Fridtjof Nansen's "Farthest North" Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship FRAM 1893–96 and a Fifteen Months' Sleigh Journey by Dr. Nansen and Lieut. Johansen with an Appendix by Otto Sverdrup Captain of the FRAM
London: George Newnes, 1898. Two-volume set. Small quartos, black hardcovers, spines embossed with gilt lettering, edges of text blocks sprinkled in red, frontispieces, illustrated endpapers. Approximately 120 full-page plates and numerous in-text illustrations across the set, one colour plate (Volume I), one colour fold-out map (Volume II). Volume I: xv, 480 pp. Volume II: viii, 456 pp. Volume I: Spine ends bumped, small localised spots on the spine and back cover have the finish worn away (including inside edges of covers). Foxing on front and back free endpapers, two blank preliminary leaves, the half-title page and the verso colour plate. Light browning in a localised area between leaves 24 and 25 where a newspaper cutting has been stored (cutting is still loosely inserted). Light foxing on paste-down endpapers and last few leaves, but remainder of text pages and images are clean and clear.
Volume II: Spine ends bumped, small localised spots on the spine and covers have the finish worn away (including inside edges of covers). Foxing on front and back free endpapers and fold-out map, light foxing on paste-down endpapers and first and last few leaves, but remainder of text pages and images are clean and clear. Fold-out map torn in one section and has a mend on another but still complete.
Overall, a good set with clean internal text. An early edition, published one year after the first.
Dr. Fridtjof's detailed account of his and his colleagues' historic expedition to the Far North to prove Fridtjof's theory that a drift-current moved across the ice-capped polar region towards the east coast of Greenland. Not only did Fridtjof undertake the voyage, but he also designed the ship that got him and his crew there – the FRAM – to ensure he had a vessel sturdy enough to withstand the crushing pressure of the ice.
This two-volume work, illustrated with numerous evocative images, is an extraordinary account of epic adventure, trials and tribulations blended with groundbreaking scientific discovery.
Inserted loosely in Volume I between leaves 24 and 25 is a cutting of a map titled "Wilkins's Antarctic Flight.", as well as a few lines of caption, from p. 13 of the The Sydney Morning Herald dated Saturday October 27, 1928. Item #4831
Handwritten on the first leaf of each volume is the name G. L. Anderson.
Price (AUD): $150.00