Description
The first edition of The Crossing of Antarctica, an account of the first overland crossing of Antarctica, signed by the authors, Sir Vivian Fuchs and Sir Edmund Hillary.
Octavo, xviii, 338pp. Blue cloth, title stamped in gilt on the spine. Stated “First published 1958” on the copyright page. Complete with nine maps, 30 color plates and 63 black and white illustrations. Illustrated endpapers. Text block solid, light wear to tips of the spine. In the publisher’s first state dust jacket, “30-net” retail price on the front flap, toning to the spine, a few short closed tears, archival tape repair to verso at head of the spine, a very good example.
Signed on presentation bookplate by Fuchs and signed by Sir Edmund Hillary below the bookplate.
In 1958, British explorer Sir Vivian Fuchs led the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, completing the first overland crossing of Antarctica via the South Pole. Starting from Shackleton Base on the Weddell Sea on November 24, 1957, his team traveled 2,158 miles (3,473 km) in tracked vehicles, arriving at Scott Base on the Ross Sea on March 2, 1958. The journey, conducted in cooperation with a New Zealand party led by Sir Edmund Hillary, took 99 days and gathered significant scientific data on glaciology, seismic soundings, and meteorology. The expedition was supported by air drops and depots laid by Hillary’s team, and Fuchs was knighted later that year for the achievement.
