Prisoners of the North: Portraits of Five Arctic Immortals - Hardcover

"Nobody writes popular history the way Pierre Berton does." "Berton makes history read like fiction: fast-paced, colourful and full of both significance and suspense. It is a rare art and one that has served him and his readers well." --"The London Free Press (ON) "Nobody writes popular history the way Pierre Berton does. He is the undisputed Canadian king of the genre." --"Calgary Herald

Pierre Berton-Canada's most celebrated historian-has earned more than thirty literary awards for his distinguished body of work, and in Prisoners of the North he offers the reader a multitude of magnificent exploits and dazzling personalities. Witness John Hornby risks death as if for amusement as he pursues his obsessive quest for adventure in the Barren Grounds. Watch the poet Robert Service earn the fortune he so craves-and the fame he so reviles. Judge the veracity of Vilhjalmur Stefansson's claim to discover a tribe of "Blond Eskimos"-and see the international controversy that ensues. Meet Joe Boyle, the wealthy gold prospector whose military valor in the Great War earned him the admiration of Trotsky-and the love of the Romanian queen. Join Lady Jane Franklin on her transcontinental journey in search of her lost husband, the famed explorer Sir John, who never traveled so widely, or so bravely, as his indefatigable wife. These are Pierre Berton's prisoners, whose compelling and unusual stories he weaves together with unparalleled skill. Evocative, thrilling, and deeply original, Prisoners of the North is as daring and uncommon as its exceptional title characters.