Monday, November 17, 2014

Book cover: "The Frozen North" (1911)


This seems like an appropriate vintage cover to feature as we head into a forbidding bit of wintry weather to start the week here in the Northeast.

  • Title: The Frozen North
  • Author: Edith Horton (Principal, Public Schools, City of New York)
  • Illustrator: None credited
  • Publisher: D.C. Heath & Co.
  • Year: 1911 revised edition (first edition was 1904)
  • Excerpt from preface:
    "It is hoped that this book may give our young people sufficient knowledge of the subject to enable them to read farther with intelligence, and that it may also inspire them with interest in the many expeditions that are being sent out.

    "The descriptions of the strange people who inhabit these cold countries, their dress, their ways of living, their customs, and their manners, all interest the child, and meet his natural desire to hear about other people than those living in the part of the world about him."
  • Notes: This 169-page book is subtitled "An Account of Arctic Exploration for Use in Schools." ... It contains sections about Sir John Franklin, the doomed voyage of the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror, Elisha Kent Kane, Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, the USS Jeannette, Frederick Schwatka, S.A. Andrée's ill-advised Arctic Balloon Expedition of 1897 and more. Horton is too modest. It's much more than a cursory overview. ... As a final note of ephemeral interest, here's a look at the Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Free Public Library card pocket from the inside back cover of the book.

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