Review by Choice Review
Polar exploration was a popular endeavor in the early 20th century, and the subject of this engaging biography played a signal role in exploring the Danish territory of Greenland. Copenhagen-born Peter Freuchen found conventional life too constraining and embarked on expeditions with famed explorer Knud Rasmussen. Inuit cultures from Alaska to the eastern Canadian High Arctic inspired Freuchen to write about them in various formats, including novels--Hollywood adapted his novel Book of the Eskimos into the film Eskimo (1933). Freuchen had a voracious appetite for travel, giving him opportunities to publish on various subjects. As a member of the Danish resistance, he fought against Nazi occupation but was imprisoned. After the war he became a popular figure and a recognized authority on Arctic exploration. This well-researched and smoothly written account takes ample opportunity to investigate the diverse facets of Freuchen's many lives. The author's personal comments will amplify readers' appreciation of this larger-than-life figure. Sources of information are amply described in the bibliography, and fine photographs complement the text, capturing the life and times of a heroic figure. This work will appeal particularly to students of Arctic exploration. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers and advanced undergraduates through faculty. --barry M. gough, emeritus, Wilfrid Laurier University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Twentieth-century Danish explorer Peter Freuchen is famous for many things, including multiple expeditions to Greenland, WWII exploits as a member of the Danish resistance who escaped a Nazi death sentence, movie-making, and writing. Then there's the spectacular Irving Penn photograph of Freuchen with his third wife, fashion illustrator Dagmar Cohn, that graces the cover of this book. Mitenbuler became captivated with Freuchen's story after a visit to the Explorer's Club and draws heavily from his subject's published writings in this breezy biography. Encompassing all of his life but focusing most on his exploration experiences, this narrative also looks at the adventures of Freuchen's contemporaries, such as Robert Peary and Knud Rasmussen. Mitenbuler is clearly enthralled with his dynamic subject and enjoys regaling readers with the many stories Freuchen shared over the years. The chapters move along at a steady clip, and those unfamiliar with Freuchen will enjoy this introduction. Detailed end notes provide ample opportunity for those wishing to learn more to dive into the source material.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Journalist Mitenbuler (Wild Minds) recounts the adventures of Danish explorer Peter Freuchen (1886--1957) in this captivating and colorful saga. At age 20, Freuchen dropped out of medical school at the University of Copenhagen, joined an expedition to Greenland, and got hooked on Arctic exploration. For 18 years, he explored the Far North, studying Inuit culture and eventually marrying an Inuit woman. He stopped exploring at age 37, after he became trapped beneath his own sled during a blizzard, fashioned his frozen feces into a chisel to dig his way out, and developed such severe frostbite that his foot and part of his leg had to be amputated. Freuchen went on to consult on Arctic-inspired scripts for MGM, hide Nazi refugees and assist the Danish resistance during WWII, tour the world giving lectures on his expeditions and the need to protect the Inuit way of life, and win The $64,000 Question, then America's most popular quiz show, in 1956. Throughout, Mitenbuler's vivid prose and sly wit keep the pages turning: "In this way," he writes about a busywork assignment Freuchen received from the head of MGM's writing department, "Hollywood was surprisingly similar to Arctic expeditions: there were often long periods with nothing to do." This adventure story is impossible to resist. Agent: Heather Schroder, Compass Literary. (Feb.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The eventful life of a daring adventurer. Drawing on thousands of pages of memoirs, diaries, letters, travelogues, and novels, journalist Mitenbuler creates a vivid portrait of Danish explorer, writer, anthropologist, and ethnographer Peter Freuchen (1886-1957), a man whose "irrepressible restlessness" impelled him around the world. Nurtured from childhood to be independent and adventurous, Freuchen found his calling after an expedition to Greenland in 1906, which began a career of charting the Arctic, manning weather stations, establishing trading posts, investigating Inuit culture, and, most of all, "learning how to master his circumstances so he wouldn't be dominated by them." He savored Indigenous foods such as fermented walrus flipper, musk oxen, and boiled caribou meat; and he found the uninhibited sexual mores of the Inuit much to his liking. In 1911, he married and had two children with an Inuit woman who, sadly, died during the influenza pandemic. He was undaunted by the hardships of the polar environment, which included storms, weak ice, scarce game, and wolves that preyed on his sled dogs. Mitenbuler recounts a particularly horrific episode when Freuchen found himself trapped in a hole by snow; he escaped by forming his frozen feces into a chisel. He emerged with frostbitten toes that he amputated himself; eventually, he lost the foot as well. Unable to continue physical exploration, Freuchen went on to become a technical consultant on movies about the Arctic, some made from his novels. He spent enough time in Hollywood to be swept up in the glamour, although he was frustrated by the "mercurial flightiness" of the movie industry. Back in Denmark during World War II, he worked for the resistance after Nazis invaded, storing ammunition in his shed and passing intelligence. Mitenbuler captures the commanding presence of his outspoken, indefatigable subject: "Freuchen was tall and looked like a wild Viking raider just sprung from his longship." A colorful, well-researched biography. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
