The letter was found along with the explorer's body and his effects several months after his death, 11 miles from his supply camp. Kathleen Scott was on her way to New Zealand to await his return when she received confirmation of his death.

Scott was a giant of the great age of exploration, but his expedition was doubly jinxed. It lost to the Norwegian Roald Amundsen in the race to be first to the South Pole. Amundsen got there on Dec. 21, 1911; Scott arrived on Jan. 18.

"Great God! This is an awful place, and terrible enough for us to have labored to it without the reward of priority," Scott wrote in his journal.

The journal, published in 1913 as "Scott's Last Expedition" and still in print, included just a few snippets from his last letter to his wife.

The tale of Scott's last journey has inspired generations of youth. Dowdeswell said he vividly recalls the drawing in a children's book of Scott planting the Union Jack at the pole.

Before setting off on his last expedition, Scott was a national hero following his first foray into the Antarctic from 1902-1904. His account of that adventure, "The Voyage of Discovery," was a best-seller.

The last letter, which opens with the salutation "To my widow," is a testament to Scott's calm courage. He and two other men, Lt. Henry Bowers and Dr. Edward Wilson, clung to hopes of surviving. Petty Officer Edgar Evans already had died, and Capt. Lawrence Oates, suffering from severe frostbite, had set off into a blinding storm with his parting shot: "I am just going outside and may be some time."

At that point, Scott reckoned he was 20 miles from a depot where the expedition had stowed provisions - "but we have very little food or fuel."

His thoughts turned again toward home.

"Dearest ... cherish no sentimental rubbish about remarriage - when the right man comes to help you in life you ought to be your happy self again. I hope I shall be a good memory; certainly the end is nothing for you to be ashamed of and I like to think that the boy will have a good start in parentage of which he may be proud.

"Dear it is not easy to write because of the cold - 70 degrees below zero and nothing but the shelter of our tent - you know I have loved you, you know my thoughts must have constantly dwelt on you and oh dear me you must know that quite the worst aspect of this situation is the thought that I shall not see you again."

"The inevitable must be faced."

Kathleen Scott remarried politician Edward Hilton Young in 1922 and became Baroness Kennet when he was ennobled in 1935. She died in 1947.

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