[bksvol-discuss] just starting to scan
- From: "Sarah Van Oosterwijck" <curiousentity@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 12:09:12 -0600
Yesterday I got the book "Ada Blackjack: A TRUE STORY OF SURVIVAL IN THE
ARCTIC" by Jennifer Niven from the library. It's pretty big and has
illustrations so it will take me a while to get it scanned and editted, but
here's the book jacket information to wet your appetite. I know there are
Arctic adventure fans on this list, because there was a big discussion
about them a while ago.
Ada Blackjack was an unlikely hero-an unskilled 23-year-old Inuit woman
with no knowledge
of the world outside Nome, Alaska. Divorced, impoverished, and despondent,
she had one focus
in her life-to care for her sickly young son.
In September 1921, in search of money and a husband,
she signed on as seamstress for a top-secret
expedition into the unknown Arctic.
It was controversial explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson who sent four young men
and Ada Blackjack into the far North to colonize desolate, uninhabited
Wrangel Island. Only two of the men had set foot in the Arctic before. They
took with them six months' worth of supplies on Stefansson's theory that
this would be enough to sustain them for a year while they lived off the
land itself. But as winter set in, they were struck by hardship and
tragedy. As months went by and they began to starve, they were forced to
ration their few remaining provisions. When three of the men made a
desperate attempt to seek help, Ada was left to care for the fourth, who
was too sick to travel. Soon after, she found herself totally alone.
Upon Ada's miraculous return after two years on the island, the
international press heralded her as the female Robinson Crusoe. Journalists
hunted her down, but she refused to talk to anyone about her harrowing
experiences. Only on one occasion-after being accused of a horrible crime
she did not commit-did she speak up for herself. All the while, she was
tricked and exploited by those who should have been her champions.
Jennifer Niven. author of The Ice Master, narrates
After reading this I'm sure winter here in Minnesota will seem extremely
tame and boring and no longer very cold. :-)
Sarah Van Oosterwijck
Assistive Technology Trainer
http://home.earthlink.net/~netentity
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