Birds of the Antarctic.

WILSON, Edward Adrian. Edited by Brian Roberts. [Peter Matthiessen].

Item Number: 126973

New York: Humanities Press, 1968.

First edition of this compendium of English polar explorer Edward Adrian Wilson’s ornithological paintings and drawings. Quarto, original cloth, with 60 pages of full color and 42 pages of monochrome illustrations from Wilson’s original drawings and paintings. From the library of Peter Matthiessen with his bookplate to the verso of the pastedown. American novelist and environmentalist Peter Matthiessen is the only writer to have won the National Book Award in both nonfiction (The Snow Leopard, 1979, category Contemporary Thought) and fiction (Shadow Country, 2008). Near fine in a near fine price-clipped dust jacket. Gift inscription to Matthiessen.

Edward Wilson was a member of Scott's two Antarctic expeditions, as zoologist and medical officer. On the second, he was also chief scientist. His genius for detailed recording in illustration is seen at its best in his paintings and drawings of the birds of the Antarctic; which he made during both expeditions. Here, Dr. Brian Roberts has assembled into one volume a selection of more that 300 of these remarkable drawings and paintings, mostly from the collection in the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge.