By Roald Amundsen

London, Heinemann, First UK Edition, 1927, 8vo, 282p.; Appendix: Refutation of Various Points in Nobile’s Lectures in America; Index; photographic frontpiece of the Gjoa, two full page maps and one sketch.

—Spence 25; Renard 24; Conrad p.84; Rosove 11.A1

A Near Fine copy of the SCARCE 1st UK Edition in publisher’s blue cloth cover, gilt lettering on both spine and cover; internally Near Fine with prior owner’s brief inscription on ffe dated 1927, otherwise no marks, folds or tears. A clean and fresh copy with tight uncracked hinges.

This is the autobiography of Roald Amundsen—probably the most famous and accomplished of polar explorers. He was the first to successfully navigate the Northwest Passage after centuries of attempts and countless lives lost. Amundsen was also first to step foot on the South Pole, and given the doubts surrounding both Cook and Peary, he may very well have been the first person to claim the North Pole—by flight in the airship Norge, 1925. My Life as an Explorer gives an autobiographical account of Amundsen’s various polar endeavors and accomplishments—it tells the story of a career of intrepid courage resulting in a vastly increased knowledge of the Earth. Amundsen sums up his success in one word—Preparation. His accounts are prefaced by the story of how he became an explorer. Also provided is the first account of Amundsen’s relations with Scott and his refutation of Stefansson’s thesis in The Friendly Arctic, a book which Amundsen felt to be misleading.