Description
The first edition, first issue of Narrative Of A Journey To The Shores Of The Polar Sea by Captain John Franklin, published in 1823.
Quarto, xvi, [errata], 768pp, [8], [maps]. Three-quarter brown calf, marbled boards, title stamped in gilt. Original spine re-laid over contemporary calf. Marbled endpapers. Bookplate of “Alexander A. Berens” and a bookseller’s description on the front pastedown. Bookplate of “John A. Davidson” on the rear pastedown. Period ownership inscription on second free endpaper.
This work is complete, with 30 engraved plates (12 hand-colored) and four folding maps, all with tissue guards, engraved by Edward Finden after drawings by Lt. Hood and Lt. George Back. General toning throughout, a few plates with light foxing along margins. Includes the errata leaf, but lacking half-title.
(Sabin 25624) (Arctic Bibliography 5194) (Field 560)
This work is the first issue, with the text ending on p. 768.
This work details John Franklin’s Coppermine Expedition (1819-1822), formally the British Arctic Land Expedition, an overland venture aimed at charting the northern coast of North America eastward from the mouth of the Coppermine River. Traveling from Hudson Bay through the Canadian interior by canoe and on foot, Franklin reached the Arctic Ocean in July 1821 and surveyed several hundred miles of previously unmapped coastline, but the return journey became catastrophic due to inadequate provisioning and harsh weather. Starvation, exposure, and disease devastated the party, resulting in eleven deaths-including murder and suspected cannibalism, yet it still produced valuable geographic data about the polar region.
