A Narrative of the Voyage of the “Belgica” Among Newly Discovered Lands and Over an Unknown Sea About the South Pole.

By Cook, Frederick A.

New York: Doubleday & McClure Co., 1900. Tall thick 8vo. [xxiv], 478 pp. Color frontispiece, illustrated with photogravure of the author, 3 color plates, over 100 illustrations — mostly black-and-white photographs, 4 maps, text figures. Original publisher’s gray-silk moiré cloth, front cover illustration of penguin, ship, and setting sun in black, white & orange-red, bright gilt and black lettering on front cover, gilt lettering on spine, top page edges in gilt, very slight shelf wear, front inner hinge starting. An excellent bright copy, signed & numbered on limitation page by the author, First Deluxe “Author’s Signed Edition,” No. 137 of 1000 copies, and signed with additional photogravure not found in the trade edition. Although the limitation page states 1000 copies, there appear to be no recorded copies numbered higher than 300, and there are often variations in the substitution of the half-titles with the photogravure & limitation pages, so it is likely that these were bound according to order. The silk moiré used in the binding is very susceptible to wear and light damage, so very few such deluxe copies have survived in this well-preserved condition. Rosove 76.A1.

This narrative has been considered by many to be one of the most absorbing of any Antarctic expedition. It provides a gripping account of the 1897-99 Belgian Antarctica Expedition commanded by Baron Gaston de Gerlache, with Roald Amundsen as first mate. Cook joined as expedition surgeon and anthropologist at Rio, a decision that would preserve the lives of most of its members. In 1898, the ‘Belgica’ became trapped in the ice, and Cook directed the crew to eat fresh meat from penguin and seal in order to fight off scurvy, as well as exercise, and pace around open fires several hours a day. Amundsen became the first person to ski in Antarctica during the expedition.

$3750.00 - S O L D