COOK, FREDERICK A. 1865-1940.

Through the First Antarctic Night 1898-99. A Narrative of the Voyage of the "Belgica" among Newly Discovered Lands, and Over an Unknown Sea about the South Pole. New York: Doubleday & McClure, 1900.

Through the First Antarctic Night 1898-99. A Narrative of the Voyage of the "Belgica" among Newly Discovered Lands, and Over an Unknown Sea about the South Pole. New York: Doubleday & McClure, 1900.
8vo. Half-title, frontispiece, 76 plates, 21 illustrations and maps in text. Publisher's blue pictorial cloth gilt, upper cover with an image of a penguin on the ice with ship in the background, a penguin on spine, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Minor wear to covers, a few smudges.
Provenance: The Mark Skinner Library, Manchester, VT (bookplate and embossed stamp in title).

FIRST TRADE EDITION (issued almost simultaneously with the limited edition). A lively account, written for English language readers, which appeared before those of Gerlache and Lecointe, the expedition leaders. Frederick Cook (1865-1940) was a scientist on this difficult expedition, whose contribution was rewarded with the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society of Belgium and a British knighthood. Later he was hailed by Roosevelt as the first American to explore both Polar regions. Rosove 76.A2.b; Spence 312.