Heimsskautslöndin unaðslegu [The Friendly Arctic: The Story of Five Years in Polar Regions] ; Complete in Three Volumes, and Rendered into Icelandic

Stefánsson, Vilhjálmur (1879-1962)

Verlag: Ársæll Árnason 1938-1939, Reykjavík, Iceland, 1938

Beschreibung

pp. 339; 313; 383. 8vo's., measuring 6" x 9". Uniformly bound in three-quarters textured black leather over patterned boards, featuring gilt rules and lettering to the spines; speckled page edges. Four raised bands to spine, five compartments. Black-and-white photographic frontispieces. Richly illustrated with many black-and-white in-text maps (including four fold-out maps), remarkable photographs capturing the Arctic landscape, Stefánsson's compatriots and colleagues, the Indigenous Peoples of the region etc., additional photographic reproductions, illustrations, facsimiles, et al. Only the faintest edgewear present to the extremities (chiefly confined to the bottom edges), light creasing to the lower margin of the fold-out map in Volume II, neat ink name to the front-free endpapers of all volumes which have been discreetly covered with white stickers, otherwise, the text-blocks remain without blemish with bright, clean, and unmarked pages, and tight, sound bindings. Near fine. An exceptionally handsome, and most uncommon presentation of Stefánsson's remarkable account of his leadership of the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913 1916, and beyond; all in a rare translation into his native Icelandic. Rare in commerce in this edition, and binding. "Born in Arnes, Manitoba to Icelandic parents in 1879, the Canadian explorer Vilhjelmur Stefansson (born William Stephenson changing it to Icelandic form in 1899) grew up in North Dakota in the United States. In the first decade of the twentieth century Stefansson worked in Iceland for a time, before spending an extended period between 1906 and 1912 conducting ethnographic surveys of the Indigenous populations of the North American Arctic, spending the winter of 1906-7 with Inuit in the Mackenzie River delta in Yukon. In 1913 Stefansson organized the Canadian Arctic Expedition, arranged by the Canadian government to explore the sea west of the Parry Archipelago, the northernmost islands in the Canadian Arctic. The expedition set off from Nome, Alaska, but soon ran into trouble. The lead ship Karluk became trapped in ice and Stefansson disembarked to continue his travels, purportedly to gather provisions, but, in the eyes of the crew, in order to avoid drifting off course. The Karluk drifted westward in the ice floes, eventually being crushed in January 1914. Survivors attempted to reach Wrangel Island, north of Siberia, but many perished, either from carbon monoxide poisoning or from the severe cold. Eventually, the captain of the ship, Robert Bartlett with Inuit guide Kataktovik ventured across the sea ice first to Siberia and then to Nome, where they arrived in May 1914, and arranged a rescue party to pick up the rest of the survivors. Stefansson continued his expedition across the frozen Arctic for a further four years, discovering numerous islands that were unknown even to Inuit and better surveying many others. The Friendly Arctic is his published account of the expedition and was printed in 1922. " [Source: The Royal Collection Trust; Retrieved on Oct, 2021; The Manitoba Historical Society]. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 4104

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Heimsskautslöndin unaðslegu [The Friendly ...

Verlag: Ársæll Árnason 1938-1939, Reykjavík, Iceland

Erscheinungsdatum: 1938

Einband: Leather Bound

Auflage: First Edition.