Farthest North: Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship 'Fram' 1893-1896 and of Fifteen Months' Sleigh Journey by Dr. Nansen and Lieut. Johansen, in Two Volumes by Nansen, Fridtjof; Sverdrup, Otto - 1897

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1897. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/No Jacket. 10x7x4. Nansen, Fridtjof. First edition, not the more common Popular Edition released the following year by the same publisher (which includes fewer illustrations and maps). Lacks one folding map showing actual route of Fram and sledge journey, other three maps included in front and rear pockets of first volume. Minor loss from spine head of each volume, some pages unopened. 1897 Hard Cover. x, [4], 587; x, [2], 729, 4 pp. 16 color plates in facsimile from Dr. Nansen's own sketches, etched portraits, photogravures, 4 maps, and numerous black-and-white plates and illustrations. The author won the 1922 Nobel Prize for Peace, and his International Office for Refugees won the prize again in 1938. Arctic Bibliography 11983: "Translation of Nansen's Fram over polhavet, den norske polarfaerd 1893-1896. Narrative of the First Fram Expedition, 1893-1896, led by Nansen, with the object of investigating the polar basin north of Eurasia by drifting in the ice with the currents northwest from the New Siberian Islands across or near the Pole. Contains descriptions of the voyage in the Fram from northern Norway July 1893, across the Kara Sea to the New Siberian Islands and the drift thence across the polar sea, Sept. 1893 - March 1895. Includes account of Nansen's and Johansen's sledge journey toward the North Pole, their wintering on Franz Josef's Land and trip home, March 1895 - Aug. 1896, with excerpts from Nansen's diary; also a supplement by Otto Sverdrup on the Fram's drift in the ice, March 1895 - Aug. 1896." "In 1893, Fridjtof Nansen set sail in the Fram, a ship specially designed and built to be frozen into the polar ice cap, withstand its crushing pressures, and travel with the sea's drift closer to the North Pole than anyone had ever gone before. Experts said such a ship couldn't be built and that the voyage was tantamount to suicide. This brilliant first-person account, originally published in 1897, marks the beginning of the modern age of exploration. Nansen vividly describes the dangerous voyage and his 15-month-long dash to the North Pole by sledge. Farthest North is an unforgettable tale and a must-read for any armchair explorer.