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London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1916. 8vo. Original cloth, gilt, vignette of penguin to upper cover, upper cover lettered in white; pp. xiv, [2], 464; plates after photographs, sketch maps, one folding map, illustrations in the text after drawings by the author; mimimal light toning to paper, else a very good copy.First edition, first issue without the inserted leaves containing the author's preface at pp. iv*-v*, "inadvertently ommitted from the first run of copies printed" (Rosove). This is an intriguing association and presentation copy with the author's original drawings tipped in, presented to one woman, Theo Gardner, and with his bookplate (which serves as an illustration in the book on p. 301) with Taylor's explanations of the topgraphical features relating to Scott's expedition in ink. Taylor first experienced the Antarctic as a member of Shackleton's Nimrod expedition (1907-9), and returned in 1910 as geologist on Robert Scott's Terra Nova expedition. According to Rosove, Taylor was the expedition's "wittiest member. He had devices and notebooks hanging out of every pocket and a passion for being well equipped" (p. 412). His passion for geology is evident in the pages of the present book, which offers his account of Scott's last expedition. For this reason, it was perhaps harder to read than other books about the expedition, and Taylor's work is the scarcest of the first-hand narratives from the expedition. "Taylor provides us with one of the most substantial accounts of Scott's Terra Nova expedition, and one of its finest book productions" (Taurus Collection 81).Spence 1183; Renard 1575; Rosove 324.A1.Provenance: Title-page inscribed "To Theo Gardner, with congratulations from her Tropical "Sledge mate" Griffith Taylor", envelope with self-caricature in ink and inscribed "To Theo with apologies from her Long-head friend". Underneath a photograph of the author aboard Terra Nova (inscribed on verso captioned 'The rolling Terra Nova, Antarctica 1912. Theo from Grif'). One tipped-in leaf with a mounted original drawing in Japanese ink, as used by the printer to illustrate the opposite page with signed presentation inscription, dated 30/10/[19]20. - Despite having read Marie Sanderson's book Griffith Taylor. Antarcic Scientist and Pioneer Photographer (published without index in Ottawa, 1988) the cataloguer was not able to find any hint to a close friend of Taylor's with the name Theo[dora] Gardner. All we know about Griffith Taylor's whereabouts when one inscription was dated is that he resigned from the Australian Weather Service in August, 1920. "He set off for Honolulu to attend a Pan Pacific Congress by way of Java and Sumatra, since his lectures did not begin until March 1921" (Sanderson p. 102).
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