SHACKLETON, Sir Ernest. The Heart of the Antarctic being the Story of the British Antarctic Exhibition 1907-1909.

New and revised edition with illustrations in colour and black and white. London: Heinemann, 1910. Crown octavo. pp. xv, 368. Gilt decorated blue cloth. Previous owners signatures on front endpapers. A very good copy.

Shackleton's account of the 'Nimrod' expedition, which he led to the Antarctic in 1907-9, The Nimrod expedition set a record for the farthest southward reach, making it to the magnetic pole. It also undertook the first ascent of Mount Erebus, discovered the Beardmore Glacier passage (named after Shackleton's patron), and was the first to cross the Trans-Antarctic mountain range, as well as to set foot on the South Polar Plateau. Owing to a lack of rations, the expedition did not ultimately make it to the pole itself, although did come within 100 nautical miles; as Shackleton famously later remarked to his wife: Better a live donkey than a dead lion. It would be three more years before Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first to actually reach the South Pole, followed shortly by Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova expedition. Following the Nimrod expedition, Shackleton returned to Britain a hero, and was knighted for reaching the furthest south of any person to date. An indication of the esteem in which he was held by both colleagues and the public alike is demonstrated by the assertion of Raymond Priestly, the Nimrod expedition's geologist: For scientific leadership, give me Scott, for swift and efficient travel, Amundsen. But when you are in a hopeless situation, when you are seeing no way out, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.
Shackleton's account of the British Antarctic Expedition of 1907-9 (Nimrod) was reviewed on publication by the Manchester Guardian as the best book of polar travel which has ever been written. The sledge expedition to the south magnetic pole was one of the three foremost achievements of this expedition. The other two achievements were, first, the ascent and survey of Mount Erebus (12,448 feet), the active volcano on Ross Island and, second, the southern sledge journey, which reached within 100 miles of the south pole.

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