ONE
1. John Barrow's obsession
2. The Croker Mountains
3. Winter Harbour
4. Fame, fortune, and frustration
5. Innuee and kabloonas
TWO
1. Franklin's Folly
2. Miss Porden's core of steel
3. Fury Beach
4. The silken flag
5. Treadmill to the Pole
THREE
1. Endless winter
2. The indomitable Jane
3. Enter the Honourable Company
4. Prison warden
5. A matter of honour
6. The Arctic puzzle
FOUR
1. The lost ships
2. Arctic Fever
3. The American presence
4. The crusaders
5. The dutiful warmth of a son
FIVE
1. Grasping at straws
2. "A French officer will never hang back"
3. The ambitions of Robert McClure
4. The Passage at last
5. Mercy Bay
SIX
1. The spirit rappers
2. Searching for the searchers
3. The blue devils
4. Ships abandoned
5. Relics of the lost
SEVEN
1. The defectors
2. Kalutunah
3. Retreat
4. The high cost of dawdling
5. The polar idol
EIGHT
1. A "weak and helpless woman"
2. The cruise of the Fox
3. the document at Victory Point
4. Failed heroes
5. The ultimate accolade
NINE
1. The obsession of Charles Francis Hall
2. The Open Polar Sea
3. Frobisher Bay
4. Execution
5. Death by arsenic
6. George Tyson's remarkable drift
TEN
1. "The navy needs some action"
2. The seeds of scurvy
3. The scapegoat
ELEVEN
1. The polar virus
2. Abandoned
3. No turning back
4. Starvation winter
5. The eleventh hour
TWELVE
1. Nansen's drift
2. Andrée's folly
3. Peary's obsession
4. Amundsen's triumph
THIRTEEN
1. Nearest the Pole
2. "Mine at last!"
3. Dr. Cook's strange odyssey
4. Cook versus Peary
5. The end of the quest
AFTERWORD
The chart of immortality
Author's Note
Chronology
Bibliography
Index
PIERRE BERTON was one of Canada’s most popular and prolific
authors. From narrative histories and popular culture, to picture
and coffee table books to anthologies, to stories for children to
readable, historical works for youth, many of his fifty books are
Canadian classics.
Born in 1920 and raised in the Yukon, Pierre Berton worked in
Klondike mining camps during his university years. He spent four
years in the army, rising from private to captain/instructor at the
Royal Military College in Kingston. He spent his early newspaper
career in Vancouver, where at 21 he was the youngest city editor on
any Canadian daily. He wrote columns for and was editor of
Maclean’s magazine, appeared on CBC’s public affairs program
“Close-Up” and was a permanent fixture on “Front Page Challenge”
for 39 years. He was a columnist and editor for the Toronto Star
and was a writer and host of a series of CBC programs.
Pierre Berton received over 30 literary awards including the
Governor General’s Award for Creative Non-Fiction (three times),
the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, and the Gabrielle Léger
National Heritage Award. He received two Nellies for his work in
broadcasting, two National Newspaper awards and the National
History Society’s first award for “distinguished achievement in
popularizing Canadian history.” For his immense contribution to
Canadian literature and history, he was awarded more than a dozen
honourary degrees, was a member of the Newsman’s Hall of Fame, and
was a Companion of the Order of Canada.
Pierre Berton passed away in Toronto on November 30, 2004.
"There's enough riveting reading in The Arctic Grail to last until
spring breakup."
—The Globe and Mail
"A magnificent history…this should be the definitive study of
Arctic exploration for years to come."
—Kirkus Reviews
"Berton's book is a thoroughly gripping read."
—The Province, Vancouver
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