White Eskimo

Knud Rasmussen's Fearless Journey into the Heart of the Arctic

Stephen R. Bown

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English

Da Capo
10 November 2015

Biography; Biography: general

Though less known today than contemporaries like Amundsen and Peary, Knud Rasmussen (1879–1933) was one of the most intriguing of the great early 20th century arctic explorers. Born and raised in Greenland, and part Inuit on his mother’s side, Rasmussen could shoot a gun and harness a team of sled dogs by the time he was eight.

Nevertheless he was well versed in the civilized arts and came to exploration after failing to make a career as an opera singer in Europe. He was obviously more at home on the ice floes than the stage, and undertook some of the most astounding feats of endurance in the annals of polar exploration including his record-setting 18,000-mile "Great Sled Journey" - the first to traverse the Northwest Passage by dogsled. More impressively, he traveled without the elaborate preparations and large support staffs employed by other explorers, surviving with only a few Inuit assistants and living off the land. He once explained his approach by saying, "[As a child] my playmates were native Greenlanders; from the earliest boyhood I played and worked with the hunters, so even the hardships of the most strenuous sledge-trips became pleasant routine for me."

Despite his extraordinary physical prowess, Rasmussen was one of the most intellectual of the great explorers, more interested in scientific study than glamorous feats, producing (among many other works) a ten-volume account documenting Inuit spirituality and culture, an accomplishment that earned him the title "the father of Eskimology."

In this first full-length biography, Stephen R. Bown brings Rasmussen’s inspiring story to English readers in all its richness, giving White Eskimo the readability of a good novel.

By: Stephen R. Bown
Imprint: Da Capo
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 230mm, Width: 160mm, Spine: 41mm
Weight: 594g
ISBN: 9780306822827
ISBN 10: 0306822822
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 10 November 2015
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Stephen R. Bown is the author of several critically-acclaimed, award-winning books on the history of exploration, science, and ideas. These include Merchant Kings: When Companies Ruled the World, 1600-1900, and Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail and the biography of Roald Amundsen The Last Viking. The Globe and Mail has called him Canada's Simon Winchester

Reviews for White Eskimo: Knud Rasmussen's Fearless Journey into the Heart of the Arctic

"Praise for White Eskimo Booklist, 9/15/15 ""Rasmussen [is] one of the twentieth century's greatest explorers...Bown has done an excellent job of bringing Rasmussen to life--another first-rate entry from this accomplished writer."" Library Journal, 9/15/15 ""A thorough and engaging biography...Bown makes excellent use of Rasmussen's expedition publications...Readers of Arctic cultures and exploration should clamor for this joyous celebration of Rasmussen's life."" Foreword, Winter 2015 ""Succeeds both as a well-researched account and a loving, humanizing portrait of this uniquely gifted writer and pioneer...Bown's enthusiasm for his subject is infectious, and his research efforts are truly impressive...Those enthralled by tales of Polar expeditions will find much to celebrate in this lucidly written and well-paced biography."" Discover, December 2015 ""Not as famous as Shackleton or Nansen, Inuit-Danish Rasmussen was arguably even more intrepid, traveling by dog sled from Greenland to Alaska in the 1920s. Bown captures both his charisma and soulful side in a biography full of wonder and peril."" Owen Sound Sun Times, 12/5/15 ""Bown is one of [Canada's] favourite popular historians...This is an insightful biography filled with the stuff of the Arctic; dog sleds, Inuit hunters, compelling expeditions."" Arctic Journal, Fall 2015 ""Bown provides a masterfully condensed version of the formative years of Knud's life in a coherent sequence of events, each as important as the next...The author convincingly identifies the major forces that shaped Knud's future...Highly recommend[ed] for anyone interested in the transitional days of Arctic exploration, adventure, and Bown's keen insight into the life events that shaped Dr. Knud Rasmussen into the extraordinary person he became."" Nature, 12/17/15 ""[A] masterful biography."" Manhattan Book Review, 12/5/15 ""A riveting read about a polar hero."" Midwest Book Review, December 2015 ""[A] fascinating true-life story of a dedicated explorer who contributed enormously to human knowledge and understanding...Highly recommended, especially for public and college library biography collections."" CBC News, 12/13/15, ""Top 10 Fiction and Non-fiction Books"" ""Bown does [a] fabulous job."" Sacramento Bee, 12/21/15 ""[A] remarkable story of an explorer who is credited as being the 'father of Eskimo-ology.'"" Wall Street Journal, 1/8/16 ""Is Knud Rasmussen the most remarkable polar explorer that few people have ever heard of? In White Eskimo: Knud Rasmussen's Fearless Journey Into the Heart of the Arctic, Stephen R. Bown makes a good case that he is...White Eskimo--the first English-language biography of Knud Rasmussen--offers much pleasure. Mr. Bown's prose is clear and lively, and while he clearly believes that Rasmussen was an extraordinary man, he doesn't dodge Rasmussen's flaws."" Princeton Packet, 2/18/16 ""A remarkable portrait of one of the least known, but at the same time one of the most significant of the Arctic explorers...Thoroughly researched and reads like the adventure story that it describes."" Hakai Magazine, April 2016 ""[A] fine biography...Nicely structured in four parts, the book is well written, well researched, and insightful."" Internet Review of Books, 4/11/16 ""Vivid detail...A well written biography of a truly interesting explorer and personality."" Shelf Awareness, 11/6/15 ""Bown takes readers into the frozen landscape of Greenland...[An] informative and entertaining biography...Vivid and detailed...A well-rounded portrait of the explorer and his life."" InfoDad blog, 11/5/15 ""A book...for those who remain fascinated by the age of polar exploration, and those interested in the long history of the Eskimo/Inuit people and their means of surviving, even thriving, in some of the most unforgiving territory in the world. White Eskimo is certainly the story of a life well-lived, an influential one that contributed greatly to an understanding of Eskimo/Inuit customs and thinking."" San Diego Book Review 11/12/15 ""This is a book of one of the last heroic explorers of the earth, full of poems, songs and stories of the far north. Rasmussen often seems larger than life yet is very approachable. The author evokes a marvelous sense of wonder at the man, his time and his life."" The Bookworm Sez, 11/10/15 ""[A] great story to give."" A Denver Post ""Best Nonfiction Book of 2015,"" 11/27/15 Calgary Herald, 12/5/15 ""[Bown] does not produce dry, academic tomes. His historical figures have a taste for adventure and tend to embark on epic odysseys with all-or-nothing abandon."""