[British Antarctic Expedition, 1907-1909]. SHACKLETON, Ernest Henry

The Heart of the Antarctic. Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907-1909. [Together with] The Antarctic Book, Winter Quarters, 1907-09

London, William Heinemann, 1909 [first edition: the deluxe large-paper issue of 'The Heart of the Antarctic', with the supplementary volume in its second - corrected - state].

Quarto (278 × 227 mm), three volumes, xlviii, 372 pages (title page printed in brown and black) with 11 in-text illustrations, plus a photogravure portrait frontispiece and 6 colour plates tipped in on brown card leaves (with captioned tissue-guards), and 105 leaves of black-and-white plates (3 double-page, most from photographs); xvi, 419 pages (title page printed in brown and black) with 38 in-text illustrations, plus a photogravure frontispiece and 6 colour plates tipped in on brown card leaves (with captioned tissue-guards), 95 leaves of black-and-white plates (1 double-page), and a folding sheet with 2 panoramas and 3 folding colour maps in an endpocket; and [2] (blank), 3-54, [2] (colophon, verso blank) pages with decorative initials printed in brown plus a double-page frontispiece, 4 colour plates mounted on grey-brown card leaves, and 6 original etchings by George Marston, the expedition artist.

Original full vellum gilt-blocked with a design of two penguins on the upper boards (Volumes 1 and 2); and original vellum-backed papered boards ('The Antarctic Book'); all three volumes are lettered in gilt on the spine, top edges gilt, others uncut; vellum very slightly rubbed and marked; top portion of the front board of 'The Antarctic Book' a little tanned; scattered light foxing (generally very unobtrusive); several leaves adjacent to the card mounts slightly discoloured; endpapers of 'The Antarctic Book' browned; a near-fine set of a most attractive production.

Number 177 of only 300 sets of this deluxe edition, signed by 16 members of the expedition on the double-page frontispiece of 'The Antarctic Book' (each page with the decorative printed heading 'The British Antarctic Expedition, 1907-1909'). The signatures comprise all 15 members of the shore party, namely Ernest H. Shackleton, Jameson Boyd Adams, Bertram Armytage, Philip L. Brocklehurst, T.W. Edgeworth David, Bernard C. Day, Ernest Joyce, A. Forbes Mackay, Eric Marshall, George E. Marston, Douglas Mawson, James Murray, Raymond Priestley, William C. Roberts, and Frank Wild, as well as the Second Officer, Aeneas L.A. Mackintosh, who had been sent back to New Zealand after losing an eye in an accident on board the 'Nimrod'.

'Shackleton began working on "The Heart of the Antarctic" soon after the party's return to New Zealand. The expedition had created a worldwide stir, so Shackleton and his publisher William Heinemann moved as quickly as possible to maximize sales. Shackleton, who could speak much more effectively than he could write, dictated much of the book to Edward Saunders, a young New Zealand newspaper reporter who had become enraptured with Shackleton during an interview for the "Lyttelton Times". Saunders accompanied Shackleton back to England as literary assistant. Progress on the narrative was rapid; most of the writing was completed during the months of August and September 1909 ... The book was an instant success ... The three-volume special edition is one of the most handsome productions in the Antarctic canon. Nothing was spared by the publisher and printer to style the volumes as beautifully as possible. The work is sumptuously bound in vellum, in large quarto format with broad margins around the typeset, and printed on thick, high-quality, deckle-edged paper specially watermarked "1907 BAE 1909". The full-page photographic plates are outstanding ... Marston's watercolors are vibrantly reproduced.... "The Antarctic Book" possesses the coup [the signed double page]' (Michael Rosove: 'Antarctica, 1772-1922', pages 385-86).

In the uncorrected first state the typesetter had broken Shackleton's poem 'Erebus' into two, mistaking the running title of his copy of 'Aurora Australis' (from which he was resetting the text) for the title of a second poem by Shackleton, giving it its own title page and an entry in the contents page. These errors were corrected in this second state (Rosove, page 387). Conrad, page 128; Spence 1096; Renard 1444; Taurus 57; Rosove 305.A2. [3 items].

Item #140635

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