8vo. Portrait frontispiece, 6 photographic plates. Original publisher’s blue cloth with mounted photographic portrait (spine slightly faded; slight rubbing to spine ends). Provenance: Charles S. Pratt (bookseller’s label); Johnson Publishing Company Library (stamp).

 

FIRST EDITION of the account of the first African-American polar explorer. Matthew A. Henson was hired by Admiral Peary to accompany him on a number of explorations, and his skills proved invaluable for the eventual assault on the North Pole. On April 7, 1909, Peary, Henson and several Inuit reached the North Pole on their third attempt. It would not be for several decades that Henson would receive full credit for being the co-discoverer of the pole during the seminal expedition, but he has since been recognized as the preeminent African-American explorer of the 20th century. A landmark of both Arctic exploration and African-American history, this work contains a forward by Peary and an introduction by Booker T. Washington. Not in Arctic Bibliography. RARE.