Rare Finds - A Guide to Rare Book Collecting

“A Bona-Fide English Hero”

In August 1907, Ernest Shackleton, who had initially gained fame as a member of Scott’s 1901-02 expedition, left London as commander of his own expedition on board the Nimrod. He achieved worldwide acclaim for having reached within 97 miles of the South Pole, almost four years before Amundsen’s and Scott’s expeditions would finally reach the Pole itself.

Shackleton would later recall the expedition as “high adventure, strenuous days, lonely nights, unique experiences, and above all, records of unflinching determination, supreme loyalty, and the generous self-sacrifice on the part of my men.” The Heart of the Antarctic is his record of the Nimrod expedition; Heinemann issued a special limited large-paper issue of only 300 numbered copies that - in addition to being printed on much larger, handmade paper than the two-volume trade edition - included an additional volume, The Antarctic Book, which was signed by Shackleton and every member of the expedition.

We are pleased to offer a splendid copy of this very rare deluxe edition - this copy additionally inscribed and personally presented in 1911 by Shackleton himself - complete with The Antarctic Book, in publisher’s lovely vellum-gilt bindings. Browse other Shackleton items.