A Negro Explorer at the North Pole (with signed card laid in)
New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1912. First Edition. Black and white plates. Cloth over boards. Octavo. xxii, 200 pages.
Matthew Henson, a native of Charles County, Maryland, was Robert Peary's indispensable right-hand man on seven Arctic expeditions over nearly 23 years. This is Henson's scarce original account of the 1908-1909 expedition which was credited with reaching the North Pole on April 7, 1909. Today it is generally acknowledged (and claimed herein) that Henson was the first of the party to reach the spot claimed as the geographic North Pole.
Peary did not dispute Henson's claim and freely acknowledged his reliance on Henson at the time, insisting that he must accompany him on the final push to the Pole because “I can’t make it there without him.” In his Foreword, Peary calls Henson "one of the multiplying illustrations of the fact that race, or color, or bringing-up, or environment count nothing against a determined heart if it is backed and aided by intelligence."
Henson was born in Nanjemoy to free sharecroppers but orphaned at very young age. He was greatly influenced when he heard Frederick Douglass, speaking at a ceremony honoring Abraham Lincoln, urge African Americans to pursue equal educational opportunities and fight racial prejudice.
Laid into this important and elusive piece of African Americana is a card signed by Henson in 1930, the circumstances of which are noted on the reverse in a contemporaneous hand: "Mat Henson / in person / at Custom House / 1/8/1930.....Colored aide / to Perry [sic] on North Pole / Expedition". Henson had been appointed to work at the U.S. Custom House in New York by President Taft the year after publication of this book, and he continued there until his retirement in 1936.
Foreword by Robert Peary and an introduction by Booker T. Washington.
Ref. BLOCKSON 898 (only listing the 1969 reprint).
Bound in blue cloth over boards with spine and upper board title in white, small photographic portrait of Henson laid down on upper board. Minor extremity wear, a few spots to cloth, hints of toning to board edges. Hinges sound, clean interior. Faint toning to autographed card. Very good to near fine overall.
Item #1723
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