Great Heart: The History of a Labrador Adventure (Kodansha Globe) [Paperback]

James West Davidson (Author), John Rugge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 1996 | Series: Kodansha Globe

In 1903 Leonidas Hubbard was commissioned by an outdoors magazine to explore Labrador by canoe. Joined by his best friend, Dillon Wallace, and a Scots-Cree guide, George Elson, Hubbard hoped to make a name for himself as an adventurer. But plagued by poor judgment and bad luck, his party turned back and Hubbard died of starvation just thirty miles from camp. Two years later, Hubbard's widow, Mina, and Wallace returned to Labrador, leading rival expeditions to complete the original trek and fix blame for the earlier failure. Their race made headlines from New York to Nova Scotia-and it makes fascinating reading today in this widely acclaimed reconstruction of the epic saga. The authors draw on contemporary accounts and their own journeys in Labrador to evoke the intense drama to men and women pushed beyond the limits of endurance in one of the great true adventures of our century.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In 1903 Leonidas Hubbard set out to cross the Ungava-Labrador Peninsula, and to forge a name for himself as an adventure writer. He took a friend, a guide, a canoe, a ton of equipment, and scads of naive hope. Months later, the friend and guide staggered out of the snow, and Hubbard starved to death in his tent, too weak to attempt the 30-mile trek to safety. And that's just Part I. James West Davidson and John Rugge narrate with simple dignity, making vividly tangible the wretchedness of mosquitoes, the panic of no food, and the rocky tangle of the Labrador wilderness.

From Library Journal

This book recounts the intertwined fates of three expeditions to Labrador at the turn of the century. In 1903 Leonidas Hubbard, Dillon Wallace, and George Easton mounted an overland trek that was eventually defeated by weather, terrain, and poor preparation. Hubbard perished. Seeking to vindicate her husband, Minna Hubbard set out to replicate the failed journey with the help of Easton, even as Wallace planned a similar attempt. The authors reconstruct the stories of the first expedition and its vying successors from the participants' journals and diaries, and use some fictional devices. An unusual tale based on historical fact, this should enjoy a wide audience. Jerry Maioli, Western Lib. Network, Olympia, Wash.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha USA (December 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568361688
• ISBN-13: 978-1568361680
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #392,241 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #10 in Books > Travel > Canada > Provinces > Newfoundland
  • #93 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > Canadian

More About the Author

James West Davidson is a historian, writer, and wilderness paddler. He received his Ph.D. in American history from Yale University and writes full time. He is also co-editor, with Michael Stoff, of New Narratives in American History, a series published by Oxford University Press, as well as the coauthor of textbooks in American history. These include "Experience History," "After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection," and "US: A Narrative History" for the college level and "The American Nation" for the middle grades.

On a river, an eddy line marks the boundary between slack water and swift. Broaching the line, you sometimes find yourself swept quickly downstream and around a bend. As a historian, I've crossed more than one eddy line to ride currents pulling in different directions, from thinking about the end of the world to paddling the barrens of Labrador to viewing the rise of segregation through the eyes of one woman. A through-line that unites these disparate subjects is the attraction to journeys and their obsessional consequences. If you believe that your own life is joined to a biblical history of redemption--in which the world's end will soon draw nigh--how will that conviction affect your everyday behavior? ("The Logic of Millennial Thought") If you are a black woman born into freedom after the Civil War, whose goals at first seem to be teaching school, finding a husband and enjoying a decent middle-class life, how does the particular set of your character propel you to risk life and limb opposing a rising epidemic of lynching? ("They Say: Ida B. Wells and the Reconstruction of Race") If you cross Labrador intent on making a name in journalism, how far will you court hardship and starvation in order to succeed? And if you are the widow of the man who pushed one lake too far, where will your own obsessions take you in seeking to complete your husband's work? ("Great Heart: The History of a Labrador Adventure")

We all begin journeys thinking we know where we're going, and we seldom do. Yet the course of every odyssey springs from the way in which an individual's character bends, breaks, or masters the larger movements of the day. Watching such journeys play out provides a singular pleasure, very much akin to riding the currents of a river from its turbulent headwaters to the final outwash in the sea.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Authentic & compelling., November 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Great Heart: The History of a Labrador Adventure (Kodansha Globe) (Paperback)

Using Leon and Mina Hubbard's diaries, as well as those of their guides, Dillon Wallace and George Elson (great character!), Davidson and Rugge reconstruct the extraordinary story of a woman's search for the truth behind her husband's death in 1903. They flesh out the facts, give form to the unspoken fears and desires hidden between lines of desperate journal entries, and then skillfully breathe life into the tragic events. A powerful docunovel in a class all its own. Don't miss it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A First Rate Wilderness Adventure with a Twist!, October 31, 2000

By 

Neil S. Calman MD (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Great Heart: The History of a Labrador Adventure (Kodansha Globe) (Paperback)

This is a fabulous narrative of a wilderness adventure, like many others filled with the hazards adventurers encounter when they stray far from home. What makes the story unique is not a side-bar intrigue of romance and mystery but a deep underlying question about human motivation, relationships and dreams - as lived through the minds and bodies of the adventurous. The story is told with skill and grace - and is spellbinding.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Adventure Story Ever, July 7, 1998

By 

K. Unger (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Great Heart: The History of a Labrador Adventure (Kodansha Globe) (Paperback)

Why don't more people know about this book? It puts most adventure stories to shame and makes most survivors of "hardships" look like wimps. Adventurers with virtually no prior experience, wearing wool sweaters and cotton pants, carrying tons of food, canoe and portage through uncharted waters only to get hopelessly lost. Between the bugs, cold, lack of food, etc... you wonder how any could survive. The concepts of leadership, friendship and conquest are tested. After a harrowing adventure ending in death, the widow of the expedition leader races a team member into the wilds of Labrador the following year. In 1905, it was hard enough for a man to make this unprecedented trip, and unheard of for a woman to try. It is a must read for all adventure lovers!