Title: UNDER THE NORTH POLE, THE WILKINS-ELLSWORTH ...
Publisher: London : Ernest Benn
Publication Date: 1931
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Good
Edition: 1st
First UK edition. xiv, 347 printed pages. Map, portrait frontispiece & 18 black and white plates, mostly double-sided. Pages very mildly and sporadically foxed. Bookplate on front free endpaper. 15 x 22 cm. Contemporary brown cloth with gilt lettering on the spine (very slightly faded & worn) and gilt stamp for W.H.Smith & Sons Library on upper cover. Corners very slightly bumped. Sir George Hubert Wilkins MC & Bar (1888-1958) was an Australian polar explorer, ornithologist, pilot, soldier, geographer and photographer. He narrowly failed in an attempt to be the first to cross under the North Pole in a submarine (Nautilus, after Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), but was able to prove that submarines were capable of operating beneath the polar ice cap, thereby paving the way for future successful missions. The US Navy later took his ashes to the North Pole aboard the submarine USS Skate on 17 March 1959. Only two copies of this UK edition have been located, at the British Library and National Library of Scotland. Bookseller Inventory # 5022