Home / Browse / Travel & Exploration / Arctic Explorations: The Second Grinnell Expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, 1853, '54, '55.
KANE, Elisha Kent.
Arctic Explorations: The Second Grinnell Expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, 1853, '54, '55.
Illustrated by upwards of three hundred engravings from Sketches by the Author…
First Edition. "In a brief life of thirty-six years, mostly in ill health, Elisha Kent participated in two Arctic expeditions and by the time of his death in 1857 was regarded as a true American hero and one of the nation's most popular authors … Little went right in the second expedition [but] there were many notable achievements … The discoveries of Kennedy Channel, the Kane Basin, a record north of 80° 10'N, and the sighting of the Humboldt Glacier were important firsts for Kane … The book became enormously popular (135,000 copies sold within three years), being marketed at trade shows and sold door to door, and often compared to the Bible for wide dissemination on America's bedside reading tables." (Books on Ice)
2 volumes, octavo ( 220 × 140 mm) Near contemporary half calf, marbled boards, red and black morocco labels, edges and endpapers marbled. With engraved vignette titles, engraved portrait frontispieces of Kane and Grinnell from Brady daguerreotypes, 18 engraved plates, 2 maps, one of them folding, folding isothermal chart, and numerous wood engravings in the text. A few marks internally, a very good copy in a fine binding.
