First edition book: Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-West Passage, and of a Residence in the Arctic Regions. First edition, large-paper issue. London: A. W. Webster, 1835. Hardcover bound in quarter-leather with marbled boards, 10.5 x 13, 740 pages, complete with its plates and folding map. Book condition: VG+/None.
John Ross’s account of his second Arctic expedition is one of the landmark narratives of polar exploration, chronicling his 1829–1833 voyage aboard the Victory and the crew’s remarkable survival after years trapped in the ice. The expedition yielded important geographic and ethnographic observations, and included the famous overland journey by James Clark Ross that identified the position of the North Magnetic Pole. This desirable large-paper first edition is especially notable for its impressive format and extensive suite of plates and maps, presenting Ross’s Arctic discoveries in one of the period’s most substantial exploration books.
