A biography / memoir for my bookclub

[criminey.jicket]

I wonder if Ken McGoogan’s (a Canadian) accounting of Dr. John Rae in Fatal Passage would fit your bill?

Fatal Passage is McGoogan’s completely absorbing account of John Rae’s incredible accomplishmentsand his undeserved and wholesale discreditation atthe hands of polite Victorian society. After sifting through thousands of pages of research, maps and charts, and traveling to England, Scotland and the Arcticto visit the places Rae knew, McGoogan has produced a book that reads like a fast-paced novel — a smooth synthesis of adventure story, travelogue and historical biography. Fatal Passage is a richly detailed portrait of a time when the ambitions of the Empire knew no bounds.

John Rae was an adventurous young medical doctor from Orkney who signed on with the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1833. He lived in the Canadian wilds for more than two decades, becoming legendary as a hunter and snowshoer, before he turned to exploration. Famous for what was then a unique attitude — a willingness to learn from and use the knowledge and skills of aboriginal peoples — Rae became the first European to survive an Arctic winter while living solely off the land.

One of dozens of explorers and naval men commissioned by the British Admiralty to find out what became of Sir John Franklin and his two ships, Rae returned from the Arctic to report that the most glorious expedition ever launched had ended with no survivors — and worse, that it had degenerated into cannibalism. Unwilling to accept that verdict, Victorian England not only ostracized Rae, but ignored his achievements, and credited Franklin with the discovery of the Passage.

Fatal Passage is Ken McGoogan’s brilliant vindication of John Rae’s life and rightful place in history, a book for armchair adventurers, Arctic enthusiasts, lovers of Canadian history, and all those who revel in a story of physical courage and moral integrity.

Dr. Rae was also the expedition leader for telegrahic survey from St. Paul, MN to Quesnel, BC (he actually went on all the way to Victoria, BC).

In short, Rae’s journey was precisely what one would have expected of him. And, as one would also expect of him, he maintained his reputation as a traveler sans pareil. Travelling with wagons and Red River carts he covered the distance from Fort Garry to Fort Edmonton (some 1320 km) in thirty-four days, including stops, for an average daily distance of thirty-nine kilometres per day. He travelled the section from Lake Ste. Anne to Tete Jaune Cache, almost entirely on foot, by his own statement, in nineteen days of travelling, for an average daily distance of thirty-one and a half kilometres. And finally, he travelled a minimum distance of 450 kilometers down the Fraser River, from Tete Jaune Cache to Fort Alexandria by canoe in eight days (including a rest day at Quesnel). The contrast between his apparently effortless progress and the histrionics of Dr. Cheadle’s account of his trip with Viscount Milton along basically the same route the following year, could scarcely be greater.

[Gulo_gulo]

I know I’m late to the party but in case this pops up again in the future I’m going to offer:

Appetite for Life by Noel Riley Fitch ~ A wonderful bio on Julia Child who was simply a marvelous woman.

Now I shall poach some of these books for my own wishlist!