Product Description

The true story of the remarkable John Rae - Arctic traveller and Hudson's Bay Company doctor - a tale of imperial ambition and high adventure. In 1854 Rae solved the two great Arctic mysteries: the fate of the doomed Franklin expedition and the location of the last navigable link in the Northwest Passage. But Rae was to be denied the recognition he so richly deserved. On returning to London, he faced a campaign of denial and vilification led by two of the most powerful people in Victorian England: Lady Jane Franklin, the widow of the lost Sir John, and Charles Dickens, the most influential writer of the age. With this is story of courage and determination, McGoogan aims to capture the essence of one man's indomitable spirit. It is his redemption of Rae's rightful place in history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #214390 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
Long before the fictional Indiana Jones, there existed men like John Rae. This Scotsman endured extremes lesser men would never countenance and experienced adventures that belonged to the world of fiction in his quest to find the elusive North West Passage. Brought up on the Orkney Islands, he always wanted to travel and after qualifying as a doctor he signed up with the Hudson Bay Company. Part of the charter that had created the company obliged them to seek the elusive North West Passage, and Rae set off on an expedition into the Arctic. Although he did not succeed as he hoped, he managed to prove that the landmass Boothie Felix was in fact a peninsula, and after returning to England he set off again to discover the fate of a previous expedition led by Sir John Franklin. But when he provided irrefutable evidence of Franklin's death, coupled with Inuit tales that Franklin and his men had resorted to cannibalism in their last days, the explorer's widow Lady Franklin refused to accept his findings and began a campaign against Rae which was supported by luminaries including Charles Dickens. The whole affair left Rae an embittered man, and after 23 years with the Hudson Bay Company he resigned his position and started leading his own expeditions. Eventually he discovered a way through the North West Passage, but his reputation never recovered from Lady Franklin's vilification and he was the only important Victorian explorer not to receive a knighthood. This is a fascinating story, both a long-overdue reassessment of an able and courageous man and a revealing exploration of a great Victorian scandal. (Kirkus UK)

Wall Street Journal
'A riveting story - backed by solid research - that illuminates a fascinating chapter in the annals of Arctic exploration'

Andrea Barratt, author of THE VOYAGE OF THE NARWHAL
'In Ken McGoogan's artful telling, John Rae emerges from the shadows...This is delightful reading'

Customer Reviews

Wonderful story about a forgotten hero
I'd never heard of John Rae before I read this book and the book explains how he was written out of history for basically telling the truth about what had happened to the Franklin expedition. Although the sections dealing with these 'political' ramifications are very interesting the best parts of the book are the descriptions of his various expeditions. He was a man with almost superhuman physical abilities in the face of the terrible conditions in the artic and expected similar abilities in the men who worked for him - he didn't suffer fools, or shirkers! However, for the times he had a very enlightened atitude to eskimos and indians and greatly respected them. Ken McGoogan does a really good job in narrating this wonderful story and my only criticism would be the way the maps in the book are spread around- I would have prepared them all in one place - at the beginning/end or at the beginning of the relevant chapters.

Also, as you read the book you can sense that he has been captivated by Lady Franklin and sure enough his next book was her biography "Lady Franklin's Revenge: A True Story of Ambition, Obsession, and the Remaking of Arctic History".

unsung hero
Its doubtful a Para could keep up with this intrepid explorer.

A true hero of the north. What gets me is how people passed years of their lives literally holed up for huge amounts of time, for such a short treking season.
For sure it is the call of the wild.
tragically forgotten and villified in his time, this was certinly a case of "shooting the messenger" but Rae was a winner as he had such a marvelous wife!

Fascinating Insights
This was a very good read. It charts the history of one man, John Rae and his role in the discovery of the north West Passage. But whilst the focus is on Rae it gives a very good account of the other people who were involved both in trying to find the passage, as well as others who then set out to discover Franklin who (together with all his men on two ships) disappeared attempting the passage.

Not sensationalist (although at times he does fight for Rae's name a bit too much for me) just a good entertaining readable history

I also read "Frozen in Time" by Beattie and Geiger and found the two books very complimentary.