Arctic Sun on My Path : The True Story of America's Last Great Polar Explorer

As a boy in Oslo, Brooklyn-born Willie Knutsen had a dream. He dreamed of great ships slipping between massive ice floes, sled dogs straining eagerly against their leather harnesses, and the cold arctic sun glinting on vast stretches of inhospitable icy terrain. He dreamed of becoming an arctic explorer--a polar man!

In 1936, he set off on a thirty-three-year journey that began during the era of wooden ships and crude dogsleds, and ended during the atomic age of satellites probing polar secrets and nuclear-powered submarines gliding beneath the arctic ice. Throughout those years, Willie lived according to his his motto: “If you make plans and stick to them, the sun will always be on your path.”

Willie’s life story is filled with adventure. In 1940, a gripping escape from Nazi-occupied Norway led first to Greenland, then to America aboard an American coast guard icebreaker. The head of the U.S. Air Force personally invited Willie to join the Search and Rescue operations for the infamous “Crimson Route,” the World War II flight path from the United States to Europe via Labrador. After the war, with the Cold War in full stride, the military asked Willie to participate in top-secret missions to the high Arctic. This book holds the first public revelations of those projects.

Near the end of his long and fascinating life, Willie asked his son, author Will Knutsen, to write his story. Over a period of five years, Will listened as Willie recounted his numerous exploits. Arctic Sun on My Path is the fruit of that effort. The polar man’s artistic sense brings the book to life with color and colorful characters, many of them famous. Filled with suspense, humor, political intrigue, and human foibles, it is both a story of mankind’s search to understand the unknown, and of one man’s realization of his childhood dream.

Near the end of his long and fascinating life, Willie asked his son, author Will Knutsen, to write his story. Over a period of five years, Will listened as Willie recounted his numerous exploits. Arctic Sun on My Path, the fourth book in the Explorers Club classics series, is the fruit of that effort. The polar man's artistic sense brings the book to life with color and colorful characters, many of them famous. Filled with suspense, humor, political intrigue, and human foible, it is both a story of mankind's search to understand the unknown, and of one man's realization of his childhood dream.

Willie Knutsen, born in Brooklyn in 1912, is known as America’s last great polar explorer. For over three decades he worked for the United States military and other private interests, exploring and researching the Arctic regions from Greenland to Alaska. He was a member of the Explorers Club and published two articles in National Geographic. He died in Norway in 1992.

WILL KNUTSEN first published Mitt Arktis, the biography of his father in Norway in 1992. He has written articles and film scripts both here and abroad. He lives in Denmark with his wife and two children.