Captain Scott’s Newspaper Revisited
Captain Scott’s two Antarctic expeditions had their own newspaper, the South Polar Times, now reprinted for collectors
The South Polar Times: Captain Scott’s newspaper revisited
It had the lowest possible circulation for any newspaper in the world. Only one copy of each edition was ever printed. Yet the South Polar Timeshad a readership that would bring tears to the eye of a media mogul. Every single person on the continent of Antarctica read it. For good measure, the paper also had a startlingly impressive list of editors that included polar exploration leader Ernest Shackleton as well as Apsley Cherry-Garrard, author of the travel classic The Worst Journey in the World.
By any reckoning, the paper was an extraordinary publication whose treasures can now be shared with readers in Britain – for £495 for abound Folio Society reproduction of its entire 12 issues. Each paper – which ran from 30 to 50 pages – includes photographs, features, caricatures of officers and men, whimsical observations of life in Antarctica, cartoons, weather reports and a range of breathtaking watercolours of the polar landscape – most of them works by zoologist Edward Wilson, Scott’s deputy, and a painter of considerable talent.
“Wilson turns out to be an artist who was capable of some truly exquisite work,” says Joe Whitlock Blundell, the Folio Society’s production…………[access full article]
