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Product details

• Format Paperback | 168 pages
• Dimensions 211 x 297 x 10mm | 500g
• Publication date 31 Aug 2015
• Publisher CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Publication City/Country Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Language English
• Edition Student edition
• Edition Statement Student
• Illustrations note Worked examples or Exercises
• ISBN10 0521180368
• ISBN13 9780521180368
• Bestsellers rank 1,021,476

Cambridge Library Collection

Various titles, $37.99 - $75

Cambridge University Press


Reviewed by Russell A. Potter



It's not often that we review multiple titles in a single notice -- but this case is exceptional. There's no other single publisher who offers such a range of classic expedition narratives, and it would seem unfair to single out any one of these many volumes. Chosen in consultation with the Scott Polar Research Institute, they represent the widest array of classic Arctic book currently in print and available from any publisher I know. And, though it's quite true that the majority of them can be read for free online via Google Books or archive.org, there's something about these particular books -- and these particular reprints -- that makes obtaining them as actual, physical books a particular value.

Over past decades, a number of publishers have reprinted books such as these -- classics in their field which have long gone out of print -- and sold them, primarily to the library market. Many of these books were "blowbacks" -- printed from microfilm -- and sometimes left something to be desired, as when large-format books were reprinted in a smaller trim size, resulting in painfully small print. Such troubles also plague online books, which in many cases replicate the errors of careless scanning or filming -- maps photographed folded, bent pages obscuring text, foxing, and missing pages. As someone whose first job out of college was editing microfilm collections for Research Publications (now Primary Source Media), I appreciate that these things do happen -- but when they're not caught, the value of the copy declines significantly.

And this, to my mind, is the best thing about these Cambridge reprints. They're freshly scanned from originals held by Cambridge libraries, and extra care is taken that each page is faithfully reproduced. Equally importantly, they're generally done in the same trim size as the originals, which gives them a welcome readability -- and heft -- which others lack. There's something truly extraordinary, I've discovered, about reading volumes such as Charles Francis Hall's narrative of his second Arctic expedition, with all of the in-line illustrations and text at full size -- it feels just as good as reading the original (and far more convenient, as copies in good shape are scarce, and generally don't circulate outside libraries).

The Press's blog recently featured a variety of books by or relating to Sir John Franklin, some of which, such as Dr. King's, are scarce indeed, and all of which look to be handsomely presented. There are some other titles, too, that this list (inadvertently, I'm sure) missed: the Memoirs of Lieutenant Joseph René Bellot, the Memorial Sketch of the Life of John Irving, and Sir John Richardson's Arctic Searching Expedition, each of which offers a unique primary-source glimpse of the pathos and curiosity which surrounded the search for Franklin. Amercian Arctic figures are not neglected -- Isaac I. Hayes's The Open Polar Sea is available, and Dr. Elisha Kent Kane's Grinnell narratives are soon to be released. It fires the imagination to think of the reference library one could amass at home, without the cost and anxiety of finding original editions.

These volumes, I should note, are not inexpensive -- the prices, in general, are geared to the library market -- but given their quality, are eminently reasonable. Those who are willing to do business with amazon.com will find that most are available there at a discount. According the the publishers, they've found that a surprising proportion of recent sales have been to individuals, and I'm sure that's a trend that will continue. For all the vaunted revolution of electronic books, there are some -- these among them -- which really can't be appreciated if they don't take up some space on a shelf, and in one's hands.

UPDATE: I've since found this link to the complete Polar/Arctic list.

Product details

• Format Paperback | 182 pages
• Dimensions 219 x 276 x 8mm | 480g
• Publication date 25 May 2018
• Publisher CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Publication City/Country Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Language English
• Edition Revised
• Edition Statement 5th Revised edition
• Illustrations note Worked examples or Exercises
• ISBN10 1108438881
• ISBN13 9781108438889
• Bestsellers rank 6,869

Product details

• Format Paperback | 438 pages
• Dimensions 170 x 244 x 23mm | 690g
• Publication date 16 Aug 2011
• Publisher CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Publication City/Country Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Language English
• Illustrations note 41 Printed music items; 1 Tables, unspecified
• ISBN10 052180471X
• ISBN13 9780521804714
• Bestsellers rank 717,618

