My friend Cora and I were talking about The Last Place on Earth and she asked what books I would recommend for her to learn about the Scott tragedy. (Yes, my first response was, “NOTHING by Roland Huntford!”) I’ve read so many books on the subject that I blanked on coming up with any suggestions, so fellow polar geeks K and Damian, what books would you recommend?

My tiny rural library had but a single offering in this category, so I snapped it up: Susan Solomon’s The Coldest March: Scott’s Fatal Antarctic Expedition (Yale University Press, 2001). So far it’s excellent and I’m pretty much devouring it; she references Ranulph Fiennes and solidly repudiates Huntford without ever actually mentioning his name.

It also has lots of maps and photos, including this one, which I think is my favorite picture of Birdie Bowers; though he was 28, I think he looks maybe ten years old here.(L-R: Bowers, Dr. Edward Wilson, Apsley Cherry-Garrard. Both Bowers & Wilson died with Scott while returning from the South Pole, & Cherry-Garrard was the first person to find their bodies. Given that Bowers was his best friend and Wilson his de facto father, he unsurprisingly spent the rest of his life consumed by guilt & grief.)

John Charles Dollman, A Very Gallant Gentleman, 1913.

Exactly one hundred years ago today, the noblest of men walked into a blizzard, sacrificing himself in hopes that his companions would have a better chance of survival without him. Last November, the actor who played this very gallant gentleman unexpectedly passed away, and I’ve been putting off writing this post ever since…as if I could somehow forestall the truth simply by not writing the words.

Today I grieve for them both.