South: The Story of Shackleton’s Last Expedition 1914-1917

An Important Association Copy from
A Member of the ‘Endurance’

This is Shackleton’s own account of his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-17) which attempted a historic first crossing of the Antarctic continent. Their fight for survival in the Weddell Sea, following the sinking of their ship ‘Endurance’ is a classic tale. This includes not only the account of their voyage into the Weddell Sea, subsequent sinking, escape to Elephant Island, and crossing of South Georgia, but also the trials of those left on Elephant Island as well as the Ross Sea party and their support of the expedition.

Leonard Hussey (1891-1964) was an English meteorologist, archaeologist, explorer, and medical doctor. He served on both Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-17) and the Shackleton-Rowett Antarctic Expedition (1921-22). During the long, forced isolation on Elephant Island, following the sinking of the ‘Endurance’, it was Hussey’s banjo playing which helped to keep up morale. Importantly, it was Hussey who did the final editing for this book. This is a wonderful association copy from someone who not only survived the sinking of the Endurance but also accompanied Shackleton’s body to South Georgia after his death during the Shackleton-Rowett expedition.

This is the fourth printing of Shackleton’s classic account of the Endurance expedition printed four months after the first printing. Improved paper was used, as the first printing used poor paper, and errors were corrected. This fourth printing also includes two additional pages to the preliminaries listing members of the Weddell Sea and Ross Sea parties and an addendum on the last index page concerning honors given to Alexander Macklin and Thomas Orde-Lees.

Additional insurance will be required for this item.

AB-USN 23-69.4, Conrad p.224, Karrow 650, Meadows 344, Renard 1463, Rosove 308.A4, Spence 1107, Stam p.100, Taurus 105.