Product details

• Format Mixed media product | 304 pages
• Dimensions 195 x 263 x 13mm | 740g
• Publication date 03 Aug 2015
• Publisher CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Publication City/Country Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Language English
• Edition Revised
• Edition Statement 3rd Revised edition
• Illustrations note Worked examples or Exercises
• ISBN10 1107539307
• ISBN13 9781107539303
• Bestsellers rank 10,911

Product details

• Format Mixed media product | 190 pages
• Dimensions 220 x 276 x 8mm | 590g
• Publication date 31 Jan 2014
• Publisher CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Publication City/Country Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Language English
• Edition Student edition
• Edition Statement Student
• Illustrations note Worked examples or Exercises
• ISBN10 1107625084
• ISBN13 9781107625082
• Bestsellers rank 28,571

Product details

• Format Paperback | 479 pages
• Dimensions 190 x 245 x 25mm | 890g
• Publication date 29 Jan 2010
• Publisher CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Publication City/Country Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Language English
• Edition Revised
• Edition Statement 2nd Revised edition
• ISBN10 0521712041
• ISBN13 9780521712040
• Bestsellers rank 11,966

Product details

• Format Mixed media product | 176 pages
• Dimensions 219 x 276 x 7mm | 540g
• Publication date 20 Jan 2014
• Publisher CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Publication City/Country Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Language English
• Edition Revised
• Edition Statement 2nd Revised edition
• Illustrations note Worked examples or Exercises
• ISBN10 1107422108
• ISBN13 9781107422100
• Bestsellers rank 64,347

Product details

• Format Hardback | 336 pages
• Dimensions 157 x 235 x 23mm | 630g
• Publication date 25 Feb 2013
• Publisher CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Publication City/Country Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Language English
• Illustrations note 11 Tables, black and white; 31 Line drawings, unspecified
• ISBN10 1107033497
• ISBN13 9781107033498
• Bestsellers rank 1,097,089

Product details

• Format Hardback | 200 pages
• Dimensions 160 x 235 x 15mm | 470g
• Publication date 24 May 2018
• Publisher CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Publication City/Country Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Language English
• ISBN10 0521573440
• ISBN13 9780521573443
• Bestsellers rank 98,891

Product details

• Format Paperback | 76 pages
• Dimensions 127 x 203 x 5mm | 90g
• Publication date 26 Jan 2012
• Publisher CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Publication City/Country Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Language English
• Illustrations note Worked examples or Exercises
• ISBN10 0521158516
• ISBN13 9780521158510

Product details

• Format Hardback | 200 pages
• Dimensions 160 x 235 x 15mm | 470g
• Publication date 24 May 2018
• Publisher CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Publication City/Country Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Language English
• ISBN10 0521573440
• ISBN13 9780521573443
• Bestsellers rank 98,891

Product details

• Format Paperback | 384 pages
• Dimensions 152 x 228 x 22mm | 550g
• Publication date 28 Feb 2019
• Publisher CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Publication City/Country Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Language English
• Illustrations note Worked examples or Exercises; 21 Tables, black and white; 38 Line drawings, black and white
• ISBN10 1108468608
• ISBN13 9781108468602
• Bestsellers rank 803,738

Product details

• Format Paperback | 484 pages
• Dimensions 138 x 216 x 23mm | 670g
• Publication date 04 Nov 2015
• Publisher CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Publication City/Country Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Language English
• Illustrations note 2 Maps
• ISBN10 0521796644
• ISBN13 9780521796644
• Bestsellers rank 802,163

Product details

• Format Mixed media product | 208 pages
• Dimensions 198 x 264 x 11mm | 470g
• Publication date 29 Dec 2018
• Publisher CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Publication City/Country Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Language English
• Edition Revised
• Edition Statement 2nd Revised edition
• Illustrations note Worked examples or Exercises
• ISBN10 110868601X
• ISBN13 9781108686013
• Bestsellers rank 15,126

