Serious readers who want the most complete listing of Antarctic books will turn to the monumental book, Antarctic Bibliography by Michael Rosove but for the general reader seeking to know something about Antarctica, especially in preparation for a trip to the South, I recommend the following.
Highly recommended that you start with:
Michael Rosove. Let Heroes Speak. Rosove does what few others might have attempted and none likely would have achieved—an overview of Antarctica from Captain Cook through the Heroic Era, allowing the explorers themselves to speak to the read. Temporarily out of print, easily available on abe.com
Jeff Rubin. Antarctica: The Rough Guide. Younger travelers know this series but everyone going to Antarctica should regard this book as essential reading. Usually the more we know about a place, the less satisfied we are with guide books to it. But Rubin’s book delights even people who have spent a lot of time on the ice.
For books about Shackleton:
The best single book is still Roland Huntford’s Shackleton. Although I can no longer recommend his Scott and Amundsen because prejudice overcomes brilliance and genuine scholarship in that latter volume, his Shackleton remains the standard text.
Not to be overlooked is Hugh Robert Mill’s The Life of Sir Ernest Shackleton, published within a year of the explorer’s death. Mill knew Shackleton for more than twenty years by the time he wrote this book and Mill also had the full cooperation of Sir Ernest’s widow. Even after reading Huntford, you will profit from reading Mill.
For a short book, designed to be read in one hour, my own Shackleton of the Antarctic places the whole of the explorer’s life in context while giving a reasonable account of the Endurance expedition.
Be on the lookout for a book entitled Rejoice my Heart, which is the correspondence between H. R. Mill and Lady Shackleton in connection with the former’s research for his biography of Sir Ernest.
Remember to read about Robert Falcon Scott:
For most of the twentieth century, until the arrival of Mrs. Thatcher, Scott was the penultimate British hero, and Britons in two world wars went to battle with the image of Scott’s sacrifice as part of the propaganda experience. Regrettably, you should avoid Roland Huntford’s Scott and Amundsen, at least until you have read two other books about Scott. Ranulph Fiennes, Captain Scott, London, 2004, blends his own life as an explorer with that of his predecessor in an enjoyable biography. My own Pilgrims on the Ice deals with Scott’s first Antarctic expedition and reviewers have been consistent in praising the balanced view of Scott presented in that book. An older biography that still has merit is Reginald Pound Scott of the Antarctic, London: Cassell, 1966.
Also, worth looking at if you have an interest in how Scott’s legend was used by the British throughout the twentieth century, read Max Jones, The Last Great Quest: Captain Scott’s Antarctic Sacrifice.
Other books that are favorites of colleagues:
Laurence Gould. Cold. New York: Brewer, Warren, and Putnam, 1931. One of the preeminent glaciologists of the last century, Colin Bull, told me that he thought this was the best polar book.
Apsley Cherry-Garrard. The Worst Journey in the World. (multiple editions) The classic account of Scott’s last expedition by a member of the party. Beautifully written, haunting at times, this volume deserves to be on the shortest of short lists of polar books.
When you get really serious about polar history, you will want to purchase Michael Rosove’s Antarctica, 1772-1922 Freestanding Publications through 1999, Santa Monica: Adélie Books, 2001. Quoting from the review in the Polar Record, “first you won’t believe you bought this book, and then you won’t believe you started to read it, and then you won’t believe you couldn’t put it down.” I venture to say you will never read a bibliography that contains more useful erudite information about the any area of the world.
Among the reference books any polar enthusiast should be aware of are the ones listing expeditions for the Arctic and Antarctic. Robert Headland’s Chronology is a standard reference book in the field. Similarly, for the Arctic see Clive Holland, Arctic Exploration and Development, c. 500 B.C. to 1915, New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1994.
When you get past Amundsen, Scott, and Shackleton, try reading about some of the other great figures of the Heroic Era.
Philip Ayres, Mawson: A Life, Melbourne: University Press, 1999.
Peter Speak, William Speirs Bruce, Edinburgh: National Museums of Scotland, 2003.
Simon Nacht, The Last Explorer: Hubert Wilkins Hero of the Great Age of Polar Exploration, New York: Arcade Books, 2005.
Aant Elzinga, et.al. Antarctic Challengers: Historical and Current Perspectives on Otto Nordenskjold’s Antarctic Expedition, 1901-03, Goteborg: Royal Society of Arts and Sciences, 2004.
When you really want to understand what happens on expeditions without the filter of the historian, turn to the diaries of the period. For my money, the best is now available in print: Judy Skelton, The Antarctic Journals of Reginald Skelton, Cheltenham: Reardon Publishing, 2004. From a later period you might look at one from the second Byrd expedition, T. H. Baughman (editor) The Antarctic Diary of Charles F. Passel, Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1995.