Last Gentleman Adventurer: Coming of Age in the Arctic

"The Last Gentleman Adventurer" is a delightful, even beautiful account by Edward Maurice of his time as a young clerk for the Hudson's Bay Company in the Canadian Arctic of the 1930's. Maurice was working literally at the intersection of the Inuit and European worlds. We are most fortunate as readers that the author was unjaded, exceptionally observant, and open to the possibilities of life in that time and place. Maurice's job was to run a trading post, swapping rifles, ammunition, and other finished trade goods for furs trapped by the local Inuit. His status as a company employee with a high school education often placed him in a position of responsibility in the local community. In addition, Maurice made the effort to learn the language and local customs, and through trial and error, the survival skills of his neighbors. Maurice's account captures in often touching detail the way of life of the Inuit in a rugged land that provided only a thin living and little margin for error. The Inuit are portrayed as tough, resilient and generous people who live very much in the moment in a land where death from disease, accident, or starvation is never far away. Maurice's gradual acceptance of the Inuit, and their acceptance of him, form the core of the narrative. His efforts to care for his neighbors during an outbreak of disease and his organization of successful hunts to stave off starvation earn their trust to the extent that at least two women will consider him a very desirable catch as a husband according to the Inuit fashion. This acceptance makes his parting all the harder at the end of the story. This book is highly recommended to those interested in life in the Arctic and to those looking for an excellent account of life in a different culture.

In June 1930 16-year-old Maurice stood on a London train platform bound for a five-year apprenticeship in the arctic hinterlands of Canada. A cerebral, sheltered, not very practical boy, Maurice had been inspired mostly by what he did not want. His family - widowed mother and siblings - had decided to immigrate to New Zealand to farm. Rather than share that agrarian fate, Maurice answered a Hudson Bay recruiting ad. A few months later he was on that train platform under a sign reading: " `BOAT TRAIN, DUCHESS OF BEDFORD LIVERPOOL. HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY PARTY.' "The other travellers hurrying to and fro across the concourse, impelled to haste by the alarming pantings, snufflings and whistlings coming from the impatient engines, hardly spared us a glance, despite the flavour of distant adventure in that simple notice. For in those days, London was still the centre of a great empire and it was commonplace for parties to be seen gathering at railway stations, or at other places of departure, to begin their long journeys to far-away places." But his was one of the last such departures, as the world was about to plunge into the Depression, which would be followed by WWII. Maurice's memoir of his arctic years (which ended forever when he went off to war in 1939), is one of those captivating books that begins charmingly, develops depth and atmosphere as it goes along, and engages all the senses throughout. It's a page-turning adventure and a portrait of a bygone era when Britannia ruled, the Inuit were called Eskimos and their resourceful, delicately balanced lives were just beginning to lean on Western technology. During its course a boy becomes a man, and a fine one, too. Though he kept journals and logs at the time, Maurice did not write the book until near the end of his 90-year life, most of which was spent quietly, as a bookseller in London. The distance works. He recalls his youthful self with indulgence and humor, but no particular nostalgia or self-consciousness. His early ignorance and naievety are profound. He's quickly dubbed "The Boy" by the Eskimos, who call everyone by an informal, descriptive name. When two of the resident Eskimo men take him on a deer-hunting trip he's unable even to light the primus stove, his only job. And then, on his own while the men hunt, he falls off a cliff and ends up clinging to a root until rescued. On the bright side, he's highly enthusiastic and ready for his first seal hunt that same afternoon. Though never particularly good with his hands, Maurice compensates with enthusiasm and curiosity. He immediately sets out to learn the language - despite a discouraging talk from the post manager on becoming "too involved," a talk which founders on the manager's relationship with their Eskimo cook. Maurice's success with the language not only increases his standing with the natives, it also helps him immensely in his work. His growing appreciation of Eskimo culture, customs and skills is infectious. From build

A surprisingly good book about a lost time. In 1930, sixteen year old Edward Maurice was assigned to the Hudson Bay Company (aka as HBC which some say really stood for 'Here Before Christ') fur trading post at Pangnirtung on Baffin Island, just west of Greenland. He was to stay in the arctic for nine years. This is a book of love for the people, then called Eskimos; love for the arctic; love for adventure. It is a tale of coming of age as he leaves childhood at a boarding school in England for life in a much less inhibited part of the world. It is missing much of the bravado that is seen in the books published by older men who are more generally the leaders rather than the lowly apprentice. It is also a tale of the impact that the diseases man brought to the area. Common diseases like flu and mumps, were deadly to the local natives. And there was little or no medicine to treat the ill. Many died. This is a wonderfully written book, reading almost as easy as a novel. Mr. Maurice wrote it in his later years when he was a bookseller in rural England, but he had clearly left his heart in Canada.

The author may well deserve the distinction of his title: "The Last Gentleman Adventurer." When 16 years old in 1930, Maurice joined the Hudson's Bay Company and journeyed off to a remote post on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. White population: 7. Over the next five years the author learned the Innuit language and the skills of the north, including seal and caribou hunting, dog sledding, trapping, and survival in the long, sub-zero winters. This was no vacation sojurn as are so many "adventure" tales. Maurice was as far away from civilization as one could be, save for a radio that worked sporadically and a supply boat that called once a year. Maurice had a genuine affection and admiration for the Eskimos (Innuit) who were both his customers and his companions. He writes as a naive boy slowly growing in maturity and comprehension rather than as a Great White Father presiding over a flock of primitive people. We are treated to discussions of how the Innuit build snow houses and keep the runners of their sleds from icing as well as amusing tales of making home brew and celebrating Christmas among his tiny community in the Arctic. He writes sadly of the epidemic that raged among the Innuit and his attempt to save them with little more than cough syrup. And, eventually, after a noble Victorian struggle against lust, he takes himself a temporary wife among the uninhibited Innuit. Maurice writes in a deceptively simple manner. This is his only book and he wrote it in his old age and died at nearly age 90 before it was published. That perhaps accounts for the abrupt ending to the book with his departure on furlough after five years in the Arctic, although he was to return for a second stay. "The Last Gentleman Adventurer" is among the best books ever written about the Arctic and the Innuit. Smallchief

This is the perfect cold weather book just in time for winter. In June, 1930, at 16 Edward Beauclerk Maurice sets off from London on his life-altering journey. From Pargnirtung to Frobisher Bay, he travels to Hudson's Bay Company trading posts around Baffin Island, a Canadian territory just south of Greenland. He is eager for excitement in this new land, but the naïve, sheltered, accident-prone teenager has much to learn. Maurice learns the Inuit language and way of life from his new companions. A mutual relationship of love and respect is forged. Maurice departed in 1939 and never returned to the land and people who claimed his heart. But he obviously returned to the Arctic many times in his mind! Embodying a remarkable sense of a lost world, this is a thrilling surprise of a book.