Antarctic Days: Sketches of the Homely Side of Polar Life by Two of Shackleton's Men - James Murray | George Marston

In 1913 James Murray and George Marston wrote ANTARCTIC DAYS - Sketches of the homely side of Polar life. Both men were with Shackleton on the Nimrod Expedition. James Murray was the biologist in charge of base camp and George Marston, the official expedition artist.

Marston was also official artist on the Endurance expedition and designed and produced the title pages and illustrations for Aurora Australis and contributed several paintings to Shackleton’s The Heart of the Antarctic. When trapped on Elephant Island he gave up his oil paints to be used to help caulk the James Caird for the journey to South Georgia. He died in November 1940 and is buried in East Lyng, Somerset. 

In June 1913 Murray joined a Canadian scientific expedition to the Arctic aboard the ill-fated Karluk as oceanographer. The ship became trapped in the Arctic ice in August 1913. Eventually, Murray mutinied against the captain and escaped across the ice with three others . Their fate remains uncertain.

In his introduction to the book, Shackleton wrote that this ‘is the first time an unofficial, and therefore more human document, is presented to the public. …Anyone who wants to get to the kernel of the life of the Polar explorer should read the book.’

ANTARCTIC DAYS was originally published in 1913 as a limited edition of 280 copies signed and dated. With an introduction by Joe O’Farrell each book is cloth bound, jacketed and numbered. This is one of the most sought-after of Antarctic titles, ranking alongside both The Heart of the Antarctic and Aurora Australis. An original copy was recently sold at Bonhams and fetched £6,250 (incl. auctioneers commission). 

In association with The Ernest Shackleton Autumn School, a project of the Athy Heritage Centre Museum, this facsimile edition by The Erskine Press was published in 2012 and was also limited to 280 individually numbered copies. This is one of a very small number of unnumbered Presentation/Review Copies

The book contains 30 photographic illustrations and 24 further illustrations.

Hardback and jacketed