The Home of the Blizzard. Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914
London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1930 (abridged popular edition, first thus)/ 1915.
Large octavo, xxxii, 438 pages with 18 illustrations and maps plus 3 folding maps and 92 plates (many new to this edition and never before published).
Cloth; edges lightly tanned; essentially a fine copy with the price-clipped dustwrapper a little rubbed, marked and chipped, with slight loss (mainly surface) to silverfish.
The 'Author's Preface' is illuminating: 'In this edition ... it has been my endeavour to present a connected narrative of the Expedition in a less expensive and more concentrated form than in the large two-volume work. The account has been made even more popular by the retention of only matter as is of general interest. This has necessitated the re-writing of certain sections and the revision of the whole. The illustrations in this volume, though few in number compared with those of the larger work, are many of them new and never before published, giving to this edition a special interest'. Mawson's comments about the revised text being made 'more popular' and 'of general interest' suggests a volume of lesser consequence. We have found this not to be the case, and copies of both the 1915 and the 1930 editions are essential in every polar collection.
Item #116509
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