Items related to Travelling Passions: Stefansson, the Arctic Explorer
Vilhjalmur Stefansson has long been known for his groundbreaking work as an anthropologist and expert on Arctic peoples. His three expeditions to the Canadian Arctic in the early 1900s, as well as his groundbreaking work in northern anthropology, helped create his public image as a heroic, Hemingway-esque figure in the annals of twentieth-century exploration. But the emotional and private lives of Stefansson the man have remained hidden—until now.
Much new evidence of these other lives has recently been discovered, allowing Gísli Pálsson to retell Stefansson’s story. Love letters between Stefansson and his fiancée Cecil Smith, forgotten for decades, turned up in a New Hampshire flea market. The clever fieldwork of a private detective and a simple Web search led Pálsson to Smith’s daughter by another man and her insights on Stefansson’s first love. Stefansson’s relationship with his informant and guide, Fanny Panigabluk, turns out to have been much more than a professional partnership: together they had a child, Alex, whose descendants Pálsson interviewed in Canada’s Northwest Territories. And Stefansson’s field diaries are a marked contrast to his published works, revealing lengthy and elegant essays, insightful commentary on Inupiat society, and drawings. The diaries show a Stefansson who was much more than the familiar brash adventurer; he was also a careful, observant, and gifted anthropologist. Above all, Vilhjalmur Stefansson was a study in contrasts.
In this remarkable new work, Gísli Pálsson draws a clear, vivid, and in many ways unexpected, picture of the mythical Stefansson, while remaining careful not to apply modern sensibilities to the life and motivations of a man from such a different time. Travelling Passions is translated for the first time from the bestselling Icelandic-language edition.
Much new evidence of these other lives has recently been discovered, allowing Gísli Pálsson to retell Stefansson’s story. Love letters between Stefansson and his fiancée Cecil Smith, forgotten for decades, turned up in a New Hampshire flea market. The clever fieldwork of a private detective and a simple Web search led Pálsson to Smith’s daughter by another man and her insights on Stefansson’s first love. Stefansson’s relationship with his informant and guide, Fanny Panigabluk, turns out to have been much more than a professional partnership: together they had a child, Alex, whose descendants Pálsson interviewed in Canada’s Northwest Territories. And Stefansson’s field diaries are a marked contrast to his published works, revealing lengthy and elegant essays, insightful commentary on Inupiat society, and drawings. The diaries show a Stefansson who was much more than the familiar brash adventurer; he was also a careful, observant, and gifted anthropologist. Above all, Vilhjalmur Stefansson was a study in contrasts.
In this remarkable new work, Gísli Pálsson draws a clear, vivid, and in many ways unexpected, picture of the mythical Stefansson, while remaining careful not to apply modern sensibilities to the life and motivations of a man from such a different time. Travelling Passions is translated for the first time from the bestselling Icelandic-language edition.
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From the Publisher:
6 x 9 trim. 146 illus.
About the Author:
GÍSLI PÁLSSON is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Iceland and formerly was Professor at the University of Oslo. His research focuses on environmental change, the social implications of biotechnology, Arctic exploration, and Inuit genetic history. Among his many books is Writing on Ice: The Ethnographic Notebooks of Vilhjalmur Stefansson (UPNE, 2001).
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherDartmouth
- Publication date2005
- ISBN 10 1584655100
- ISBN 13 9781584655107
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages396
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Travelling Passions : The Hidden Life of Vilhjalmur Stefansson
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Dartmuth College, Hanover
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ISBN 13: 9781584655107
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