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Publisher:
Hyperion Press |
Release
Date: November 2003 |
ISBN:
0786868635 |
Awards:
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Format
Reviewed: Hardcover |
Buy
it at Amazon |
Read
an Excerpt |
Genre:
Nonfiction/Biography |
Reviewed:
2004 |
Reviewer:
Beverly J. Rowe |
Reviewer
Notes: |
Copyright
MyShelf.com |
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Ada
Blackjack
A True
Story of Survival in the Arctic
By Jennifer Niven
Ada Blackjack
was the only survivor of an Arctic expedition to the remote, uninhabited,
Wrangel Island. In an effort to gain possession of the island for
Canada...or the United States...the controversial, egomaniacal,
Vilhjalmur Stefansson sent four young men to that remote and barren
island, with Ada as their seamstress. Stefansson didn't really care
which country claimed ownership, but the only country that was really
interested in Wrangel was Russia. Jennifer Niven's research lays
bare the self-serving motives of Stefansson, and the trust and inexperience
of the ambitious young explorers.
In spite of the fact that Ada was to cook
and make clothing for the four explorers, she knew nothing about
preparing hides for sewing. As an Inuit Indian, the men thought
Ada would have hunting and trapping skills too, but she knew nothing
about Arctic survival. None of the party was expecting the type
of hardships they encountered in the forbidding polar landscape.
Steffanson sent enough supplies to
sustain them for a year if they could live off the land, and he
was to send a supply ship at the end of the year. The ship was unable
to reach Wrangel Island, and hardship and hunger plagued the inexperienced
adventurers.
Niven is a wonderful storyteller who
provides dramatic narrative that reads like great fiction, and keeps
you glued to the page. She tells of Ada Blackjack's unforgettable
courage and resourcefulness in the face of certain death. At the
end of two years, Ada was the only one of the five to return home.
The story of her survival is a tribute to the undaunted tenacity
of this tiny Alaska native, who took the position so that her ailing
son could receive medical care back in Nome. Her treatment by Stefansson
and the rest of the world after she returned home was shameful,
and Niven's telling of it brought tears to my eyes.
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