Books about the Arctic

The Complete Guide to Arctic Wildlife by Richard Sale is an incredibly extensive arctic wildlife guide. Contains all manner of arctic animals and habitiat maps for each. A copy of this book was often used and referenced on the bridge of the National Geographic Explorer.  

The Arctic: A Guide to Costal Wildlife by Tony Soper. This is a compact guide to plants, marine mammals and birds of the Circumpolar North. It has watercolor illustrations and engaging text. 

A Naturalist’s Guide to the Arctic by E.C. Pielou is Lindblad Expeditions’ best selling arctic handbook. It covers geography and climate, plants, birds and wildlife of the North.

Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez. This highly prized book draws on Lopez’s travels through Baffin Island, the Chukchi and Bering seas, Alaska, the Yukon and Greenland. He includes natural history, accounts of early exploration, and modern accounts of the North. 

The Magnetic North by Sara Wheeler is about her personal adventures in the North. This includes herding reindeer, camping on the Greenland ice sheet and shadowing Trans-Alaskan pipeline truckers. 

Polar Dream: The First Solo Expedition by a Woman and Her Dog to the Magnetic North Pole by Helen Thayer is a lively tale of Thayer’s successful expedition in 1988. An easy read, it recreates the extreme conditions she encounters with her dog, who saves her multiple times from polar bear attacks. 

The Last Gentleman Adventurer by Edward Beauclerk Maurice is a first person account of  Maurice’s experiences as a 17- year-old Hudson Bay employee posted as a fur trader on Baffin Island in the 1930s.  

The Man Who Ate His Boots: The Tragic History of the Search for the Northwest Passage by Anthony Brandt is an enthralling tale of adventurers who searched in vain for the Northwest Passage.  

Safe Return Doubtful: The Heroic Age of Polar Exploration by John Maxtone-Graham is a compilation of accounts of those who attempted to explore the polar regions. They faced all manner of troubles including frostbite, lack of rations, scurvy, navigational issues, and death.