F e a t u r e d I t e m s 12 “They Are Calling From The Wilderness, The Vast And Godlike Spaces/ The Stern And Sullen Solitudes That Sentinel The Pole”: 1909 First Edition Of The Heart Of The Antarctic, Boldly Inscribed By Shackleton In The Year Of Publication With Four Lines Of Verse 9. SHACKLETON, Ernest. The Heart of the Antarctic. Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition 1907-1909. London, 1909. Two volumes. Large octavo, original silver-stamped blue cloth. $25,000. First trade edition of Shackleton’s account of the British Antarctic Expedition of 1907-09, profusely illustrated with photographs, plans, diagrams, and three folding maps and a folding panorama, boldly inscribed and signed by the explorer in Volume I, with four lines of verse from Robert Service’s poem “The Lure of Little Voices”: “To Catherine Eckstein from her friend Ernest Shackleton the author. Dec 1909. ‘They are wanting me they’re calling me/ They are whining and they’re whimpering as if each one had a soul/ They are calling from the wilderness, the vast and godlike spaces/ The stern and sullen solitudes that sentinel the Pole.’” Shackleton first gained fame as a member of Scott’s expedition of 1901-02. Here he recounts his 1907-09 expedition which came within 100 miles of the South Pole—a record-before being forced to return due to lack of supplies (Amundsen, taking a much shorter route, reached the Pole in 1911). This was the first expedition to reach the Magnetic South Pole and the first to ascend the active volcano Mt. Erebus. Beneath his presentation inscription Shackleton has written out the third stanza of Robert W. Service’s poem “The Lure of Little Voices”—at least as well as the explorer was able to recall it. The first line in Service’s poem actually reads “Yes, they’re wanting me, they’re haunting me, the awful lonely places.” The recipient of this copy, Catherine Eckstein, was the wife of Sir Frederick Eckstein, the de Beers diamond magnate, and two days after Shackleton’s return to London she was the first to host a dinner for the explorer. It took place at their house on Park Lane on 14 June 1909, and was a lavish affair: “A green and blue gauze were put together, to look like the sea, and between the folds fishes were placed. On the top of this a large sheet of plate glass was laid, edged around with seaweed. In the center was a model of the Nimrod made entirely of flowers, the ropes done with white heather and a Union jack flying from the topmast” (The Morning Post, 17 June 1909, quoted by Roland Huntford, Shackleton, 1985). Without scarce dust jackets. Conrad, 148. Renard 1446. Some foxing to edges of text block, text and plates generally clean and fine. Spine mildly toned, gilt lettering and pictorial silver-gilt bright, cloth clean and fresh. Very nearly fine condition, a splendid inscribed copy.
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