![]() Several of the Arctic explorers mentioned in this opus were founding members of The American Alpine Club and their achievements well known. From Sir John Barrow, the bigoted British bureaucrat who never went near the north, to the best analysis I’ve read on the celebrated Cook-Peary controversy, this book is in keeping with the fine yarn-spinning that we have come to expect of Berton. Berton places the explorers-many of whose personal names are on landmarks all about the polar regions-in the contest of their times, noting their foibles, strengths and weaknesses, virtues and vices. It would be niggling to find flaws in this delightful opus because, despite a few minor inaccuracies, this book is the finest piece of Arctic literature that I have read. ![]() Pierre Berton, Canada’s sixty-eight-year-old popular historian, brings history to life and portrays the conquest of the lands and seas beyond the Canadian North in this carefully-researched book. ![]() 672 pages, illustrations, maps, bibliography. The Arctic Grail: The Quest for the North West Passage and the North Pole, 1818-1909. ![]()
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