The Icelandic Canadian - 01.08.2006, Side 40

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 60 #2
Book Reviews
Travelling Passions
4I(U lit
Travelling Passions: The
Hidden Life of Vilhjalmur
Stefansson.
Translated by Keneva Kunz
Reviewed by E. Leigh Syms
University of Manitoba Press, Winnipeg
Vilhjalmur Stefansson was one of the
foremost explorers of the early 1900's, fol-
lowing three Arctic expeditions (1906-
1914), an extensive writing and lecturing
career and a hero among Icelanders of
Iceland and North America. This is an
overview of the private (and often secret)
life of the man. Initially, I viewed this work
with some trepidation, wondering if it was
going to be primarily a voyeuristic explo-
ration into his "warts" and foibles.
Although this element is present, we learn
a great deal about the man, attitudes
towards the Inuit then viewed as primitives
and the competitive, and sometimes nasty
nature of early explorers. We are left with
the question of whether we want our
heroes to be somewhat larger that life or to
be shown with all of their “warts.”
The "discovery" of Stefansson, the
man, is enriched by a variety of fortuitous
materials. Boxes of his personal correspon-
dence including love letters were discov-
ered at a flea market in Vermont. Palsson,
an anthropologist from the University of
Iceland, who had already done extensive
research when publishing Stefansson's field
diaries, also scoured archives for
Stefansson's personal papers, letters from
people with whom he corresponded and a
variety of reports by his contemporaries,
some of whom were downright hostile, and
subsequent writers and researchers. He
also interviewed people who had known
Stefansson and his half-Inuit son, Alex,
whom Stefansson never acknowledged, as
well as his grandchildren, his wife, friends
and children of his lovers.
Stefansson, like other Arctic explorers,
faced phenomenal danger, not once but
three times. Ships were locked in ice and
destroyed and people died. Palsson dis-
cusses their being driven and uncovers the
inevitable competitiveness and jealousy
among fellow expedition members. All of
the explorers of the time and more recent
times were silent on the primary role of
local Natives to make their expeditions
successful; we need recall only Hillary's
account of his initial conquering of Mt.
Everest as a more recent example of this
behaviour.
During his later years, Stefansson
worked with the Russians to share ideas on
developing a Jewish state in the Soviet
Arctic. He was a victim of a severe attack