47 57CHERRY-GARRARD, Apsley. The Worst Journey in the World: Antarctic 1910-13. London, 1922. Two volumes. Octavo, original half white cloth, gray paper boards; two custom slipcases. $28,500 First edition, rare first issue, of Cherry-Garrard’s firsthand account of the most famous of Antarctic expeditions, richly illustrated. The personal copy of Cherry-Garrard, with his ownership signatures, and later the copy of noted Everest climber Michael Ward. Cherry-Garrand also annotated page 327 (Volume II) in his own hand and initialed the notation. Cherry-Garrard served as assistant zoologist on Robert Scott’s tragic 1910-12 expedition to Antarctica. Dr. Wilson chose Bowers and Cherry-Garrard as his companions for a winter journey in 1911 to Mount Terror to collect Emperor Penguin eggs. “Scott described their journey as ‘the hardest that has ever been made’—a phrase which later suggested to Cherry-Garrard the title of his narrative of the fortunes of the whole expedition: The Worst Journey in the World” (DNB). “A very literate, detailed account of the expedition… one of the classics of Antarctic literature” (Conrad, 173). Cherry-Garrard’s lengthy annotation on page 327 (Volume II), which discusses the measurement of polar temperatures, is initialed by him at the end. Rare first issue, in original half white cloth. “Only relatively few copies of the first edition were actually bound up… A second issue, bound in durable blue cloth, rapidly made its way onto the market” (Taurus 84). Without original dust jackets, so rare as to be virtually unobtainable, but with extra paper spine labels, as issued. With ownership signatures and bookplates of Michael Ward, the physician on Sir John Hunt’s successful 1953 Everest expedition. Interiors fine, with usual toning to white cloth spines and light soiling to paper boards. A fine copy, with outstanding provenance. “I Have No Doubt We Could Have Had Several Minus Eighty Something Temperatures…”
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