Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879-1962) was Canada's greatest modern arctic explorer, theorist, writer, and pioneer ethnologist. For the first quarter of the twentieth century his ideas captured the imagination of Canadians and gave them a sense of Canada's nor

The first comprehensive account of one of the great sagas of Arctic exploration and discovery, the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913–1918, led by the ethnologist/explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson and the zoologist Dr. Rudolph M. Anderson. There are details of the Expedition’s successes and tragedies, including the discovery of all but one large island north of the Canadian mainland, the accumulation of considerable scientific information and valuable collections, and the personal feud of the Expedition’s two leaders. Four appendices list Expedition personnel, fifty-three geographical sites in the Arctic named after them, locations of their diaries and collected specimens, and the thirteen government volumes arising from the Expedition.

"Vilhjalmur Stefansson is widely known for his groundbreaking Canadian Arctic explorations of the early 1900s. He acquired a reputation almost larger than life with his discovery of the Copper Inuit - a hitherto unknown people - his insistence on living as the local people did, and, with Natkusiak, his Inuit co-explorer, his adventurous forays onto barren ice for months at a time. He was a fixture in the New York Greenwich Village scene and, later in his life, taught at Dartmouth College. However, despite his detailed field diaries and the frenzy of publicity that followed his every move, his private life has remained largely unknown." "Then, in 1987, an accidental discovery in a flea market of hundreds of private letters and documents proved to be those belonging to Stefansson, and they told a story of private relationships, in particular with two southern women, Orpha Cecil Smith, to whom Stefansson was engaged, and the novelist Fannie Hurst, with whom Stefansson was involved for many years. Moreover, letters between some of Stefansson's friends as well as his own field diaries alluded to an important relationship Stefansson had with an Inupiat woman in the Arctic, Pannigabluk, and to their son, Alex." "Gisli Palsson has followed the trail of these sources and conducted many interviews with Stefansson's northern descendants, uncovering a complex and perhaps torn personality. In Travelling Passions, we have a much more complete picture of the man who figured so largely in the imagination of the early twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET.

Stefansson's contributions to arctic exploration are immense. He discovered some of the world's last major land masses in the Arctic and his hydrographic soundings outlined, for the first time, the continental shelf from Alaska to Prince Patrick Island and revealed the submarine mountains and valleys beneath the Beaufort Sea. While in the Arctic he lived with the Inuit, learning their habits and language, and kept a detailed record of early Inuit society. However, some of Stefansson's deeds, and the motives behind them, garnered less acclaim. In one instance Stefansson was accused of abandoning ship just before the ship was crushed in the ice, a heinous act for the leader of an expedition. On another occasion, following a disastrous expedition to Wrangel Island during which great numbers of the party died, Stefansson was accused of deliberately misleading members of the expedition and lying about the perils that faced them. The affair caused Canada to become embroiled with the United States and the Soviet Union, and many argued that Stefansson was more concerned with personal fame and financial gain than people's lives. Was Stefansson a prophet or a profiteer, a victim or a villain? Stefansson and the Canadian Arctic reveals the truth about this fascinating personality.

Narrative of the Fifth Thule expedition.