A true story from the great age of Arctic exploration of an Inuit boy's struggle for dignity against Robert Peary and the American Museum of Natural History in turn-of-the-century New York City. Sailing aboard a ship called Hope in 1897, celebrated Arctic explorer Robert Peary entered New York Harbor with peculiar "cargo": Six Polar Inuit intended to serve as live "specimens" at the American Museum of Natural History. Four died within a year. One managed to gain passage back to Greenland. Only the sixth, a boy of six or seven with a precociously solemn smile, remained. His name was Minik. Although Harper's unflinching narrative provides a much needed corrective to history's understanding of Peary, who was known among the Polar Inuit as "the great tormenter", it is primarily a story about a boy, Minik Wallace, known to the American public as "The New York Eskimo." Orphaned when his father died of pneumonia, Minik never surrendered the hope of going "home," never stopped fighting for the dignity of his father's memory, and never gave up his belief that people would come to his aid if only he could get them to understand.

A collection of the very best in contemporary first-person journalism compiled by the award-winning former Washington Post reporter and author. Great journalists, at one time or another, have all been characters in their own stories: people with personalities that shaped what they saw and reported, and were touched and changed by the experiences about which they wrote; and innovators who borrowed the storytelling techniques of fiction. The Beholder’s Eye showcases the very best of an increasing trend toward personal narrative: Mike Sager stalking Marlon Brando in the Tahitian jungle; J. R. Moehringer’s quest to discover the true identity of an old boxer; Bill Plaschke’s story about a woman with cerebral palsy who runs an obscure Los Angeles Dodgers Web site; Scott Anderson’s story of his lifetime of covering war after war; Harrington’s own tale of his interracial family’s struggle to persevere; and many others. Written by reporters who were willing to reveal themselves in order to bring readers insights that were deeper than supposedly objective third-person stories, their articles are an invaluable resource for aspiring journalists, students, and teachers of the craft of writing, and any reader with an appreciation for masterful storytelling. “Aims to dispel the old journalistic cliché: that a journalist writing about him/herself is always ‘self-indulgent and, quite likely, narcissistic.’ He couldn’t have put together a better lineup of writers to make the point that it doesn’t have to be . . . Not just some of the country’s finest personal journalism, but some of its finest journalism, period.”—Kirkus Reviews

The golden moments of exploration and adventure - glorious, triumphant, perilous and dramatic. In the 18th century, exploration entered a new dimension - explorers were motivated by scientific inquiry rather than greed. To this end they were expected to make a full record of everything they encountered; and for the first time in history, that record was to include pictures as well as words. Combining gripping first-hand accounts with original images, THE EXPLORER'S EYE gives an insight into who these people were and what they saw. They were a mixed bunch but, whatever their training or background, they provided a vivid portrait of the unknown. In the early days they drew their own pictures, later they were equipped with draughtsmen, later still they carried cameras, and ultimately they were accompanied by film crews. The power of their images is matched by that of their journals. Here you have Alexander von Humboldt braving the electric eels of South America and Robert Peary explaining his relationships with Eskimos.