The Home Of The Blizzard - Being the Story of the Australian Antarctic Expedition 1911 - 1914. Two Volumes

Along with Amundsen, Scott and Shackleton, Mawson was an expedition leader during what is known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Awarded an OBE, the was nevertheless a geologist first and explorer second and these famous, classic volumes cover the exploration in 1911 to 1914 of King George V Land and Adelie Land neither of which had been previously explored, so that the charted over 2000 miles of coastline and several glaciers. Not uncommonly having to resort to eating their huskies when food ran out and also enduring the deaths of two other expedition members Belgrave Ninnis and then Xavier Mertz, the experiences of the Mawson party were heroic in the extreme and Mawson's description of arriving solo back at base after 30 days trekking solo and then seeing his ship departing in the distance condemning him to wintering-over with scarce supplies (but fortunately with the six men who volunteered to to stay behind as a rescue mission) ,is quite unforgettable. the did return to Antarctica from 1929 to 1931 in the British, Australian,New Zealand Research Expedition that was largely government funded. These two beautiful volumes in such excellent condition are a must for an appropriate collector. As always the text block is too heavy for the board covers, but these two books are still as good or better than is usually seen.