In The Lena Delta ~ Signed and Inscribed

A Narrative of the Search For Lieutenant Commander DeLong and His Companions, Followed By an Account of the Greely Relief Expedition and a Proposed Method of Reaching the North Pole (by AE Nordenskiold).

By George W. Melville, Chief Engineer U.S.N.

Signed & Inscribed by Melville

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1884. True First Edition. 8vo, xiii + [1pp] + 497pp Appendix; Index; 15 illustrations, 4 large double page maps — complete. Original olive green pictorial cloth with black clay ends papers, bright gilt titling on spine, black image and lettering on front cover. Frontis of Melville with tissue guard. Lena Delta map split at hinge but with no loss. A Near Fine copy with tight un-cracked hinges and no foxing, folds or prior ownership markings; an exceptionally clean copy of this Scarce narrative.

Melville was Chief Engineer aboard the Jeannette [lost in 1881], and was one of the few survivors after the crew separated into two parties. This well written narrative gives Melville’s detailed first person account of the tragic voyage of the Jeanette and their struggles to survive under unimaginable harsh conditions and circumstances. The narrative also provides a detailed description of the country, natives, and conditions. Melville also participated in, and gives an account of, the 1884 expedition to relieve Adolphus Greely and the men of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition along with his concept for a method of reaching the North Pole.