Mawson, Douglas ___ 1882-1958 ___ Australian ___ teacher explorer

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Mawson was born in Bradford, England, but his family moved to Australia when he was only two. He studied geology at the University of Sydney, and lectured in petrology. Aged 26, he joined a team headed by British explorer Ernest Shackleton which was the first to climb to the top of Mount Erebus, Antarctica's active volcano, and the first to reach the magnetic South Pole. In 1911, he led the first Australasian expedition to Antarctica, but it proved tragic. Having lost one man and the sled carrying most of their food, Mawson and his companion the swiss scientist, Dr Xavier Mertz, had to walk more than 500 kilometres back to base, eating their huskies to survive. Mertz died on the way. Later, Mawson became a professor at Adelaide University. He was knighted in 1914. In 1929 and 1931 Mawson headed two more voyages to the Antarctic, concentrating on oceanography and marine biology.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Tragedy in Antartica

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1907-1914 1929-1931 ___ exploration geology weather self Antartica.

WEB TEXT LINKS
etext
a few extracts
several citations

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
National Library of Australia

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Mawson's Antarctic Diaries
The Home of the Blizzard
 

November 2005, July 2008, April 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.