Autograph signed letter.

SCOTT, Robert Falcon

One and half pages on a single leaf. Victoria Street, London; 26th February 1910; 4to. On British Antarctic Expedition, 1910 stationery. Written in the year he commanded his second Antarctic expedition, this letter begins with the word "Private" penned boldly above the greeting. He declines an invitation "I hope you will forgive me for writing to you candidly on this subject. My time is fully occupied and beyond the preparation for my expedition my whole effort has to be devoted to completing funds." Unlike the Discovery expedition, where fund raising was handled by the Royal Society and the Royal Geographical Society, the Terra Nova Expedition was organised as a private venture without significant institutional support. Scott estimated the total cost at £40,000 (£3 million at 2009 values), half of which was eventually met by a government grant. The balance was raised by public subscription and loans. The fund raising task was largely carried out by Scott, and was a considerable drain on his time and energy, continuing in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand after Terra Nova had sailed from British waters. The letter goes on "I have made an appeal to City Companies which has only been responded to in 3 cases and it would be a waste of my time to attend a dinner without the hope of obtaining help for my enterprise." A fascinating letter with a number of crossings out and obviously written in haste reflecting the strain Scott was under to raise funds for his final expedition to the Antartic from which he would never return. Very good, folds, a number of short tears to right margin and corners reinforced.

The Worst Journey in the World. Antarctic 1910-1913

CHERRY-GARRARD, Apsley

First edition, two volumes, 8vo, untrimmed in publisher's original cloth-backed blue-grey boards, half-titles, 48 plates (6 colour, 10 folding panoramas), 5 maps (4 folding). Illustrated with sketches made by Edward Wilson, with photographs by expedition members Debenham and Wright. With additional spine labels. The Worst Journey in the World is Cherry-Garrard's memoir of Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole in 1910–1913. It has earned wide praise for its frank treatment of the difficulties of the expedition, the causes of its disastrous outcome, and the meaning of human suffering under extreme conditions. The Worst Journey was actually that undertaken by Bowers, Wilson and Cherry-Garrard to collect three emperor penguin eggs in July 1911, which took 35 days. In the middle of the Antarctic winter, they had to survive intense blizzards and temperatures that plunged to –60C. It was pitch black and the three had to navigate by candlelight and the stars. They took turns falling into crevasses. Cherry's teeth chattered so violently that they shattered, while Wilson was blinded in one eye by a blob of boiling blubber from a camp stove. "The best written and most enduring account of exploits in the Antarctic" (Taurus 84). A near fine copy rarely found in this condition, boards slightly toned, paper spine labels browned and slightly chipped at one corner. Neat ink owner's initials to both front pastedowns.