What kind of man, at 45 years of age, slogs 60 kilometres through a Canadian January to give a lecture on icebergs?

The Victorian era has endured much hostile press in recent years. Cultural mores have been challenged, essential ideas decried as "social artefacts" and the reputations of heroic idols, nearly universally male, demolished as shams. It's become a novelty to encounter the celebratory resurrection of a forgotten icon. McGoogan relates the life and accomplishments of Scotsman John Rae, who joined a Hudson's Bay Company ship as surgeon, travelled to Canada in 1833 and remained for twelve years - on the first stay. McGoogan has surveyed many of the resources dealing with Arctic exploration, but Rae's own accounts provide the essential framework for this compelling narrative. The book is nearly two stories in one: Rae's ranging explorations along the Canadian Arctic coast, and the mysterious disappearance of the John Franklin expedition. McGoogan keeps this paired account nicely balanced until they merge to determine Rae's future reputation.

John Rae was a departure from the usual explorer of the Victorian age. Instead of heading complex expeditions, he travelled with a small support group. Instead of ships or extensive caravans, he travelled by canoe or small boat, on land using snowshoes. He was extraordinarily hardy, traversing extensive distances, often alone. He adapted many features of Aboriginal life in his travels when "going native" was disdained by most. He kept his associates fed when other British explorers were starving on government rations. He found the route of the elusive Northwest passage and determined the fate of the lost Franklin expedition seeking that route. Later, he turned from Arctic adventures to the survey of a telegraph line site across the Rocky Mountains. Why have we heard so little of him?

According to McGoogan, one individual maintained a steady campaign to reduce Rae's reputation. Jane Franklin, Sir John's quasi-widow [she refused to admit her husband's death for years], irked by the possibility her husband had turned to cannibalism in extremity, actively challenged many of Rae's accomplishments. She fostered Leopold McClintock as the verifier of Sir John's finding of the Northwest Passage. In her zeal, she even managed to secure the aid of no less a figure than Charles Dickens to her cause. McGoogan contends Dickens' virulent racism aided this assault when the novelist asserted the Inuit were consummate liars and the true cannibals. In the event, John Rae stands out as the only explorer of note that failed to achieve knighthood for his achievements.

McGoogan has produced a noteworthy study, done with lively wit and solid research. This book restores John Rae's position as the true finder of the Northwest Passage and as man with few peers. This book can be read by anyone seeking knowledge of the North or as a model of perseverance and sacrifice. Illustrated with photographs and engravings and including a fine bibliography, this is a real treasure to read and possess.

I bought this book to learn more about John Rae himself. In the history of arctic and antarctic travel and exploration, Rae was unequalled in his ability to travel lightly and quickly. He covered unheard of amounts of ground in short time. On snow shoes he was without peer. He shot game as he went. He could stand huge amounts of fatigue. Amundsen might come the closest for swift and efficient movement but he mostly travelled with skis and with dogs. Rae was mostly on foot, or canoe, where he also was without peer. On one long journey he actually gained weight. He was one of the few who understood the eskimo or inuit and spoke favorably of them which earned him the scorn of his peers and the leading snobbery in England. Yet his peers didn't live with the eskimo as Rae had and did. History has proven Rae honest and accurate in his portrayal of the eskimo and of his reports of cannibalism among the Franklin Expedition. Because he refused to recant this tale of cannibalism (The eskimo had told him this and he knew them to be truthful and stood up for them) he was ostrasized and critisized and lost a knighthood. He stuck with the truth and his principles. Further explorations and discoveries have proven him to be correct. This was a man sans pareil when it came to back country traveling and exploring. A man of integrity and honesty. You don't hear much about such heros. Instead, you hear of so called "heros" among the inept and...Scott of the Antarctic. This book will introduce you to Rae and his explorations and discoveries. I also highly recommend "The Last Place on Earth" by Huntford (about race to the South Pole--shows the stupidity of Scott and genius but flaws of Amundsen) and "Arctic Grail" by Berton (Arctic Exploration).

McGoogan has written an excellent biography of John Rae that conveys not only the struggles that the explorer went through to find the ill-fated Franklin expedition, but also the scientific banishment that he suffered when he reported the bizarre circumstances of their deaths.
Rae was a doctor employed by the Hudson's Bay Company. The HBC had been set up to exploit the vast fur trade in Canada, and had outposts across the North. Rae, an outdoorsman and naturalist, was commissioned to explore the shores of the vast Arctic waters, searching for the last, elusive connection that would allow sailing ships to navigate from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans.
Many explorers had gone before Rae. One expedition, headed by Sir John Franklin, had disappeared without a trace in the 1840s. Several search parties subsequently failed to find the explorer and his crew.
Finally, Rae was asked to search for the party. He set out, not with a large crew and ships, but with a small number of natives and Europeans experienced in traveling in the frozen North. After several years, in which Rae found the last remaining link in the Northwest Passage, he finally uncovered the fate of the Franklin Expedition; the boats had foundered in the ice, and the crew had starved to death while marching south.
Rae also uncovered evidence of cannibalism. In their last efforts to remain alive, the crewmen had consumed their dead companions. Rae, in his report, duly noted this observation.

Unfortunately, this was to be his undoing. Led by Franklin's widow, Lady Jane, Rae was ostracized from the Royal Geographical Society and his epic discovery of the final link in the Northwest Passage disparaged. For over a century, his achievements languished in the footnotes of history.
McGoogan set out to rectify Rae's tarnished image. Using research from Rae's extensive notes, as well as primary sources from a multitude of independent sources, he has carefully constructed a description of Rae's achievements, as well as the denunciations that robbed him of his rightful place in history.
As an homage, the author journeyed to the Arctic and placed a memorial at the final discovered link in the Northwest Passage, now officially recognized as Rae Strait.

The book dives into the similarities between the main character, McCracken and the legendary Jack Kerouac. From different aspects of the author's life do we see the independence and sensitivity that were such a major part of not only Kerouac but the author as well. Two of the underlying themes within the book deal with each of their conflicts with alcoholism, spirituality and their French-Canadian roots (The author does a good job of bringing up the conflict over just how much of importance Kerouac had placed on his Canadian ancestry). All in all, while the time sequences were a bit sparatic and therefore hard to follow, the basic themes were always prevelant without being overbearing. McGoogan does a good job of giving a subjective view of Kerouac within this fictional form. I would reccomend the book moreso for readers interested in the complexities of Kerouac than for the average reader. (But that could be because of the interest that I myself carry within the subject).