Ultima Thulé : explorers and natives of the polar North / Jean Malaurie ; translated from the French by Willard Wood and Anthony Roberts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Malaurie, Jean.

Standardized Title:

Ultima Thulé. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Discoveries in geography.

Greenland--Discovery and exploration.

Greenland.

Arctic regions--Discovery and exploration.

Arctic regions.

Arctic Regions.

Arctic regions--Discovery and exploration--American.

Arctic regions--Discovery and exploration--European.

Local Subjects:

Arctic regions--Discovery and exploration--American.

Arctic regions--Discovery and exploration--European.

Physical Description:

399 pages : illustrations (some color), color maps ; 34 cm

Edition:

First U.S. edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Norton, [2003]

Summary:

Ultima Thule is the terrible yet fantastic story of European and American exploration in the Polar regions. Thirteen extraordinary men and expeditions preceded author Jean Malaurie to the North Pole. Based on excerpts from these explorers' logs, counterbalanced by Inuit testimony, this book brings to life both sides of the clash between indigenous people and the white men who arrived in the Far North dreaming of Polar conquest, and believing they brought with them a superior civilization. Over the intervening 170 years, tensions have continually risen and fallen as new waves of Europeans encounter the native Inuit. Today, the outlook for the Inuit and for the Polar environment is bleak: both the people and their landscape are in danger of disappearing forever. But according to Malaurie, the situation is not without hope. Using original travel accounts and a stunning array of period photographs, engravings, artifacts, maps, and drawings, Malaurie paints a richly detailed portrait of an intersection of cultures and fantasies. This beautifully produced book, an international success now available for the first time in an English translation, puts an entire museum of North Pole history in the reader's hands, illuminating a little-known world.

Contents:

History of the Exploration of Northwest Greenland 4

Captain John Ross 20

Sir John Franklin 48

Captain Edward Augustus Inglefield 51

Erasmus York 58

The Upernaallit 60

Elisha Kent Kane 74

Isaac Israel Hayes 94

The Last Migration of the Inuit 106

Charles Francis Hall 110

George Strong Nares 128

Hans Hendrik 140

Baron Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskjold 153

Lieutenant Adolphus Washington Greely 154

Admiral Robert Edwin Peary 174

Third Metamorphosis of the Inuit 214

Dr. Frederick Albert Cook 220

Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen 242

Knud Rasmussen 254

Peter Freuchen 286

Lauge Koch 302

Lord Edward Shackleton 314

Erik Holtved 322

Jean Malaurie 332

The Fantasy World of the Inuit 370

Epilogue: Thule 2000 374

Chronology of the Polar Eskimos, 1616-2000 394.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (page 399) and index.

ISBN:

0393051501

OCLC:

50525745