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 with an Appendix by Otto Sverdrup, Captain of the Fram.

London: Archibald Constable and Company,, 1897. First edition, preceding the first edition in Norwegian of the same year. Nansen's expedition was a remarkable achievement in Polar exploration, 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 was a worldwide bestseller and prepared him for an effective life of diplomacy" (Books on Ice). Farthest North, the official account of the first Fram expedition, is beautifully illustrated from photographs and from Nansen's own sketches, for which he "claims no artistic merit," but which are nonetheless highly atmospheric and effective. Like many of the polar books from the heroic age, this is a superbly produced work. Two volumes, octavo. Original bluish green vertically ribbed cloth, spines and front covers lettered in gilt, pictorial block in gilt on front covers (of the Fram on vol. I and "Northwards though the Drift-Snows" on vol. II), top and fore edges untrimmed. Etched frontispiece in vol. I, photogravure frontispiece in vol. II, 127 plates of which 16 in colour, 4 folding colour maps, illustrations in the text; titles printed in red and black; apt clippings loosely inserted. Bookseller's ticket on front pastedowns. Very minor rubbing, maps with short closed tears or neat repairs to stubs, not affecting printed area, cloth particularly bright. An excellent copy. Arctic Bibliography 11983; Books on Ice 5.2; Howgego III N3; Printing and the Mind of Man 384; Taurus 24.