The news at the ends of the earth
Subtitle: the print culture of polar exploration
By: Hester Blum
Publisher: Duke University Press Books
Published: 2019
Language: eng
Number of pages: 298
ISBN-13: 9781478003229; 9781478003878
Subjects: Climatic changes; Diaries; Discoveries in geography; Survival; Sources; Psychological aspects; Human ecology; History; Explorers; Discovery and exploration
Description: From Sir John Franklin's doomed 1845 search for the Northwest Passage to early twentieth-century sprints to the South Pole, polar expeditions produced an extravagant archive of documents that are as varied as they are engaging. As the polar ice sheets melt, fragments of this archive are newly emergent. In 'The News at the Ends of the Earth' Hester Blum examines the rich, offbeat collection of printed ephemera created by polar explorers. Ranging from ship newspapers and messages left in bottles to menus and playbills, polar writing reveals the seamen wrestling with questions of time, space, community, and the environment. Whether chronicling weather patterns or satirically reporting on penguin mischief, this writing provided expedition members with a set of practices to help them survive the perpetual darkness and harshness of polar winters. The extreme climates these explorers experienced is continuous with climate change today. Polar exploration writing, Blum contends, offers strategies for confronting and reckoning with the extreme environment of the present.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Extreme printing; title: Arctic news; title: Antarctic imprints; title: Dead letter reckoning; title: Inuit knowledge and Charles Francis Hall.