QUESTION:

What do you bring to read in outer space?
What do you dream when in space?
What to bring to read in Antarctica?
What do you dream when in Antarctica?
Is there already a record of polar dreams?
Is there already a cosmonaut library list?


The Frozen Library List

half hours in the far north/ life amid snow and ice
heroes in disgrace
the worst journey in the world
through the first antarctic night
ghost ship of the pole
the marvelous wonders of the polar world
the arctic highway and its settings
the hot arctic
the land of the midnight sun
fighting the polar ice
hell on ice
mind over matter
antarctic days with mawson
narrative of a journey to the shores of the polar sea in the years 1819,1820, 1821 and 1822
of ice and men
the white desert
pack ice and tundra
amid snowy wastes
the tragedy of the italia
the sea and the ice. a naturalist in antarctica
the snow people
across the top of the world
farthest north
the last place on earth
argonauts of the south
east of the great glacier
the great frozen land
the ice age past and present
the world of ice
the devil’s labyrinth
the far north
overland to starvation cove
weird and tragic shores
arctic dreams
the threshhold of the unknown region
the arctic forests
the home of the blizzard
safe return doubtful
ice crash
beyond the frozen sea
lost in the arctic
by airplane towards the north pole
from edinburgh to the antarctic
farthest north
in northern mists
fourteen men
the arctic prairies
the heart of the antarctic
with plane, boat and camera in greenland
shadows on the wasteland
in greenland ice
in northern waters
mischief goes south
mostly mischief
the wreck of a yacht
polar bridge
thirty years in the golden north
land of the long day
diary of the terra nova
reach for the summit board game
peaks, passes and glaciers
another ascent of the world’s highest peak, qomolangma
up the grandest of the dolomites
high mountains and cold seas
to everest via antarctica
beautiful highways: the dolomites
moors, crags and caves of the high peak and the neighbor
the footpath way
the way to the mountains of the moon
the turquoise mountain
the shining mountain
on the heights
the great days
the next horizon
living on the edge
the hard years
the pilot’s book of everest
lightweight expeditions
trango the nameless tower
buddhists and glasciers of western tibet
crag, glacier and avalanche
the coldest climb
the death zone
summits and secrets
passion des hautes climes
to the third pole
untrodden peaks and unfrequented valleys
the enchanted mountains
the headless valley
occasional papers of the theory of glaciers
vertical pleasure
avalanches and snow safety
below the snow line
alpine tragedy
kingdoms of experience
pageant of lakeland
the roof of england
the white spider
in high places
my home in the alps
the first book of glaciers
abode of snow
the avalanche handbook
the perpetual hills
the big walls
the mountain
rocks for climbing
no place for men
a woman’s reach
adventure beyond the clouds
flood, fell and forest
men aspiring
on ice, snow and rock
on snow and rock
starlight and storm
a caravan of dreams
peaks and precipices
mountains of my fear
blank on th map
that untravelled world
storms of silence
this game of ghosts
touching the void
camp six
the valley of flowers
the moated mountain
mountains of the midnight sun
the mountain world
savage arena
the snows of yesteryear
conquistadors of the useless
grandmother extraordinary
high summer
hours of exercise
because it is there
hold the heights
peaks, passes and glaciers
savage snows
a slender thread
island at the edge of the world
fellwanderer
the magic islands
woman on the rope
the abode of snow
classic rock
cold climbs
two summers in the ice-wilds
in the ice world
the call of the snow
the grace of forgetting



Looking for a Frozen Library

Dear Ilana,

Many thanks for your most interesting letter! It's a further
coincidence that you are in Glasgow -- I was just there last weekend
to give a talk at the Mitchell Library. Unfortunately, I had only
two days in town, but in fact I was just around the corner from you
at a little hotel known as the "Victorian House" about a block from
the School of Art! Too bad I didn't know of your work sooner.

In answer to your very interesting questions:

Is there a record of a 'polar library' as in, a list of books that Arctic and Antarctic explorers brought with them for 'leisure' reading during expeditions?

Yes, there are a few lists of this kind which survive. Some ships
took quite a substantial library -- the "Erebus" and "Terror" were
said to have brought a library of nearly 40,000 books on their last
expedition in 1845. A very few of these -- among them a New
Testament in French, a copy of "The Vicar of Wakefield," and a book
of "Christian Melodies" -- were in fact recovered from the remains of
that expedition, and are now at the Caird library at the National
Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

Do you know of any studies or records that list or chronicle the dreams that Arctic and Antarctic explorers had while they were on expeditions to the North and South Poles?

There's no substantial study of this question that I know of --
though from the accounts in the books written by those who returned,
dreams of food and warmth ranked highest on the list. Some of Kane's
party on his second expedition in 1853-55 reported that they fell
asleep and dreamed that the north pole was a warm and pleasant place,
illuminated with trees festooned with electrical lights (what sort of
lights these were is a bit hard to imagine -- the only electric
lights in use then were carbon arc lamps!).

The best bet here would be to look through the narratives of the
principal explorers, especially those who wintered over (Parry, the
Rosses in 1829-34, Kane, the Greely party, etc.).

I'm keen to know more of your work, and of the Makrolab project

all best,

R U S S E L L