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First edition, first impression. "The failure of Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition to even reach the Antarctic continent, much less to cross it via the South Pole, has become the great polar success story of the twentieth century" (Books on Ice). Shackleton embarked in 1914 on the Endurance to make the first traverse of the Antarctic continent; a journey of some 1,800 miles from sea to sea. But 1915 turned into an unusually icy year in Antarctica. After being trapped in the ice and drifting for nine months, the Endurance was eventually crushed by ice on October 27. "Shackleton now showed his supreme qualities of leadership. With five companions he made a voyage of 800 miles in a 22-foot boat through some of the stormiest seas in the world, crossed the unknown lofty interior of South Georgia, and reached a Norwegian whaling station on the north coast. After three attempts... Shackleton succeeded (30 August 1916) in rescuing the rest of the Endurance party and bringing them to South America" (ODNB). In recent years, this factor has led to the re-interpretation of the book in terms of a leadership and man-management manual, and several influential attempts have been made to distil from the narrative the underlying principles of Shackleton's command in order that they might be applied more widely. As Apsley Cherry-Garrard remarked in Worst Journey in the World: "For a joint scientific and geographical piece of organization, give me Scott; for a First edition, first impression. "The failure of Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition to even reach the Antarctic continent, much less to cross it via the South Pole, has become the great polar success story of the twentieth century" (Books on Ice). Shackleton embarked in 1914 on the Endurance to make the first traverse of the Antarctic continent; a journey of some 1,800 miles from sea to sea. But 1915 turned into an unusually icy year in Antarctica. After being trapped in the ice and drifting for nine months, the Endurance was eventually crushed by ice on October 27. "Shackleton now showed his supreme qualities of leadership. With five companions he made a voyage of 800 miles in a 22-foot boat through some of the stormiest seas in the world, crossed the unknown lofty interior of South Georgia, and reached a Norwegian whaling station on the north coast. After three attempts... Shackleton succeeded (30 August 1916) in rescuing the rest of the Endurance party and bringing them to South America" (ODNB). In recent years, this factor has led to the re-interpretation of the book in terms of a leadership and man-management manual, and several influential attempts have been made to distil from the narrative the underlying principles of Shackleton's command in order that they might be applied more widely. As Apsley Cherry-Garrard remarked in Worst Journey in the World: "For a joint scientific and geographical piece of organization, give me Scott; for a Winter Journey, Wilson; for a dash to the Pole and nothing else, Amundsen; and if I am in the devil of a hole and want to get out of it, give me Shackleton every time". Shackleton's book, produced while the exigencies of the First World War were still a reality, is uncommonly encountered in collectible condition. The fine images captured by Australian Frank Hurley, particularly those made on a moonlit night, when he thought the ship was at its most beautiful, are well reproduced. Hurley's heroic feat in saving his original glass negatives is another fascinating chapter in an extraordinary story. READ MORE Octavo. Original dark blue cloth, spine and front cover lettered in silver, front cover with large silver vignette of Endurance stuck in the ice (from a photograph by Hurley, reproduced at p. 45), publisher's device in blind on back cover, top edge blue. Colour frontispiece and 87 half-tone plates, folding map. Contemporary signature of one "Robertson" on front pastedown, blind stamp of Japanese chrysanthemum on rear pastedown. A little rubbed with some marks to cloth, silver blocking remains bright, spine slightly creased, corners bumped and frayed, toned throughout as usual, map sometime reinserted without stub, also with neat archival tape repairs to verso: a very good copy of a fragile publication. Books on Ice 7.8; Conrad p. 224; Rosove 308.1A; Spence 1107; Taurus 105.