(Franklin, Sir John) — William Kennedy | Inscribed by Lady Franklin, the dedicatee

(Franklin, Sir John) — William Kennedy

A Short Narrative of the Second Voyage of the Prince Albert, in Search of Sir John Franklin. London: W. H. Dalton, 1853

8vo (199 x 122 mm). Folding engraved map, 4 tinted lithographed plates with route outlined in red, list of subscribers to the Branch Expedition at end; some scattered soiling, a number of leaves lightly ceased at top fore-edge. Publisher’s blind-embossed green cloth, spine gilt, yellow-coated endpapers; neat restoration to spine, extremities a bit worn, edges or rear cover lightly faded, evidently from damp.

First edition. A wonderful association copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper by the dedicatee, “with Lady Franklin’s kind regards,”; the recipient, A. J. Wylie Esqr, has added his name and the date of the presentation, July 1853, respectively above and below Lady Franklin's inscription.

Very rare: Rare Book Hub records just eight copies at auction since 1896, and while several of those were presentation copies from Kennedy, only one other—sold sixty years ago—was inscribed by Lady Franklin, who devoted the final three decades of her life to the search for her husband. Franklin's memorial in Westminster Abbey includes the inscription, "This monument was erected by Jane, his widow, who, after long waiting, and sending many in search of him, herself departed, to seek and find him in the realms of light, July 18. 1875, aged 83 years."

William Kennedy "was born at Cumberland House on the Saskatchewan River in April 1814, the son of Alexander Kennedy, a Hudson’s Bay Company Chief Factor, and an aboriginal woman, Aggathas Margaret (Mary) Bear. When he was thirteen he was sent to Orkney for his education. In 1836 he entered the employ of the Hudson’s Bay Company and was stationed on the Ungava Coast. He left the Company’s service in 1848 and went to Canada West where he engaged in his own business, and began to lobby for the expansion of Canada into the north-west. As a lad at Cumberland House he had met Sir John Franklin, and in 1850 he offered his services to Lady Franklin to help in the search for the Franklin expedition. He commanded two of the Franklin search expeditions and discovered the Arctic passage known as Bellot Strait. He was the first to use dogs and sleds from an exploring ship. In 1853, he presented a paper on these adventures to the Royal Geographical Society in London, England, and wrote a book entitled A Short Narrative of the Second Voyage of The Prince Albert in Search of Sir John Franklin" (Manitoba Historical Society Archives: https://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/kennedy_w.shtml).

REFERENCES:

Arctic Bibliography 8539; Sabin 37443; Staton & Tremaine 3270