First edition. Octavo. Publisher’s dark green cloth, lettered gilt, in the rare original dustwrapper. Top edge gilt. Photographic endpapers. 76 photographs by Frank Hurley, two folding maps.
 
A near fine copy in a very good example of the rare dustwrapper. Quite worn to the edges and corners, large chip to base of the spine. Small japanese tissue repair to the spine.
 
Frank Hurley’s rare account of Shackleton’s Endurance expedition, one of the most famous Antarctic expeditions in history.
 
Frank Hurley was the official photographer of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, led by Ernest Shackleton, which tried to traverse the Antarctic continent in the Endurance.
 
The Endurance, however, became stuck in the ice, and was slowly crushed over a period of weeks while its crew watched on. What followed is one of the most extraordinary rescue missions in history.
 
Shackleton’s crew spent the following months in makeshift camps on the ice, before using their lifeboats to reach Elephant Island. From here, Shackleton, Frank Worsley and three others manned the small boat the James Caird on an 800-mile journey to reach South Georgia and find a relief ship.
 
As this account is Hurley’s own, it is comprehensively illustrated with his photographs of the expedition, which have become an iconic account of this extraordinary story.