Scores of nineteenth-century expeditions battled savage cold, relentless ice and winter darkness in pursuit of two great prizes: the quest for the elusive Passage linking the Atlantic and the Pacific and the international race to reach the North Pole. Pierre Berton's #1 best-selling book brings to life the great explorers: the pious and ambitious Edward Parry, the flawed hero John Franklin, ruthless Robert Peary and the cool Norwegian Roald Amundsen. He also credits the Inuit, whose tracking and hunting skills saved the lives of the adventurers and their men countless times.

These quests are peopled with remarkable figures full of passion and eccentricity. They include Charles Hall, an obscure printer who abandoned family and business to head to a frozen world of which he knew nothing; John Ross, whose naval career ended when he spotted a range of mountains that didn't exist; Frederick Cook, who faked reaching the North Pole; and Jane Franklin, who forced an expensive search for her missing husband upon a reluctant British government.

Pierre Berton, who won his first Governor General's award for The Mysterious North, here again gives us an important and fascinating history that reads like a novel as he examines the historic events of the golden age of Arctic exploration.

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FINALIST 1988 - Governor General's Literary Award - Nonfiction

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"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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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

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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 now 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 of Humour, and the Gabrielle Leger 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, is a member of the Newsman’s Hall of Fame, and is a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Pierre Berton passed away in Toronto on November 30, 2004.


From the Hardcover edition.

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