Our September 14th auction features several signed letters from Douglas Mawson. Below are details of a few these rare and fascinating items.
Typed Signed Memo from Sir Douglas Mawson
A One page typed memo on letterhead headed The University of Adelaide, concerning the shipping of Antarctic rocks collected on the expedition from Sydney to Adelaide. Signed at the bottom in ink from Douglas Mawson. There is a note in another hand “Dear Cotton Will you be so good as to have this matter attended to as soon as possible” There is an illegible signature here. Then another hand written note on the page says “Rocks shipped as requested”. $800 – 1000
Typed Signed letter from Sir Douglas Mawson
A Three page typed letter on letterhead “The Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911-1914″ Dated Adelaide 14th Nov 1915. A very good letter from Mawson to a fellow member of his expedition. It concerns the rocks and minerals collected in the Antarctic and the best keeping place for these items after proper scientific research on them has been completed. The letter is addressed to My Dear Cotton and is signed in ink ” from very sincerely Douglas Mawson” There is also a note on the first page in Mawson’s hand and this is initialed DM. $1000 – 1500
Handwritten letter from Sir Douglas Mawson
A very good, 25-lined handwritten letter in ink from Sir Douglas Mawson on University of Adelaide letterhead undated (Saturday). Written to a fellow member of his expedition. It concerns the rocks and minerals collected in the Antarctic and the best keeping place for these items after proper scientific research on them has been completed. The handwriting is difficult and I am unable to decipher to whom the letter is addressed. It states ” The South Australian Government recently (?) advised me that they had decided to do all our printing of the scientific reports in the Govt Press. We are sending some matter along forthwith. They will be in quarto volumes mush as those of Scott and Shackleton – Royal Institute. Please tell Browne…..” $1000 – 1500 View the catalogue here!
The September 14th auction features an amazing collection of polar exploration titles. This includes a beautiful signed copy of The South Pole by Amundsen. The first expedition to reach the geographic South Pole was led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. He and four others arrived at the pole on 14 December 1911, five weeks ahead of a British party led by Robert Falcon Scott as part of the Terra Nova Expedition. Amundsen and his team returned safely to their base, and later learned that Scott and his four companions had died on their return journey.
Also for sale are first editions of The Heart of the Antarctic, a work that takes its place among the great records of adventure. Shackleton here tells the quite remarkable story of the British Antarctic expedition of 1907 to 1909. Shackleton and his men made it to within 97 miles of the South Pole, experiencing along the way every hardship possible, then returning to their wooden ship before the ice crushed it.
We have a first edition of the scarce title, The Worst Journey in the World. This is a memoir of the 1910–1913 British Antarctic Expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott. It was written and published in 1922 by a survivor of the expedition, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, and has earned wide praise for its frank treatment of the difficulties of the expedition, the causes of its disastrous outcome, and the meaning (if any) of human suffering under extreme conditions.