South of Zero; The Journal of John Hale Meredith while with the Clark-Jamison Antarctic Expedition of 191- to 191- - 1932

New York: The Junior Literary Guild, 1932. First Edition. Near Fine/Good. John D. Whiting. , stated [selection by Guild from 1931 Harper & Bros. edition][5.75x8.25"]; Blue cloth covers with light blue lettering on cover and spine, debossed vignette of explorers, ice and sunset on cover, maps on front and back endpapers; Cream dust jacket with blue lettering on cover and spine and color illustration of two people sitting on ice blocks with aurora's in background; xiv, 280 pp. color frontispiece of same illustration as on dust jacket, 17 black and white ink drawings throughout; minor shelf wear with bumped corners, original owner's initials and date in margin of front end paper and Junior literary Guild bookplate on of original owner, very tight text block; Dust jacket chips on edges with 3/4x1/2" missing from bottom of front, closed tear mid spine to back ending in 3/4" hole, closed tear and chip on top of spine, no loss of text. This was one of the first books selected by the Junior Literary Guild for publication after the initial Harper & Bros. publication in 1931. This is a fictional account of an Antarctic expedition that appears to be based on the Scott, Shackleton and with a little of the Byrd Little America 1928-30 expeditions. Includes a Forward by J. S. O'Brien, an engineer on the first Little America expedition commenting on the writing skills of the fictional "Jack Meredith" for "... the most realistic of any I have every read." Another connection with the first Byrd expedition was Paul Siple, who was selected from a national competition for a Boy Scout to travel with Byrd to Antarctica and he was unexpectedly allowed to winter over. He is no doubt the inspiration for "Jack Meredith" in the novel as he was in real life to children's dreams of exploration. Siple, pictured in 1929 here, went on to become a leading Antarctic scientist and leader of the 1957 International Geophysical Year expedition to establish a permanent South Pole base. The Junior Literary Guild was created in 1929 to identify books that would be appropriate and inspire children of all ages. The name was changed in 1988 to the still very active Junior Library Guild.