The Icelandic Canadian - 01.08.2009, Blaðsíða 50

140
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 62 #3
Book Reviews
* TOMHENIGHAN
STEFANSSON
V.
S
’“''mV
ARCTIC ADVENTURER
Vilhjalmur Stefansson
By Tom Henigan
Dundurn Press
Reviewed by Darrell Gudmundson
Tom Henigan provides us with an
insight into the man who, more than any
other, exposed the Arctic and its peoples in
the early twentieth century.
This is a curiously structured book; at
least three books in one. It starts with a
biography, then wanders off into a discus-
sion of explorers and the archetypes that
drive them, then into the cultural origins of
those archetypes. By this point one begins
to feel the book has moved on from
Stefansson into a theoretical discussion of
history and myth. However, this section is
followed by an ingenious play featuring
Stefansson, which cleverly reinforces earli-
er comments about his life and character.
As an Icelandic Canadian, I felt a con-
nection to Stefansson. Growing up about a
mile from his sister Rosa Josephson (pic-
tured as a child with her brother near the
front of the book), I heard about his visits
to Vatnabyggd, particularly Elfros and
Mozart, the nearest communities. “Villi's”
name was spoken with pride, not so much
by Rosa, but by all in general, and his lec-
tures in the old Mozart town hall were fre-
quently mentioned.
I am not qualified to question most of
the facts in the book, but I did notice that
Stefansson, born in 1879, could not have
been born in Manitoba, but was born in the
District of Keewatin, which joined the
province of Manitoba two years later. This
would be trivial were it not repeated on the
cover of the book. However, to pick on
facts would be to miss the essence of the
book, which conveys the essence of the
man and the times.
The book is a concise effort to peer
into the character of the man, not only
recount his exploits. To this end, it opens
with a letter from one friend to another,
describing a series of meetings with
Stefansson, and these give an excellent
character study. One can picture the man
from this letter: his dress and his manner.
Stefansson was accused of being a publicity
hound; this account shows him as a man of
cautious modesty, on occasion sensational-
ized by the press, but with a mission burn-
ing deeply within - to better acquaint peo-
ple with the Arctic, and to proclaim the
dietary habits of the 'Eskimo' as a model to
be emulated.
The book deals well with Stefansson's