this is a typical old fashioned biography of the 30's. The better book is by Limb and Cordingley. Published by Thorton Butterworth in 1933 it soon went to numerous reprints. A good 1st ed. would fetch about £60.

The Saga Of The 'Discovery'

Ship history written by member of the 'Terra Nova' expedition. Built for Scott's first Antarctic expedition, 'Discovery' then became a whale research ship for the British Government and later part of the British-Australian-New Zealand Research Expedition under Douglas Mawson. First published in 1938 by Blackie. An edition complete with original wrapper would be about £150.

To the South Polar Regions: Expedition of 1898-1900.

The British Antarctic Expedition of 1898-1900 which was led by Carsten Borchgrevink, was one of the small, privately funded ventures which contributed much to the early understanding of the Antarctic. Bernacchi,of Italian origin, was the first Australian to play a significant part in Antarctic exploration. The Southern Cross expedition, on which he was physicist, was the first party to over-winter on the Antarctic continent.
Limited edition 450 numbered copies when first published in 1901 by Hurst & Blackett. Modern facsimile edition produced by Bluntisham 1991 was also limited to 450 copies. I have an unnumbered presentation copy which leaves me bemused as to its worth. Even the facsimle edition should fetch £30-£40 and the original first edition will cost you £1000.

BICKNEL, Lennard

The Accursed Land

Sir Douglas Mawson's epic and tragic journey across 600 miles of unknown Antarctic wasteland during 1912-13 has been described by Sir Emund Hillary as 'the greatest story of lone survival in polar exploration'. This Accursed Land recounts how Mawson declined to join Scott's ill-fated British expedition in order to lead the Australian Antarctic expedition in charting the far eastern coastline of the continent. The loss of one of his own men and most of his supplies turned a hazardous trek into a fight for survival. Mawson and his remaining colleague, Xavier Mertz, trapped 320 miles from base with only nine days supply of food, were ultimately forced to slaughter and eat their starving dogs. Mawson's subsequent drift into madness - starving, exhausted, and indescribably cold - is one of the most extraordinary stories from the heroic period of Antarctic exploration. (From rear jacket of book).
First published by Macmilliam in 1977 and paperback edition by Birlinn

Shackleton's Forgotten Men: The Untold Story of an Antarctic Tragedy.

(USA edition - Shackleton's Forgotten Men: The Untold Story of The Endurance).
(Australian edition - Shackleton's Forgotton Argonauts).
This has now been reprinted under the title The Last Antarctic Heroes and the publishers are describing it as a first edition - naughty goings on at Macmillan, I think. In Shackleton's Forgotten Men, Lennard Bickel honours the memory of a group of men who carried out some of the most heroic and devoted journeys ever made in the Antarctic. This is the stirring account of the little-known, tragic expedition launched by Ernest Shackleton in 1915 to provide support for his own Antarctic expedition that would follow. These journeys were made to set up depots across the Great Ice Shelf to supply the coming Shackleton expedition: a crossing of the Antarctic continent from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. But the group lost their ship and supplies when a fierce polar gale ripped the ship from its moorings, and had to haul sledges almost 2000 miles across the hostile interior of the Antarctic. Despite enduring unimaginable deprivation, from bad weather to disease and madness, this heroic band accomplished their mission, laying the way for Shackleton and his men. But Shackleton and his men never came and the drama of their own disastrous journey has until now overshadowed the extraordinary story of those brave men who came before them. Lennard Bickel tells the story of these forgotten heroes in a gripping account, drawing largely from interviews with one team member, Dick Richards, and from the diary of another. This new account underscores the capacity of ordinary men for tragedy, endurance and noble action. (This review from Amazon Books)

Mawson's Will. The Greatest Survival Story Ever Written

See also This Accursed Land - above Australian explorer Douglas Mawson chose not to go with Robert Scott to the South Pole in 1911, but instead set out to chart Antarctica's coastline. Going overland with a party of 3, he faced mountains, crevasse-filled glaciers and devastating winds. He fought his way back home alone through horrific wind, snow and cold to leave his own mark in history. This account, 1st published in 1977, has a 1999 author note that sheds new light on what killed one of his men and almost killed Mawson.

