2 volumes, royal 8vo (237 x 159 mm). Etched frontispiece portrait, 4 color-printed folding maps, 16 chromolithographic plates, numerous photographic illustrations; half-titles. (Light spotting throughout, tape repairs to a folding map at end of vol.1.) Original gilt-decorated blue-green ribbed cloth (lower corner bumped on vol.2, tiny stain to upper cover also). Provenance: early ownership signature on half-titles dated 1897.

FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. Nansen's voyage was the first for the Fram, a ship specially designed to withstand ice pressure; after being frozen in for 3 years, the Fram emerged from the ice undamaged and went on to carry Roald Amundsen to the South Polar waters on his 1910 expedition. Though Nansen didn't reach the North Pole during his expedition, he reached the highest latitude so far attained by man (85° 14'). Nansen's account was an instant success and was translated into numerous languages. Arctic Bibliography 11983 (first American edition); PMM 353 (Norwegian edition, "it remains the classic story of Polar exploration").

[With:] Another copy. First American edition.