PEARY, Robert.

The deluxe signed limited edition signed by Peary. The narrative of Peary's final polar expedition that culminated in him becoming the first man to reach the North Pole.

Born in Pennsylvania in 1856, Robert Edwin Peary was an American explorer who faced great criticism in his day for claiming to be the first person to have reached the geographic North Pole. It is now suspected that he may have been 30 to 60 miles short of the Pole, but is still credited with the achievement.

Peary was obsessed with the idea of being first to the North Pole. To prepare for his goal, between 1886 and 1897, Robert E. Peary led five expeditions to Greenland and Arctic Canada. After departing from New York City on July 16, 1905, aboard the Roosevelt, Peary sledged to within 175 miles of the Pole in 1906. Melted ice blocking the sea path thwarted the mission's (Peary's 1905-1906 expedition had been backed by President Theodore Roosevelt, and his team was subsequently armed with the Roosevelt, which was considered a state-of-the-art vessel at the time and had the ability to cut through ice.)

On a new expedition in 1909, once again via the Roosevelt, but this time employing 24 men, 19 sledges and 133 dogs, Peary finally succeeded in reaching it—or at least he claimed to have. Leading a party that consisted of himself, his African-American assistant Matthew Henson, and the Inuits Ootah, Egingwah, Seegloo and Ooqueah, Peary had to fight against moving ice floes that may have caused him to miscalculate his position.

'Commander Peary has made all dwellers in the civilized world his debtors ... He has performed one of the great feats of our time; he has won high honour for himself and for his country; and we welcome his story of the triumph which he won in the immense solitudes of the wintry north.' (From Theodore Roosevelt's introduction).