Product details

• Format Paperback | 260 pages
• Dimensions 138 x 217 x 12mm | 370g
• Publication date 08 Jun 2012
• Publisher CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Publication City/Country Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Language English
• Illustrations note 2 Maps
• ISBN10 0521708869
• ISBN13 9780521708869
• Bestsellers rank 477,308

Product details

• Format Paperback | 272 pages
• Dimensions 155 x 234 x 16mm | 530g
• Publication date 01 Jan 2002
• Publisher CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Imprint Greenwich Medical Media Ltd
• Publication City/Country Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Language English
• Illustrations note 20 Line drawings, unspecified
• ISBN10 1841100706
• ISBN13 9781841100708

Product details

• Format Mixed media product | 391 pages
• Dimensions 196 x 264 x 18mm | 860g
• Publication date 01 Sep 2015
• Publisher CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Publication City/Country Cambridge, United Kingdom
• Language English
• Edition Revised
• Edition Statement 4th Revised edition
• Illustrations note Worked examples or Exercises
• ISBN10 1107539331
• ISBN13 9781107539334
• Bestsellers rank 5,562

Writing Arctic Disaster: Authorship and Exploration

by Adriana Craciun


Cambridge: Cambridge UP, $120 (hardcover); $70 (Kindle)


Reviewed by Russell A. Potter



In the wake of the renewed interest in the history of the Franklin expedition and those who searched for it, we are beginning to see two different  -- yet complementary -- phenomena: First, a fresh effort to better understand what went wrong, and with it why the search still inspires such passionate feeling; and second, an emerging body of scholarship that points the way to a more critical consideration of the larger mythos of Franklin, and of Arctic exploration generally. Adriana Craciun's Writing Arctic Disaster is, as it were, the flagship of this second fleet, gathering together recent scholarly work and using it as the foundation for a reconsideration of the old myths and counter-myths that have, at times, trapped scholarly perspectives in an icy tomb just as unchanging and sterile as the graves of Franklin's men on Beechey Island. Sartain's engraving of these graves, based on a watercolor by James Hamilton (based in turn on a sketch by Dr. Elisha Kent Kane), fittingly appears on the cover of this new study.

Craciun opens her book with a reference to Nietzsche's (in)famous consideration of historiography, in which he distinguishes three sorts of history: the monumental, the archaeological, and the critical. Each, in its extremes, has its flaws: the monumental 'leaps from mountain-top to mountain-top,' often missing the complexities of the valleys in its urge to hammer out a race of heroes; the archaeological can get lost in minutiæ, becoming only the 'restless raking-together of everything that has been thought and said.' It's the last sort -- the critical -- 'history which judges, and condemns' -- that Craciun seeks to pursue, though not to such an extent that it damages the previous two (Nietzsche's prescription, after all, was for a balance of all three forms).

Craciun argues that, for too long, we have experienced the Franklin story, along with others of explorers in extremis, in a manner rather too similar to that of our Victorian forebears. Like them, we read the explorers' original narratives, letting the woodcuts and engravings with which they were illustrated carry us north on imaginary wings; like them, we dote over relics, seeking amidst spoons and eyeglasses the vital clues which might solve it all; like them, we take it for granted that exploration is a vital human impulse, as old as time, and dating back to the first moment that the earliest women and men wondered what was over the next hill.

She's right, of course. And so, as a remedy to this head-ache of anachronistic proportions, she alternately applies the salve of the archaeological and the sharp astringency of the critical, both to good effect. The enmeshment of exploration in the culture of print, and in the nineteenth-century's vast expansions of literacy and utility, is aptly observed; drawing here upon work such as Janice Cavell's Tracing the Connected Narrative, as well as upon the theoretical work of de Certeau and Foucault, she gives us, as it were, a genealogy of the fascination with Arctic disaster.

Her first chapter, "Arctic Archives: Victorian Relics, Sites, Collections," is the most exemplary of these; where others have seen the Franklin relics mainly as clues in a detective story about loss, she emphasizes their ambiguity, uncertainty, and hybridity:

Beginning with the earliest collections of Franklin disaster debris, not only the message but the relics themselves were indistinct and unstable artifacts verging on ecofacts, further losing ontological cohesion and categorical integrity as searches proliferated more objects and they in turn more questions.

