Arctic

The Arctic explorers of the 19th century were the equivalent of 20th century astronauts, heroic figures who crossed the borders of the known world, amidst cold and darkness, searching for the North-West Passage and the North Pole, fêted on their return or universally mourned if they failed to do so. Exclusively for the Folio Society, Arctic historian Fergus Fleming has selected 28 first-hand expedition accounts and over 100 images to tell the great adventure of Arctic exploration, from Buchan, Franklin and Ross's 1818 exploits with walrus and Inuit to American Robert Peary's 1909 (now doubtful) conquest of the Pole. And all via the greatest Arctic story of all, the mysterious disappearance of John Franklin and the entire crew of the Erebus and Terror. These fabulous true tales are illustrated with paintings, photographs, artefacts, made-on-the-spot drawings and watercolours, with narrative captions and expedition introductions by Fleming. A binding design by Tom Etherington of wonderful darkness and foreboding strikes the perfect note for a story full of adventure, hardship and bravery, all just to be able to say, 'Mine eyes are the first to have ever looked upon this scene, mine the touch that has awakened the sleeping princess.'

The search for the North Pole and the North-West Passage was a magnificent obsession of 19th century Britain and America. Fergus Fleming tells the story of these two great quests through word and image – extracts from the diaries and expedition accounts of the explorers themselves, original drawings and watercolours, ephemera, superb photography and glorious Arctic landscape paintings. Beginning in 1818 with an early (and naive) British expedition to search for the North-West Passage and concluding in 1909 with American Robert Peary's achievement of the North Pole (or so he thought), Arctic is full of incredible stories of sheer survival, outright determination and encounters in unknown lands almost unimaginable today.