A Tale Of The Antarctic
THE EARLIEST PUBLISHED ANTARCTIC POETRY
Thulia A Tale Of The Antarctic
Published by Samuel Colman, 1843.
First edition. 8vo. Bound in the publisher's deluxe presentation binding of green morroco with extra gilt. All edges gilt. Inscribed by Victorine Putnam (wife of the publisher G.P. Putnam) to Mrs Newton on the first blank: "Mrs Newton from her friend Victorine H. Putnam." Woodcut frontispiece, two full-page woodcuts and nine further woodcuts as head- and tailpieces and vignettes. A very good copy indeed, with a little rubbing to the binding and a little foxing to the page margins.
A most uncommon account - in the form of two epic poems - of the United States Exploring Expedition of 1838-42. It is the only surviving account of the USS Flying Fish from the expedition, and also constitutes the earliest published Antarctic poetry.
Palmer explains in his preface that "the following Poem is a true story of the incidents more minutely detailed in the Appendix, to which the reader is referred for a narrative prepared from the journals of the 'Flying-Fish'. It unfortunately happened that all these journals, which had been collected on board the U. S. Ship Peacock, were lost with that vessel, at the mouth of the Columbia; so that the account which I wrote only for the gratification of a few friends, has become the sole remaining history of a highly interesting adventure."
The book is now rare, and copies in the presentation binding are especially so, with just two other examples appearing at auction in the last 25 years.
Stock ID: 39133
£2,750.00
