CHERRY-GARRARD (Apsley).

The Worst Journey in the World

"A WAR IS LIKE THE ANTARCTIC ... THERE IS NO GETTING OUT OF IT WITH HONOUR AS LONG AS YOU CAN PUT ONE FOOT BEFORE THE OTHER."

Antarctic 1910-1913.

First edition. 2 vols. 5 maps (4 folding) & 6 colour plates, with numerous other illustrations including several panoramas. 8vo. Original linen-backed pale blue boards, extremities slightly rubbed, with extra set of printed paper labels. lxiv, 300, [4]; viii, 310-585pp. London, Constable, 1922.

£6,000.00

The best written and most enduring account of exploits in the Antarctic” (Taurus). This is very good copy of Cherry-Garrard’s (1886-1959) renowned narrative of Scott’s Last Expedition, from the departure from England in 1910 until its return in 1913, in the preferred polar binding of linen-backed blue boards.

Educated at Winchester College and Christ Church, Oxford, Cherry-Garrard was made assistant zoologist of the Terra Nova expedition. He’s best-known for accompanying Henry Bowers and Edward Wilson on a 105-kilometre journey to collect Emperor Penguin eggs at Cape Crozier, at the eastern end of Ross Island. “No previous Antarctic expedition had attempted a major excursion during the depth of the Antarctic winter” (Howgego). They departed on 27 June, 1911, pulling two sledges with six-weeks’ rations. They passed Hut Point and Cape Armitage before ascending to the Ross Ice Shelf. Conditions were so miserable and dangerous, the dark relentless, and the weather so cold (as low as -61°C) that Cherry-Garrard famously shattered his teeth. Of the six eggs they gathered from the rookery, three broke on the return to their makeshift igloo. Inclement weather was a constant and gale-force winds blew their igloo’s canvas roof away, exposing the men to the worst of the weather. Cherry-Garrard’s sleeping bag weighed more than twelve kilograms from all the frozen sweat. They returned to Cape Evans on 1 August, the remaining three eggs miraculously intact.

Of course, there was the march to the pole, too. He accompanied Scott’s polar party as far as Beardmore Glacier, and was a member of the second-supporting party to be sent back. On 26 February, along with the dog handler, Dmitri Gerov, he set off for One Ton Depot arriving on 3 March, looking to meet and support the polar party on their return. They waited a week to no avail, and again inclement weather made travelling further south impossible. On 10 March, they deposited additional supplies and turned back. Finally, Cherry-Garrard was a member of the search party for Scott’s body which was found alongside those of Wilson and Bowers.

Like so many other Antarctic explorers, Cherry-Garrard returned home only to face fighting in World War One. He served in Belgium before being invalided out in 1916 and used his long convalescence to write The Worst Journey in the World. The intervening years meant that he was able to consult widely, drawing not only from his own experiences but also from Scott’s diaries, Thomas Griffith Taylor’s With Scott, The Silver Lining (London, 1916), George Levick’s Antarctic Penguins (London, 1914), Raymond Priestley’s Antarctic Adventure (London, 1915), William Lashley’s diary (his account in its first appearance), C.J. Wright’s otherwise unpublished diary, the meteorological logs kept by Bowers, and even, perhaps inevitably, Amundsen’s The South Pole (London, 1912).

It’s not only the best account of the Scott’s Last Expedition, it is the most considered and the most satisfying of any Heroic Age narrative. Edward Wilson’s sketches supplement the photographic illustrations.

Howgego III, S13; Rosove, 71.A1; Spence, 277; Taurus, 84.

Stock No.
253643