Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - August - 2009 Issue

Arctic and Canadiana from Bjarne Tokerud

The Arctic and Canada from Bjarne Tokerud.


By Michael Stillman

Bjarne Tokerud Bookseller has issued a new catalogue of the Arctic and Canadiana. The catalogue is filled with accounts of explorations and adventures in places ranging from challenging to downright inhospitable. It makes a great read during the dog days of summer, when the cold of the Arctic and northern Canada almost sounds inviting. Of course, it isn't, which is why these adventures are so exciting from the comfort of our summertime homes. Here are a few of the items on tap for this month's adventures into the frozen north.

Englishman William Parry was one of the greatest of northern explorers. He headed three attempts to find a northwest passage, as well as participating on an earlier attempt by Sir John Ross. He never found it, but did much to map and explore the seas north of the Canadian mainland. A separate journey from Spitsbergen to reach the North Pole similarly was not a success, though it did take him farther north than any explorer before him. Parry is noted not only for his discoveries, but his great attentiveness to the needs and comfort of his crew under inevitably trying circumstances. Item 55 is his Journal of a Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, published in 1824. Priced at $1,800.

Parry's voyages may not have achieved total success, but at least he returned to tell about them. Not so American explorer George DeLong. DeLong set out from California under the auspices of the U.S. Navy to find a route to the North Pole. His ship got trapped in sea ice well short of his destination. The men escaped in three small boats, one of which was lost, one of which was rescued, and the third of which reached the Siberian coast. DeLong was with the third group. Outside of two scouts sent to look for help, all of the crewmen who made it to Siberia, DeLong included, died while awaiting rescue. Item 24 was prepared from DeLong's journal and the accounts of survivors: The Voyage of the Jeannette, the ship and ice journals of George W. DeLong. Edited by his wife, Emma DeLong, published in 1884. $300.

One of the great early 19th century explorations was that of Adam Johann von Krusenstern, perhaps not that well known in the West as it was conducted under the Russian flag. It was the first Russian circumnavigation, with stops in South America, California, Hawaii, China and Japan, as well as the northeastern portions of Russia, which included Alaska at the time. The purpose of the trip was both exploration of the various locations and setting up of trade, particularly the fur trade between North America and China. Item 3 is the first English edition of Krusenstern's Voyage Round the World, in the Years 1803...1806, by Order of His Imperial Majesty Alexander the First... $22,000.

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    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
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    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
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    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
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    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
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    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
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    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
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    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
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