Free (ADE-DRM ePub) Dangerous Work: Arctic Adventure [Sherlock Creator Travel w/Note]

[ATDrake]

Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Wikipedia), edited by Jon Lellenberg and Daniel Stashower (Wikipedia), is the Sherlock Holmes creator's very own travel journal of the time he spent as a ship's surgeon on an Arctic whaler in the 1880s, recording his experiences and impressions, which he would later incorporate details of into his stories, free courtesy of the University of Chicago Press.

This is their featured Free Book of the Month for December, and is really very nifty. The downloaded file describes it as the "text-only" version (apparently to distinguish the two print editions, one of which is a facsimile), but there are actually a number of period photographs and illustrations scattered throughout. There's also a contextual introduction to the diary, which itself is annotated, and a mini-collection of some of ACD's later assorted writings, both fiction and non- on the subject of the Arctic.

Currently free throughout the month of December directly @ the university's dedicated promo page (ADE-DRM ePub available worldwide in exchange for your valid email address).

And this has been the (late!) selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.

Because extensively annotated work by a significant literary/historical figure whose other works I quite like, in a region I rather like to read about, with extra bonuses concerning and explaining how their later art ended up imitating their earlier life, is like a hat-trick of win, awesome, and amazingly Relevant To My Interests™.

Enjoy!

Description
In 1880 a young medical student named Arthur Conan Doyle embarked upon the “first real outstanding adventure” of his life, taking a berth as ship’s surgeon on an Arctic whaler, the Hope. The voyage took him to unknown regions, showered him with dramatic and unexpected experiences, and plunged him into dangerous work on the ice floes of the Arctic seas. He tested himself, overcame the hardships, and, as he wrote later, “came of age at 80 degrees north latitude.”

Conan Doyle’s time in the Arctic provided powerful fuel for his growing ambitions as a writer. With a ghost story set in the Arctic wastes that he wrote shortly after his return, he established himself as a promising young writer. A subsequent magazine article laying out possible routes to the North Pole won him the respect of Arctic explorers. And he would call upon his shipboard experiences many times in the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, who was introduced in 1887’s A Study in Scarlet.

Out of sight for more than a century was a diary that Conan Doyle kept while aboard the whaler. Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure makes this account available for the first time in a beautiful facsimile edition that reproduces Conan Doyle’s notebook pages in his own elegant hand, accompanied by his copious illustrations. With humor and grace, Conan Doyle provides a vivid account of a long-vanished way of life at sea. His careful detailing of the experience of arctic whaling is equal parts fascinating and alarming, revealing the dark workings of the later days of the British whaling industry. In addition to the facsimile and annotated transcript of the diary, the volume contains photographs of the Hope, its captain, and a young Conan Doyle on deck with its officers; two nonfiction pieces by Doyle about his experiences; and two of his tales inspired by the journey.

To the end of his life, Conan Doyle would look back on this experience with awe: “You stand on the very brink of the unknown,” he declared, “and every duck that you shoot bears pebbles in its gizzard which come from a land which the maps know not. It was a strange and fascinating chapter of my life.” Only now can the legion of Conan Doyle fans read and enjoy that chapter.

[crich70]

A good opportunity indeed.

[ATDrake]

Just a reminder that this is the last day to get this freebie if you haven't already.