Cherry-Garrard, Apsley
The Worst Journey in the World
Estimate: £700 - £1,000
Auction: 18 June 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
Antarctic 1910-1913. London: Constable and Company Limited, 1922. First edition, 2 volumes, 8vo, lxiv 300 [4], viii 301-585 pp., original linen-backed blue paper boards, edges untrimmed, half-titles, half-titles, 58 plates including colour frontispieces (with tissue-guards) and 10 folding panoramas, 5 maps (4 folding), spine-labels browned (volume 1 label also slightly chipped and stained), discolouration to boards, volume 1 replacement label (issued tipped to front pastedown) detached, volume 2 replacement label intact [Rosove 71.A1] (2)
Footnote
'Cherry-Garrard's book has often been referred to as the finest polar book ever written. Scott's diary left many facets of the expedition and the experiences of its men untold: it was Cherry-Garrard who pulled the entire story of the main party together. He was uniquely suited to do so. He was a member of the main party for the expedition's entire duration, had access to unpublished sources, and was the only member of the Winter Journey to survive the expedition. Most of all, he had the sensibilities and extraordinary literary genius necessary to cope with the complex and tragic subject of the Polar Journey ... The book Cherry-Garrard left behind is a monument immortalizing the expedition in the annals of Antarctic exploration and geographic exploration in general' (Rosove).