As instances of this, she notes the many items that had been repurposed by Inuit, some still showing the maker's marks of their British manufacturers; here was the Empire not merely ended, but mended, turned to native purposes and verging on the sort of anthropological artifaction that might attend a Kwakiutl mask or a Samoan spear. Each new search, of course, added to this store, but this accumulation of relics failed to clear up the mystery, offering instead only a "broken syntax" that could never be assembled into a coherent sentence.

The chapter following takes a step further back in time, to Franklin's first land expedition, which -- with its resulting narrative, published as were to be nearly all others, in a quarto edition by John Murray -- she sees as the cornerstone of what she calls 'polar print culture.' She includes Mary Shelley's Frankenstein among these texts, and demonstrates how, in one sense, Franklin's failure in his first foray was shadowed by his "perpetual disappointment with the land's bewildering resistance to [his] aesthetic expectations." And yet, in the end, the illustrated edition of his narrative reiterated those expectations, omitting to depict those incidents of starvation and cannibalism beside which boot-eating was merely a minor sin.

Chapters 3 & 4 take us further back still, to the era prior to Barrow's flurry of Naval expeditions, when gentleman adventurers (the latter a word which originally referred to the venturing of capital, not lives) first sailed into uncharted waters. The central section of this chapter offers a critical account of James Knight's prior Arctic disaster. Knight, of course, was looking for copper, and so his demise pre-dates the ideology of the disinterested scientific 'explorer,' but it certainly laid some of the foundation. These chapters also feature some quite remarkable images, both of the elaborate manuscripts that the Hudson's Bay men prepared, and their inscriptions upon stone, each of which with their bold serifs seemed almost willing to claim pre-eminence by letterform alone.

Of more particular interest to those who approach this book with a Franklin fascination, Chapter 5 offers a fresh consideration of Frobisher's voyages, along with Hall's recovery of relics from sites identified by the Baffin Island Inuit. Many have dismissed Hall's discoveries there, and as Craciun notes, the items he brought back had "none of the photogenic and affective power of the personal effects and scientific instruments found by the Franklin searches." Nevertheless, they formed an important connection, what she calls the 'rediscovery' of early modern voyages, that dovetailed perfectly with the emergent interest in writing the backstory of exploration, and of establishments such as the Hakluyt Society.

The book concludes with an epilogue in which Craciun turns her critical faculties upon what she calls the "twenty-first century reinvention of Franklin's legacy." Much of it, including the support of the former Harper government and petrochemical companies, she views dimly, seeing a sad admixture of "Imperial nostalgia" and a return to a new, yet no less false monumental sense of history. There's certainly some truth to this, but I don't agree with her that the Franklin story is, ultimately, a distraction (though if so, 'tis a pleasant one). As an embodiment of the ultimate question of why we explore -- past, present, and future -- Franklin's disaster seems to me to offer a stark reminder of risk, rather than a rear-view mirror of lionization. And it's that element of willing risk -- of lives, of time, of materiel -- that is, in the end, the vital part of discovery. Still, Craciun is right to remind us that that word -- discovery -- along with (ad)venture -- is always in danger of being collapsed back into a merely capitalistic exercise. In both senses, it's a cautionary tale.

NB: The book is printed in a large octavo format, on moderately high-surface paper, which shows the numerous well-reproduced illustrations to good effect. Cambridge University Press, so far, has made this book available only as a hardcover priced for the library market at $120, with a Kindle version available for $70. While the academic language of the book may initially pose a challenge for some readers, the book is nevertheless of broad interest, and it's to be hoped that, before too long, an affordable trade paperback will be made available, or the price of the e-book reduced.

Product details

• Format Paperback | 540 pages
• Dimensions 140 x 210 x 35.05mm | 490g
• Publication date 01 Jul 1975
• Publisher HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Publication City/Country Cambridge, Mass, United States
• Language English
• Edition Facsimile
• Edition Statement Facsimile edition
• Illustrations note 1 halftone
• ISBN10 0674637526
• ISBN13 9780674637528
• Bestsellers rank 514,334