BIXBY, William

The Race To The Pole

Accounts of three main expeditions between 1901 to 1912. Published Longman Green 1961.

Robert Scott. Antarctic Pioneer

Scott's activities during the British Antarctic Expeditions in 1901-04 and 1910-13, are recounted in 15 chapters: (1) The black flag; (2) The path to the Pole; (3) South to ice; (4) Pioneer in the snow; (5) Dangerous journey; (6) Disaster and death; (7) Dog trouble; (8) Winter; (9) Heading south; (10) Race against death; (11) Prisoners in the ice; (12) Goodby to the Antarctic? (13) Return to McMurdo; (14) The long journey home; and (15) Waiting at Cape Evans. Several sledge journeys in Victoria Land were made during the first expedition. In the second expedition, Scott, heading S. via Ross Ice Shelf and Beardmore Glacier, reached the South Pole on Jan. 17, 1912, 34 days after Amundsen's arrival. Scott and his four companions died on the return journey.

The Forgotten Voyage of Charles Wilkes

Wilkes is credited with the discovery of Antarctica in December of 1839 (hence Wilkes Land in Antarctica). Although he twice faced a court martial for his alleged over-use of the cat 'o' nine tails (and was acquitted), Wilkes was awarded the Founders Medal by the Royal Geographical Society in 1847. The capricious Wilkes had a varied and controversial naval career, rising to the rank of Rear Admiral. Born in New York City on April 3, 1798, he died on February 8, 1877 in Washington, D.C. Published 1966 David McKay.

The Impossible Journey of Sir Ernest Shackleton

Published 1969 by Little Brown

BORCHGREVINK, C.E

First On The Antarctic Continent: Being an Account of the British Antarctic Expedition 1898-1900

Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink was an Antarctic explorer, whose group was the first to winter on the continental mainland. Although he was not a properly trained scientist his pioneering work in the Antarctic was valuable to later, more elaborate, scientific expeditions. A personal narrative of the 'Southern Cross' by the commander of the expedition.
Original publisher George Newnes 1901.
Facsimile edition published 1980 by McGill-Queens, with an introduction by Tore Gjelsvik, Director of the Norwegian Polar Inst.

BOWMEN, Gerald

From Scott to Fuchs.

Schoolbook summary of Antarctic exploration. Published 1960 by Evans.

BRAUGHMAN, T.H.

Pilgrims On The Ice: Robert Falcon Scott's First Antarctic Expedition

The publishers blurb states that 'In this work Antarctic historian T.H.Baughman goes beyond the personality of Scott to remove the first expedition from the shadow of the second, to study objectively its purpose, its composition, and its real accomplishments'. Published at Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press 1999.

Before The Heroes Came: Antarctic In The 1890's

Does exactly what it says on the cover, a refreshing read opening a window on Borchgrevink, Bernacchi and the earlier explorers. Pub: Nebraska Press 1994

BRENT, Peter

Captain Scott and the Antarctic Tragedy

Pub:1974 Weidenfield & Nicholas. Popular narrative on Scott's two Antarctic expeditions.

BRIGGS, Philip

Man of Antarctica : The Story of Captain Scott

Pub: 1959 Lutterworth Press. Juvenile story version of Scott's life and its finale.

BROWN, RNR & others

The Voyages of the 'Scotia'; Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration in Antarctica.

Pub: Blackwood 1906 and later published 1978 by C. Hurst. This is a first hand account of the voyage to the Antarctic Seas leaving Scotland in 1902. William Bruce was the leader and had a very successful expedition surveying the Weddel Sea.

BULL, Henrick J

The Cruise of the 'Antarctic' to the South Polar Regions

Bulls account of the Norwegian Antarctic expedition of 1894-5 sent out by Svend Foryn to investigate the regions whaling possibilities. Includes descriptions of the first landing on the continent at Cape Adare. Bull was one of four to do so the others being Captain Kristensen, Borchgrevink and Captain Jensen. Published Edward Arnold 1896