Arctic Adventure; My Life in the Frozen North

   Shortly after his death in 1957, the New York Times obituary of Peter Freuchen noted that "except for Richard E. Byrd, and despite his foreign beginnings, Freuchen was perhaps better known to more people in the United States than any other explorer of our time."  But 65 years later, most people would ask, "Who was Peter Freuchen?"

   During his lifetime Freuchen's remarkable adventures, related in his books, magazine articles, and films, made him a legend of the time.  In 1910, Freuchen and his friend and business partner, Knud Rasmussen, also a renowned polar explorer, founded Thule - a Greenland Eskimo trading post and village only 800 miles from the North Pole.

   Freuchen lived in Thule for fifteen years, adopting ways of it's natives. He married an Eskimo woman, and together they had two children. Freuchen went on many expeditions, quite a few of which he barely survived, suffering frostbite and starvation, even losing one of his feet to the cold. Near the North Pole there was no such thing as an easy and safe outing.

   In Arctic Adventure Freuchen wrote of polar bear hunts, of meeting Eskimos who had resorted to cannibalism during severe famine, and of the thrill of seeing the sun after three months of winter darkness. Trained as a journalist before he headed north, Freuchen was a fine writer and great storyteller (he won an Oscar for his feature film script for the 1933 movie,  Eskimo). He wrote about the Eskimo with genuine respect and affection, describing their stoicism amidst hardship, their spiritual beliefs, their ingenious methods of surviving their harsh environment, their humor and joy in the face of danger and difficulties, and the social politics behind such customs as "wife-trading."

    While his experiences truly make this book a page-turner, Freuchen's warmth, self-deprecating wit, writing skill and anthropological observations make this book a literary stand out that holds up against passing time.