CHERRY-GARRARD, Apsley.

£30,000 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

The Worst Journey in The World: Antarctic 1910-1913. First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author in the month before publication, "To Mother with love from Apsley. November 1922." The half-title of Volume II is inscribed by the recipient, "E. E. Cherry-Garrard, from Apsley, Nov. 1922." The Worst Journey is often called "the finest polar book ever written" (Rosove).Cherry-Garrard's inscription is on the front free endpaper of Volume I. He wrote to his mother, Evelyn Edith (née Sharpin, 1857-1946), throughout the expedition, his letters expressing both his initial optimism and the expedition's worsening hardships. He wrote home only a few days after discovering the bodies of Scott, Wilson, and Bowers: "Their death was, I am quite sure, not a painful one – for men get callous after a period of great hardship – but the long fight before must have been most terrible."He was uniquely qualified to tell the full story of the Terra Nova Expedition, for he served with the main party for the entire expedition, could draw on unpublished sources, and was the sole survivor of the Winter Journey. "Cherry-Garrard seems an unlikely hero of Antarctic exploration, but he has achieved that status largely through this book" (Books on Ice).

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.