TEXT VARIANTS

Some text is common to both variants; other text only appears in Variant B. To better understand this refer to this graphic representation.

Two theories have been advanced to explain this:

1

This writer—Robert Stephenson—is responsible for the first. It goes back to 1978 when I purchased my copy from Francis Edwards Ltd of London. The book was sent on approval and before accepting it, I took it to Houghton Library to collate it with Harvard's copy. With the two Aurora's side by side, I slowly turned the leaves. In time the illustration in question appeared in the Harvard copy but not in the copy I was about to purchase. Once I had recovered my composure I thought I had figured it out. The book was produced as a collection of single leaves printed on both recto and verso, punched in the margin and laced together with a cord. The illustration (with text on the recto) either became separated from its neighbors in some way or was removed, perhaps by someone who liked the illustration and found it "suitable for framing."

However, upon closer inspection, I realized that there was no break in the text—which would be the case as there was text on the other side of the leaf—but rather the text read right through. Then I discovered in the copy I was buying that it had text that the Harvard copy didn't have.

I then decided what might have happened is that in the crowded confusion of the Cape Royds Hut, during the printing process, the illustration, a wood cut or engraving, I'm not sure which, became damaged and unusable. Rather than do it over, it was decided to reset both sides of the leaf as text and proceed from there.

I settled by bill with Francis Edwards and then started looking at other copies of the Aurora, always checking to see whether the illustration was there or the added text. Forty years later I'm still checking.

2

Marty's views are well described in a piece he did for Book Talk: Essays on Books, Booksellers, Collecting, and Special Collections, edited by Robert H. Jackson and Caroi Zeman Rothkopf (New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2006), entitled "Aurora Australis (1908), Edited By Ernest H. Shackleton: A New Description of the First State of the First Book Published on the Antarctic Continent."

Marty's thesis is, in a nutshell, that the text variant/version came first and the illustrated variant/version came second. He believes that some of the text that appears in Variant B might have been poorly received by wealthy persons in England and that future fundraising might be adversely affected. Shackleton and the printers therefore decided that the simplest solution would be to reset the leaft by changing the text and inserting an illustration.

Although the change was made several copies of the all-text Variant B were still issued (why is a mystery).

There are far more copies with the illustration than without it but the saleroom prices don't seem to have been affected one way or the other.

The table below summarizes the current situation:

• 59 copies are known to have the illustration (Variant A)
• 11 copies are known to not have the illustration, i.e. all text (Variant B), and…
• 27 copies may have one or the other but no information is available.
• 1 copy has neither the illustration nor the text.

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