A Negro Explorer at the North Pole
New York: Fredrick A. Stokes Company, 1912.
First edition, first printing. xxii, 200pp. Bound in publisher's blue cloth with photographic frontispiece mounted on front board, lettered in white. About Very Good with speckled staining to boards; toning to spine, crimped ends, rubbed white lettering. Moderate foxing to deckled edge; offset to endsheets from binder's adhesive, contents tanned. A memoir by one of the six men on the 1908-09 Peary expedition that was believed to have been the first to reach the geographic North Pole. Matthew Alexander Henson was the first African-American Arctic explorer, an associate of Robert Peary on seven voyages over a period of nearly 23 years. They made six voyages and spent a total of 18 years in expeditions. Henson served as a navigator and craftsman, traded with Inuit and learned their language, and was known as Peary's "first man" for these arduous travels.
Price: $1,500