Product Description

The new biography of Iceland's famed explorer and anthropologist.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1333254 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-13
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 396 pages

Review
"Much has been written before about Stefansson's life, but Palsson's work places it in a new context . . . The outcome is much more than an account of the life history of this 'famous Icelander,' it becomes a contribution to the complex history of the exchanges between Western masculinity and colonial power with the cultural and natural environment of northern regions." --Olafur Rastrick, Saga

"Palsson's book is very well-researched . . . an excellent read from start to finish." --Polar Record

"The book is meticulously and thoroughly researched. Palsson was able to examine hundreds of Stefansson's private letters, and he conducted interviews with people who either knew or knew quite a bit about Stefansson, visited many of Stefansson's old stomping grounds, and read every published and unpublished document he could find relating to his subject. In addition to a comprehensive bibliography, the book contains interesting photographs, a chronology, and detailed citations. The author makes a considerable effort to provide contexts for the events and people he discusses . . . This is a significant contribution to the growing literature on the private lives of anthropologists who otherwise are known to the general public only through their own writings." --Current Anthropology

Review
"Palsson's book is a masterpiece. It leaves the reader with sufficient space for reflection which is an important asset." (Kristjan Johannson, Dagblai )

From the Publisher
6 x 9 trim. 146 illus.

Customer Reviews

An Arctic's geography of the soul
This is one amazingly beautiful book, impeccably written, extremely well documented, and full of real life emotions. Is like if you, yourself were traveling through the Arctic, in the turn of the century...not only a beautiful disclosure of geography and The Powerful Inuit culture, but an astonishing book, full of the poetry, from the perspective of a very lonely man, who was brace enough to write lovely eulogies for the woman of his life. Gísli Pálsson has managed to give us a wonderful book, that depicts not only the life of the great Manitoba's born explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, but also to present a treaty of the life in the Arctic, and the amazing Inuit Culture, who for more than four millennia have been traveling and living in `A Vast Land' that some others have crossed in comfortable ships -under and above. This is a book that deserves a site of honor in a wonderful library. When Stefansson writes in his poem: "But if the prize of a woman's love falls not on me, neither on you, let us hide the affliction of a ruined life in hard work that is strong and true... for those who have built some fairest shrines,have been those denied a woman's love, therefore denied, the life of a happy man.." You have only a hint of how excellent this book is.