A lovely copy of this magnificent book. It is further distinguished in having belonged to Sir Philip Brocklehurst (1887-1975), who served as assistant geologist on the Nimrod Expedition and was awarded the Polar medal and clasp in 1909. He later inscribed it beneath the limitation statement in his distinctive hand “To Maud from Philip.” Furthermore, it includes a loosely inserted ALS from Shackleton to Brocklehurst.
“The most luxurious publication ever to have appeared during the heroic age of Antarctic exploration, recording the exploits of the one British expedition to have been crowned with popular success” (Taurus).
The most bibliographically ambitious expedition of the Heroic Age, this beautiful vellum bound set is the official narrative of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1907-1909 British Antarctic Expedition in the ship Nimrod. Released in a limited run of 300 copies, the edition de luxe has the additional third volume, not present with the trade edition of the same year. This volume, separately titled The Antarctic Book, includes the signatures of Sir Ernest Shackleton and every member of the shore party as well as Aeneas MacKintosh, who was invalided out following a tragic accident shortly after arriving at McMurdo Sound, which cost him an eye. The two Australian members of the expedition, Douglas Mawson and Edgeworth David, have signed on a separate facing leaf, no doubt to simplify the process of collecting the signatures internationally. It also contains reproductions of colour portraits of members of the southern party, woodcuts made by Mawson, and a poem by Shackleton. In the introduction, Shackleton counts Brocklehurst among several crew memebers whose photographs “secured often under circumstances of exceptional difficutly” are included in the book. As usual, this is the second corrected state of The Antarctic Book.
In the field of Antarctic book collecting, this impressive publication is only surpassed by the expedition’s other remarkable achievement, the Aurora Australis. Written, printed and bound in the hut at Cape Royds during the winter of 1908, it seems only fitting that an expedition which produced such a substantial milestone in book production would seek to commemorate the official narrative with a sumptuous deluxe set such as this. Indeed, when considering the meeting points of fine printing and expedition texts in the early twentieth century it’s hard to imagine that T.E. Lawrence would not have held this book as a benchmark for his 1926 Cranwell edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Even the paper for The Heart of the Antarctic was carefully considered and commissioned from Van Gelder Zonen, incorporating the custom watermark “1907 BAE 1909.”
Nimrod was Sir Ernest Shackleton’s first foray into captaincy, following his participation in Scott’s Discovery expedition of 1901-1904. Neither of these missions fulfilled their primary objectives of reaching the pole, though Shackleton, Marshall, Adams and Wild did achieve a new Farthest South of 88° 23’ S in their attempt, a mere 97.5 nautical miles shy. They also ascended Mount Erebus for the first time (Brocklehurst was among that party and suffered frost-bite in the process), and Edgeworth David’s party reached the estimated location of the South Magnetic Pole.
Philip Lee Brocklehurst came to Shackleton’s attention in two ways - first and foremost, he contributed 10% of the funds needed for the expedition. Second, and this is perhaps typical of Shackleton and his legend, he was impressed by Brocklehurst’s career as an amateur boxer: he represented Cambridge in 1905, 1906 and 1907.
As shown in the accompanying letter dated April 14, 1919, the warm relationship between the two men continued after the expedition. At the time of writing, Brocklehurst was serving in the 9th Sudanese Battalion of the Egyptian Army. In the letter, Shackleton apologises for not replying previously “as I was as usual in a wild rush,” then adds “but I sent your application for the R.G.S. [Royal Geographical Society] on at once and asked the secretary whom I know to have it seconded and passed through immediately: I know that it will be done without delay.“
If ever a candidate was well-qualified for the R.G.S., it was Brocklehurst. He was the last survivor of Shackleton’s British Antarctic Expedition. Mount Brocklehurst (76°08’ S 161°27’ E) in Victoria Land is named after him.
Rosove, 305 A.2; Spence, 1096; Taurus, 57.
