Farthest North.

£600 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

A fine copy of the second edition, with the elaborate gilt cloth decoration new to this edition, of the official account of the Fram expedition. The expedition was 'a remarkable achievement in Polar exploration' (Printing and the Mind of Man), undertaken 'with the object of investigating the polar basin north of Eurasia by drifting in the ice with the currents northwest from the New Siberian Islands across or near the Pole' (Arctic Bibliography). 'Nansen returned to international acclaim not only for the voyage itself but for its results, proof of a deep Arctic Ocean, free of any land masses or islands, and extensive data on magnetism, zoology, and oceanography. His account of the journey, Farthest North, was a worldwide bestseller and prepared him for an effective life of diplomacy' (Books on Ice). Farthest North is beautifully illustrated from photographs and from Nansen's own sketches, for which he 'claims no artistic merit', but which are nonetheless highly atmospheric and effective. Second edition; 2 vols, 8vo (23.5 x 16.5 cm); 102 plates including frontispieces, 1 colour plate, large folding map with small tear to hinge, numerous further illustrations in text, prize inscriptions to front free endpapers; publisher's original gilt pictorial cloth, all edges gilt, a fine copy; xv, 480; viii, 456 pp. PMM 384; Arctic Bibliography 11983; Books on Ice 5.2; Howgego III, N3.

• Binding: Hardcover

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