num_pages: 336
description: 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.
language: English
title: Prisoners of the North: Portraits of Five Arctic Immortals
titlecomplete: Prisoners of the North: Portraits of Five Arctic Immortals
genres: Historical, History, Biography, Adventure, Travel, Canada, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 257
publisher: Basic Books