Lines in the Ice: Marginalia

My recent talk at Shapero Rare Books gave me the opportunity to spend some time browsing catalogues and, most excitingly, shelves while I waited for guests to arrive. Rare book dealers like Shapero inhabit the same areas of London as book collectors such as Sir Joseph Banks used to house their collections and to stand in such rooms browsing these items is to be connected with this book-collecting past. I also came across a number of titles that caught my interest for being part of or related to the history told in Lines in the Ice: Exploring the Northwest Passage; the following are some of my favourites.

SHACKLETON, ERNEST HENRY; L.C. BERNACCHI; APSLEY CHERRY-GARRARD, EDITORS. The South Polar Times.Smith Elder, London, 1907-1914.

A beautiful work in its own right The South Polar Times is part of a tradition of polar printing. Arctic explorers like William Edward Parry pioneered the idea of ship’s newspapers as a way of keeping their crews stimulated during the winter months. During the search for Sir John Franklin these became popular souvenirs of Arctic voyages for the British public and The South Polar Times is a fine entry in this tradition.

DE VEER, GERRIT. The three voyages of William Barents to the Arctic regions, 1594, 1595, and 1596. First edition edited by Charles T. Beke ...1853. Second Edition, with an introduction, by Lieutenant Koolemans Beynen ...Printed for the Hakluyt Society, London, 1876

De Veer’s account of the arduous voyages of William Barents is harrowing and made all the more striking by the wood cuts which accompanied it. Showing the crew fending off polar bears and cutting channels through the ice for small boats they are a testament to the hardship and danger of polar exploration.