This is the story of the greatest Canadian ice captain who ever lived--the greatest, by general consent, of any nationality in this century. Robert Bartlett took ships to the north coast of Ellesmere Island, sledged to within 150 miles of the North Pole, made twenty-two voyages into the Canadian Arctic, and six to other parts of the Arctic, yet is almost wholly unknown in Canada. Besides piloting some of the most famous exploring voyages of all time--those of Robert E. Peary and Vilhajalmur Stefansson--Bartlett made four arctic voyages for the American Government and sixteen expeditions of his own which produced, in the period between the world wars, an immense wealth of scientific knowledge. He was the first arctic explorer to place science ahead of exploration. Harold Harwood worked from the original manuscripts and ships' logs to tell the life-story of this remarkable man. Bartlett was a colourful, often controversial character, a man whose extraordinary courage and tenacity were of heroic proportions.
Among the Lions is Harold Horwood's second volume of memoirs, following 1997's A Walk in the Dreamtime, which laid down the foundations of the literary life that continues here. From the writer's space out of which grew the acclaimed The Foxes of Beachy Cove, through Newfoundland's trip through the sixties, to the founding of Writer's Union of Canada, Horwood illuminates a period when the literary cultures of Newfoundland and Canada were just beginning to flourish. Alive with encounters with writers such as Margaret Atwood, Gwendolyn MacEwen, Margaret Laurence and Farley Mowat, the memoir is a testament to the pleasures, perils and cultural politics of the writing life. Provocative and uncompromising as always, Horwood writes with the joy of one who has chosen his life and never regretted it..
Harold Horwood was born in Newfoundland in 1923 and died in Nova Scotia in 2006. He lived an extraordinary life as a union organizer, member of the Newfoundland House of Assembly, newspaper editor, co-founder of the Writers' Union of Canada, novelist, poet and nature writer. He published more than twenty books and was a powerful influence on many Canadian writers.
A lament for northern Labrador. Cast in Garamond and hand-printed on 100 lb Mohawk Superfine paper. Coptic-stitch binding by Christine McNair with St. Armand Canal paper over boards. Signed and numbered in an edition of 50 copies.
Each year, for generations, poor, ill-clad Newfoundland fisherman sailed out 'to the ice' to hunt seals in the hope of a few penniew in wages from the prosperous merchants of St. John's. The year 1914 witnessed the worst in the long line of tragedies that were part of their harsh way of life. For two long, freezing days and nights a party of seal hunters--one hundred thirty-two men--were left stranded on an icefield floating in the North Atlantic in winter. They were thinly dressed, with almost no food, and with no hope of shelter on the ice against the snow or the constant, bitter winds. To survive they had to keep moving, always moving. Those who lay down to rest died. Heroes emerged--one man froze his lips badly, biting off the icicles that were blinding his comrades. Other men froze in their tracks, or went mad with pain and walked off the edge of the icefield. All the while, ships steamed about nearby, unnoticing. And by the time help arrived, two thirds of the men were dead. This is an incredible story of bungling and greed, of suffering and heroism. The disaster is carefully traced, step by step. With the aid of compelling, contemporary photographs the book paints an unforgettable portrait of the bloody trade of seal hunting among the icefields when ships--and men--were expendable.
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