Farthest North".: Being the record of a voyage of exploration of the ship Fram 1893-96 and of a fifteen months' sleigh journey by Dr. Nansen and Lieut. Johansen with an appendix by Otto Sverdrup captain of the Fram. About one hundred and twenty full page and text illustrat

London: George Newnes, Ltd,, 1898. Second UK edition, issued a year after the first, and the first to be bound in the distinctive elaborately decorated cloth. This is the official account of the first Fram expedition of 1893-6, "a remarkable achievement in Polar exploration" (PMM). This copy has Nansen's signature, dated 19 February 1893, on a paper sheet sometime affixed to the front free endpaper. The expedition was undertaken "with the object of investigating the polar basin north of Eurasia by drifting in the ice with the currents northwest from the New Siberian Islands across or near the Pole" (Arctic Bibliography). "Nansen returned to international acclaim not only for the voyage itself but for its results, proof of a deep Arctic Ocean, free of any land masses or islands, and extensive data on magnetism, zoology, and oceanography. His account of the journey, Farthest North, was a worldwide bestseller and prepared him for an effective life of diplomacy" (Books on Ice). Farthest North is beautifully illustrated from photographs and from Nansen's own sketches, for which he claims no artistic merit, but which are nonetheless highly atmospheric and effective. Like many of the polar books from the heroic age, this is a superbly produced work. Two volumes, octavo. Original green cloth over bevelled boards, spines lettered in gilt, decorative details on spines in gilt and silver, front covers elaborately blocked in gilt, silver, and red. Chromolithographed plate, colour folding map, illustrations in the text, many full-page. Ownership stamp of one "E.M. Copland" on half-title in vol. I and title page in vol. II. Slightly rubbed and mottled, joints with minor cockling, endpapers toned, occasional spotting or offsetting. A very good copy. Arctic Bibliography 11983; Books on Ice 5.2; Howgego III N3; Printing and the Mind of Man 384 (for the Norwegian edition).