Antarctic Explorer.- Wilson (Edward Adrian, Antarctic explorer and naturalist, 1872-1912) Autograph Letter signed "Edward A Wilson" and "EAW" to Mr Haskoll, 4pp., 8vo, 19 Holland Street, Kensington, [London], 15th March 1910, thanking Haskoll and his pupils for their encouragement in his forthcoming participation in Scott's Antarctic expedition, regretting that he cannot come to the school and speak, "the business of a preparation for years of isolation out of reach of telephones & general stores", and promising to paint a picture of a Penguin, "I will send you something Antarctic instead of necessarily a picture of a dog... . Wouldn't a Penguin be more useful educationally than a dog, which I should have to crib from a photo, for we have none to sit for us here? You shall have a picture of the dog on my return - I could almost promise that. Anyway - let me thank you heartily for your hearty support... . And I promise you shall have something to remind the boys of the share they are taking in the quest", and in a postscript pointing out that the promised guinea for his "instrument fund" was not enclosed, folds, slightly foxed.

⁂ The Terra Nova expedition set sail in June 1910, and in the following year Wilson led the sortie to a rookery of Emperor Penguins so vividly described by Apsley Cherry Garrard in The Worst Journey in the World. In November Wilson was one of the five who reached the South Pole only to discover that Amundsen had already been there. None of the five returned and the last three to survive, Scott, Bowers and Wilson perished together in their tent on the Great Ice Barrier on or about 29th March 1912.