“One Of The Classics Of Antarctic Literature”
Apsley Cherry-Garrard served as assistant zoologist on Robert Scott’s 1910-12 expedition to Antarctica. While Scott set out for the South Pole, Cherry-Garrard and two companions headed for the base of Mount Terror to collect Emperor Penguin eggs; it proved a journey so treacherous that he later titled his account of this side expedition The Worst Journey in the World.
Enduring temperatures ranging from -40°f to -70°f, Cherry-Garrard shattered most of his teeth due to constant chattering. After suffering extraordinary hardships, the team ultimately collected three unhatched eggs and eventually returned to Scott’s base at Cape Evans, exhausted and frozen. Scott, in the meantime, had successfully reached the Pole only to find that a Norwegian team had beaten him there by a month.
On the return journey, plagued by blizzards and illness, Scott and his men perished; their bodies and diaries were found eight months later by a search party that included Cherry-Garrard. In 1922, Cherry-Garrard published “a very literate, detailed account of the expedition… one of the classics of Antarctic literature” (Conrad, 173).
We are pleased to offer a lovely, near-fine copy of The Worst Journey in the World, two volumes in the scarce first-issue binding. Browse our current selection.