Lot 329: EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON (1872-1912)

EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON (1872-1912)

Autograph letter signed ('Ted Wilson') to Cyril Longhurst, secretary of the National Antarctic Expedition, Cape Town, 13 October 1901, four pages, 8vo; [with] a lithographic 'Programme', designed by Wilson, for the crossing of the line ceremonies, on a bifolium, 203 x 129mm.

Optimism on the Discovery's outbound voyage: 'we are having a most excellent time, & are all as fit and well as can be', promising to send some sketches from New Zealand, referring to a photograph of himself ('I hope ... you are content with such an ungainly fathead') and asking Longhurst to pass on any news he hears of the expedition to Wilson's wife. 'I think we are extraordinarily lucky in our mess here, not a soul has fallen out, and the day is full of humbug and nonsense ... a better head for us than Captain Scott was surely never born'. (2)