Owen Sound Sun Times, 12/5/15
“Bown is one of [Canada's] favourite popular historians…This is an insightful biography filled with the stuff of the Arctic; dog sleds, Inuit hunters, compelling expeditions.”
Arctic Journal, Fall 2015
“Bown provides a masterfully condensed version of the formative years of Knud's life in a coherent sequence of events, each as important as the next…The author convincingly identifies the major forces that shaped Knud's future…Highly recommend[ed] for anyone interested in the transitional days of Arctic exploration, adventure, and Bown's keen insight into the life events that shaped Dr. Knud Rasmussen into the extraordinary person he became.”
Nature, 12/17/15
“[A] masterful biography.”
Manhattan Book Review, 12/5/15
“A riveting read about a polar hero.”
Midwest Book Review, December 2015
“[A] fascinating true-life story of a dedicated explorer who contributed enormously to human knowledge and understanding…Highly recommended, especially for public and college library biography collections.”
CBC News, 12/13/15, “Top 10 Fiction and Non-fiction Books”
“Bown does [a] fabulous job.”
Praise for White Eskimo
Booklist, 9/15/15
“Rasmussen [is] one of the twentieth century's greatest explorers…Bown has done an excellent job of bringing Rasmussen to life—another first-rate entry from this accomplished writer.”
Library Journal, 9/15/15
“A thorough and engaging biography…Bown makes excellent use of Rasmussen's expedition publications…Readers of Arctic cultures and exploration should clamor for this joyous celebration of Rasmussen's life.”
Foreword, Winter 2015
“Succeeds both as a well-researched account and a loving, humanizing portrait of this uniquely gifted writer and pioneer…Bown's enthusiasm for his subject is infectious, and his research efforts are truly impressive…Those enthralled by tales of Polar expeditions will find much to celebrate in this lucidly written and well-paced biography.”
Discover, December 2015
“Not as famous as Shackleton or Nansen, Inuit-Danish Rasmussen was arguably even more intrepid, traveling by dog sled from Greenland to Alaska in the 1920s. Bown captures both his charisma and soulful side in a biography full of wonder and peril.”
Shelf Awareness, 11/6/15
“Bown takes readers into the frozen landscape of Greenland…[An] informative and entertaining biography…Vivid and detailed…A well-rounded portrait of the explorer and his life.”
InfoDad blog, 11/5/15
“A book…for those who remain fascinated by the age of polar exploration, and those interested in the long history of the Eskimo/Inuit people and their means of surviving, even thriving, in some of the most unforgiving territory in the world. White Eskimo is certainly the story of a life well-lived, an influential one that contributed greatly to an understanding of Eskimo/Inuit customs and thinking.”
San Diego Book Review 11/12/15
“This is a book of one of the last heroic explorers of the earth, full of poems, songs and stories of the far north. Rasmussen often seems larger than life yet is very approachable. The author evokes a marvelous sense of wonder at the man, his time and his life.”
The Bookworm Sez, 11/10/15
“[A] great story to give.”
A Denver Post “Best Nonfiction Book of 2015,” 11/27/15
Calgary Herald, 12/5/15
“[Bown] does not produce dry, academic tomes. His historical figures have a taste for adventure and tend to embark on epic odysseys with all-or-nothing abandon.”
Sacramento Bee, 12/21/15
“[A] remarkable story of an explorer who is credited as being the ‘father of Eskimo-ology.'”
Wall Street Journal, 1/8/16
“Is Knud Rasmussen the most remarkable polar explorer that few people have ever heard of? In White Eskimo: Knud Rasmussen's Fearless Journey Into the Heart of the Arctic, Stephen R. Bown makes a good case that he is…White Eskimo—the first English-language biography of Knud Rasmussen—offers much pleasure. Mr. Bown's prose is clear and lively, and while he clearly believes that Rasmussen was an extraordinary man, he doesn't dodge Rasmussen's flaws.”
Princeton Packet, 2/18/16
“A remarkable portrait of one of the least known, but at the same time one of the most significant of the Arctic explorers…Thoroughly researched and reads like the adventure story that it describes.”
Hakai Magazine, April 2016
“[A] fine biography…Nicely structured in four parts, the book is well written, well researched, and insightful.”
Internet Review of Books, 4/11/16
“Vivid detail…A well written biography of a truly interesting explorer and personality.”
"Rasmussen's is an incredible and inspiring life...Impeccable research."
—Curled Up with a Good Book
"Bown makes the case for Knud Rasmussen's inclusion in the general lexicon of household-name explorers...Though still remembered in his homelands and Canada, he never quite achieved Shackleton-level notoriety. In Bown's capable hands, he might."
—Alaska History
09/15/2015
Knud Rasmussen (1879–1933) is relatively unknown outside of Denmark and the world of Inuit studies. Bown (The Last Viking) seeks to change this with a thorough and engaging biography. Born in Greenland to Danish and part-Inuit parents, Rasmussen spent his early years learning the outdoor skills that would make him a successful explorer. His outgoing and curious nature enabled him to easily engage in both Danish and Greenlandic cultures. In 1910, Rasmussen and Peter Freuchen started a trading post called Thule Station in northwest Greenland. From there, they traveled far and wide around Greenland, including one expedition in which they crossed its ice cap in both directions. The fifth Thule Expedition (1921–24) was Rasmussen's most important; on it he traveled by dog sled through the Arctic seeking cultural similarities and even differences with the Greenlandic Inuit. He documented natives' legends, oral traditions, poetry, and songs, creating important ethnographic works that preserved traditions for future scholars. Bown makes excellent use of Rasmussen's expedition publications which were best sellers owing to his poetic and energetic style. VERDICT Readers of Arctic cultures and exploration should clamor for this joyous celebration of Rasmussen's life.—Margaret Atwater-Singer, Univ. of Evansville Lib., IN
2015-06-17
Canadian author Bown (The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen, 2012, etc.) fashions a thorough, insightful biography of the fearless explorer and noted writer Knud Rasmussen (1879-1933). Rasmussen translated his love of his native Greenland into painstaking chronicles of the Inuit culture gleaned over three decades of arduous, groundbreaking exploration. His extraordinary upbringing played a significant role in his remarkable ability to infiltrate the Inuit tribes and become a trusted scribe among them. The son of a Danish missionary who made "herculean dogsled expeditions to the farthest regions of his sprawling parsonage," Rasmussen learned early on the local Greenlandic language (his mother's heritage) and a love of hunting and bobsled culture. After being sent to school in Copenhagen and deciding he was not going to be an actor, he hit on journalistic writing as a profession. He made an initial inspirational trip to Lapland to chronicle the culture of the Sami people, developing the themes that would obsess him the rest of his life—namely, the vanishing of the traditional old ways "to the juggernaut of modernity," where "tradition and myth were replaced with the soullessness of the market economy." Beginning with the Danish Literary Expedition across northern Greenland (1903-1904), which yielded the wildly popular work People of the Polar North, Rasmussen and his trusty companion Peter Freuchen would embark over the next decades on numerous Thule Expeditions, taking them far into the recesses of Inuit tribes and producing extensive and significant records of vanishing worlds. Bown emphasizes the sheer vitality and charisma of Rasmussen, who shared his celebrity spotlight with the Inuit hunters, dog-sled drivers, and others who were key to the success of the expeditions. A vivacious study that will surely revive interest in the writings of this towering explorer and ethnographer.
