The Sign of the Penguins

05/20/22 • 40 min

1 Listener

In which Anna and Judith travel to Antarctica to embark on the greatest possible adventure: publishing a book! Expect cold, dark and dismal weather, the printing press from hell and the stench of seal blubber - all wrapped up in tasty petit-pois endpapers.
Aurora Australis was the first book ever written, printed and bound in Antarctica. This rare collection of fact, fiction and poetry was self-published in 1908, at Shackleton's hut in Cape Royds.
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BOOKS & LINKS
The Heart of the Antarctic, a popular account of the expedition written by its leader, Ernest Shackleton. Published by Heinemann in 1910.
Antarctic Days: Sketches of the homely side of Polar life by two of Shackleton's men, an informal account of daily life during the expedition, written and illustrated by James Murray and George Marston. Published by Andrew Melrose in 1913.
Nimrod: Ernest Shackleton and the extraordinary story of the 1907-1909 British Antarctic Expedition, a present-day account by Beau Riffenburgh. Published by Bloomsbury in 2004.
See images of Shackleton’s hut (from the Antarctic Heritage Trust)
Find out what was in Shackleton’s library (from the BBC)
Watch how a modern day facsimile of Aurora Australis was produced (by the Folio Society)
CREDITS
Recorded by Anna Faherty and Judith Watts. Edited and produced by Anna Faherty.
Incidental music: All She Gets From The Iceman is Ice performed by Edward M Favor, released in 1908. Sourced from the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive
Sound effects: The sound of the Antarctic katabatic wind from Stormpetrel on freesound.org
Theme music: Folk guitar music track from Dvideoguy on freesound.org | Typewriter sound effect from tams_kp on freeounds.org | Print shop sound effect from ecfike on freesound.org

Previous Episode

Trailer 01: The pianotype

We discover an elegant Victorian machine, which promised to revolutionise typography and literature. But why has no-one heard of it?
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS TOPIC
You can view the 1842 edition of 'The Anatomy of Sleep' by Dr Edward Binns online at the Internet Archive. You can see pictures of the Pianotype machine in Anna's blog post for Wellcome Collection (now archived by Archive-it). EPISODE CREDITS: Background music: La Campanella. Composed by Franz Liszt in 1851, performed by Romuald Greiss on an 1850 piano. Available at Wikipedia. / Typewriter sound effect: tams_kp on freesound.org.

THEME CREDITS: Guitar music: Dvideoguy on freesound.org. | Typewriter sound effect: tams_kp on freesound.org. | Printing sound effect: ecfike on freesound.org.

Next Episode

Pianotype

In which Anna and Judith uncover a publishing innovation that promised to spark a revolution - but didn't. Expect the spectre of automation, invisible women, union disputes, rock-star pianists and a new take on the sound of typesetting.
The Anatomy of Sleep was the first book ever typeset by machine. By the time of the second edition, it was set by hand. Today, the machine that made it is virtually unknown. So what happened?
CONNECT WITH ANNA & JUDITH
Find more information and images at the Bookshapers website.
Follow Bookshapers on Instagram.
Follow Bookshapers on Twitter.
BOOKS & LINKS
CREDITS
Recorded by Anna Faherty and Judith Watts. Edited and produced by Anna Faherty.
Incidental music: La Campanella, composed by Franz Liszt in 1851 and performed by Romuald Greiss on an 1850 piano. Available at Wikimedia Commons.
Sound effects: The sound of the typewriter from tams_kp on freeounds.org
Theme music: Folk guitar music track from Dvideoguy on freesound.org | Typewriter sound effect from tams_kp on freeounds.org | Print shop sound effect from ecfike on freesound.org

Bookshapers - The Sign of the Penguins

Transcript

Introduction

For most people, writing a book is a big challenge, even more so if you then publish it. But what if you’re doing all that in a cramped and stinky flat-pack hut? In the darkest most inhospitable place on Earth?

It’s about risk. It’s about adventure. It’s about, yeah, imagining what might be beyond and trying to communicate that to people.

I’m Anna Faherty

I’m Judith Watts

And this is Bookshapers: a show where we explore curious stories