author
Edward L. (Edward Lawton) Moss
1843–1880
A Royal Navy surgeon, Arctic traveler, and gifted sketcher, this nineteenth-century writer turned demanding voyages into vivid firsthand narrative. His best-known work brings the British Arctic Expedition of 1875–1876 to life with the eye of both a doctor and an artist.
1 Audiobook
Shores of the Polar Sea: A Narrative of the Arctic Expedition of 1875-6
by Edward L. (Edward Lawton) Moss
About the author
Born in Dublin in 1843, Edward Lawton Moss trained in medicine and went on to serve as a surgeon in the Royal Navy. Records of his career place him in places as varied as Mexico, the Caribbean, Vancouver Island, the Arctic, and the Balkans, giving his writing an unusually wide horizon.
Moss is best remembered for Shores of the Polar Sea, his account of the British Arctic Expedition of 1875–1876. What makes his work stand out is the combination of close observation, scientific interest, and visual imagination: alongside writing, he was also known for sketches and watercolours made during his travels.
He died in 1880, still quite young, but his journals, artwork, and polar narrative kept his name alive among readers interested in exploration and nineteenth-century travel. Today he is valued not only as an expedition writer, but also as a witness to the far-reaching world of naval service in the Victorian era.