Farthest North.: Being the record of a voyage of exploration of the ship "Fram" 1893-96 and of a fifteen months' sleigh journey by Dr. Nansen and Lieut. Johansen.

New York: Harper & Brothers,, 1897. A remarkable achievement in Polar exploration First US edition of the official account of the first Fram expedition, undertaken to investigate "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" (Arctic Bibliography). "Nansen returned to international acclaim not only for the voyage itself but for its results, proof of a deep Arctic Ocean, free of any land masses or islands, and extensive data on magnetism, zoology, and oceanography. His account of the journey, Farthest North, was a worldwide bestseller and prepared him for an effective life of diplomacy" (Books on Ice). Farthest North is beautifully illustrated from photographs and from Nansen's own sketches, for which he "claims no artistic merit," but which are nonetheless atmospheric and effective. It was first published in the UK earlier the same year. Two volumes, octavo. Original dark grey cloth, spine and front cover lettered and decorated in gilt, silver, green, and red, top edges gilt, others uncut. Etched frontispiece in vol. I, photogravure frontispiece in vol. II, 24 plates (16 in colour with tissue guards), 4 folding colour maps in vol. I endpockets, numerous illustrations in the text, many full-page; 2 pp. publisher's advertisements at end of vol. II. Contemporary ownership inscription on front free endpapers of one "Miss Wright", bookseller's tickets on rear pastedowns. Cloth neatly cleaned, bindings a little rubbed and scuffed with minor marks, vol. I with label removed from front pastedown and neat tissue repair to gutter of front flyleaves, contents slightly shaken with scattered foxing or soiling. A very good copy. Arctic Bibliography 11983; Books on Ice 5.2; Howgego III N3; Printing and the Mind of Man 384.