p. xxi: The author [Jenness] was unusually fond of Homer’s The Odyssey. In the summer of 1906, as one of only two students in a Greek class with Professor William von Zedlitz at Victoria University College, Wellington, New Zealand, he was invited to read The Odyssey each Friday evening in Greek at his professor’s home…. during the seven months he wandered about southwestern Victoria Island with his Copper Eskimo friends, in 1915, my father often found moments for reading passages in and obtaining spiritual comfort from a small copy of The Odyssey he carried with him. This book evidently had a special meaning to him, and he continued to extract both pleasure and comfort from it on later occasions, including a time two years later when he was in the muddy wartime trenches in France.
Arctic Odyssey: The Diary of Diamond Jenness 1913-1916.
- 1913-16 Canadian Arctic Expedition (Led by Stefansson with Captain Bob Bartlett commanding the Karluk).
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Dawn in Arctic Alaska.
- 1913-16 Canadian Arctic Expedition (Led by Stefansson with Captain Bob Bartlett commanding the Karluk).
- Arctic Reading: Canada
A most engaging book based on Jenness’s journals of his years on Stefansson’s 1913 Canadian/Alaskan Expedition. He luckily avoided the Karluk Disaster by being invited by Stefansson to go ashore to get sledging experience. Although he retains the colonial vocabulary of the civilized and the savages, his anthropological observations are fascinating and his essential respect for the indigenous people compelling.
The People of the Twilight.
- 1913-16 Canadian Arctic Expedition (Led by Stefansson with Captain Bob Bartlett commanding the Karluk).
- Arctic Reading: Canada
This version of Jennes’s account of the Stefansson Canadian expedition of 1913 to 1916?? mirrors Dawn of Arctic Alaska but told apparently as a young adult tale. There is no need to repeat passages from that book, but relevant passages can be found on these pages of the Chicago edition: 14, 26, 30, 46, 47, 53, 58, and 62. A few are worth noting here:
- 1921-23 Canadian Wrangel Island Expedition (Organized by Vilhjalmur Stefansson).
- Arctic Reading: Canada
This is the diary apparently doctored by Harold Noice with long sections missing and some lines erased, some having to do with Ada Blackjack (cf. p. 15, Jan 14): I am sure she is the most stubborn creature I have ever known. [That comment follows 3 erased lines.]
Karluk: the Great Untold Story of Arctic Exploration. [1913-1916]
- 1913-16 Canadian Arctic Expedition (Led by Stefansson with Captain Bob Bartlett commanding the Karluk).
- Arctic Reading: Canada
p. 36, at sea in Karluk: During the day a great deal of time was spent reading in our bunks, since there was not a single comfortable chair on board, except for those in Stefansson’s cabin, which was now shared by Captain Bartlett and Hadley.
“Pechuck”: Lorne Knight’s Adventures in the Arctic.
- 1921-23 Canadian Wrangel Island Expedition (Organized by Vilhjalmur Stefansson).
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Knight was born in 1893, son of a Methodist minister from Oregon. He died on Wrangel Island in 1923 of scurvy, in company with Ada Blackjack.
Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic.
- 1921-23 Canadian Wrangel Island Expedition (Organized by Vilhjalmur Stefansson).
- Arctic Reading: Canada
A readable but tendentious biography of the lone survivor of four men and one woman on Stefansson’s Wrangel Island expedition of 1921-23. The author is anti-Stefansson to some extreme, and while she may have some good points it would be difficult to verify them given the inadequacy of the documentation provided. There is no index.
The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the KARLUK
- 1913-16 Canadian Arctic Expedition (Led by Stefansson with Captain Bob Bartlett commanding the Karluk).
- Arctic Reading: Canada
The doomed voyage was the Stefansson Canadian expedition aboard Karluk in 1913-14.. When Stefansson was ashore hunting for fresh meat in Alaska, the ship was caught in the ice with several men aboard and drifted into the Chukchi Sea with Bartlett now in command. Some have charged that Stef deliberately abandoned the ship and men and the evidence seems ambiguous. Niven is anti-Stefansson to an extreme, and gives a fine portrait of Bartlett’s rescue efforts; while she may have some good points it would be difficult to verify them given the inadequacy of the documentation provided. There is no index.
The Canadian Journal of Lady Aberdeen, 1893-1898.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Ishbel Marie Marjoribanks Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair, better known as Lady Aberdeen (1857-1939), was a British social reformer devoted to women’s rights, philanthropy, and other causes. “As Vice-Regal Consort to Governor General John Campbell Hamilton-Gordon, Earl of Aberdeen, from 1893 until 1898, Lady Aberdeen organized the National Council of Women in Canada, became first sponsor of the Women’s Art Association of Canada and helped found the Victorian Order of Nurses” [Canadian Encyclopedia ].
Étoffe du pays: Lower St. Lawrence Sketches.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
This alleged children’s book is undated but probably describes events and publication of the mid-1920s. A couple of jems are worth recording from this delightful book:
Arctic Justice: On Trial for Murder, Pond Inlet, 1923.
- 1923 Canadian Murder Trial at Pond Inlet.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Fascinating book on the introduction of European-based law into a culture that had no reason to understand it, in its communitarian consensual approach to justice. Well-written and badly proofed, but worth the read.
Those Greenland Days: The British Arctic Air-Route Expedition, 1930-31.
- 1930-31 British Greenland Air Route Expedition.
- Greenland.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
A rather less engaging book than his later Sledge, but informative on an expedition to scope out air-routes across Greenland by meteorological observations on the icecap. Several reading references:
Igloo for the Night.
- 1938 Hudson Bay Voyage of Nascopie.
- Hudson's Bay Company.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
R.M.S. Nascopiewas the chief supply ship of the Hudson’s Bay Company with 34 annual visits to Northern Arctic outposts coming through Hudson Strait from the UK until 1933 when it was reassigned to Montreal.
Does Anyone Read Lake Hazen?
- 1957-58 Canadian International Geographical Year Ellesmere Island Expedition.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Describes a Canadian expedition to northern Ellesmere Island 1957-58 as part of the International Geophysical Year.