Peter Freuchen's Book of the Eskimos

Peter Freuchen strove to be the Rudyard Kipling of the far north. His first-person observations of the people in Greenland between 1910 and 1920 are riveting. His literary efforts are less so. It's interesting to compare his fiction with his reportage -- they are often at odds. But when he writes about his life, he is fascinating and authoritative. This book is worth reprinting.

I found an old copy of this book in a second hand bookstore and bought on a whim. It is the first person narrative of the Dane who founded the town of Ultima Thule in Greenland, married an eskimo woman, and probably more deeply lived and understood the life of the pre-westernized eskimo than any other westerner. I recommend it highly for anyone interested in am unglamorous view of hunter-gatherer life. It sure does not make one want to live the life of Rosseau's "Noble Savage," what with its descriptions of eskimo mothers being praised for hanging their children during periods of starvation so as to spare them the pain of slowly dying of hunger.