Lure of the Labrador Wild (Arctic Adventure) [Paperback]

Dillon Wallace (Author), Lawrence Millman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2004 | Series: Arctic Adventure

A best-selling Arctic classic set against the unforgiving Labrador landscape.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The Labrador interior has long held the well-deserved reputation of being one of the most inhospitable places on earth. It is a patchwork of Canadian shield granites and sphagnum moss, labyrinthine caribou trails and desolate subarctic barrens, all set against glacier-scoured hills stretching to an apparently limitless horizon.
In the late spring of 1903, Leonidas Hubbard, a young writer, and Dillon Wallace, a forty-year-old New York attorney, set off with George Elson, a native guide with no firsthand knowledge of their destination, to explore the incompletely mapped Lake Michikamau region of interior Labrador. Beset by delays, the men paddled past their intended route, the Naskaupi River, and headed up the treacherous Susan River instead. When in early September they finally glimpsed the vast waters of Michikamau from the top of an unknown mountain, Labrador’s cold winds had begun. With scant scraps of food remaining, the three began a desperate struggle against starvation and the rapidly approaching and unforgiving winter as they raced home for their lives.

About the Author

DILLON WALLACE was born in 1863, in Craigsville, New York. In 1888 he moved to New York City and later entered New York Law School, graduating in 1896. LURE OF THE LABRADOR WILD, was released in 1905 and became an instant best-seller in the United States and Canada. He died in 1939.

LAWRENCE MILLMAN has written for Smithsonian, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, Islands, Summit, and many other magazines. His books include Our Like Will Not Be There Again, Hero Jesse, A Kayak Full of Ghosts, Wolverine Creates the World, The Wrong Handed Man, and Last Places. He has made twelve trips to Arctic Canada, nine trips to Greenland, six to Labrador, and six to Iceland. When not on the road, he lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Lyons Press (November 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592285716
• ISBN-13: 978-1592285716
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,078,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Where the heck are they?, January 21, 2008

By 

Max Headroom (Midpines, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lure of the Labrador Wild (Arctic Adventure) (Paperback)

A wonderful book, very readable and absorbing. The strength and courage of these three men is inspiring and can only be imagined. E.g., making a 40 mile portage, half starving, carrying a canoe and several hundred pounds of supplies and equipment, or having to wade across a river (up to their armpits) that was encrusted with ice along its banks and having their now-wet clothes start to freeze on their bodies while they try to build a fire. However, the 3-star rating is not because of the writing or the adventure: this version (Lyon Press, 2004) has no maps and no photos. Photos would have added another dimension to understanding the spartan hardships of such an adventure, not to mention conveying the author's meanings of barren, difficult, or heart-breaking - all of which I thought were understated. And oddly enough, these photos are readily available - a google search will locate many, and the Canadian Virtual Museum has 67. The photos along with the text would have added substantial impact to the question, "How could they have endured this?"

But the lack of a map is intolerable. Maps are referenced half a dozen times by Wallace in the first half a dozen pages: their inaccuracies, their incompleteness, and the details his map now provides. Since a major navigational failing of the expedition is due to an inaccurate map from the Canadian Geological Survey (circa 1896 - and also available online via the CGS website), its absence is unforgivable. Another CGS map that got Hubbard so excited because "Unexplored Territory" was written across northern Labrador is another "must have" exhibit. Without a map, the reader has no idea where these men started, where they wanted to go, where they got lost or how they returned, or can understand the sad realization that a dream predicted an accurate route to safety but was ignored.

I spent more time online looking up maps of Labrador, trying to find the various missteps of the explorers (e.g., the Nascaupee, Susan, and Beaver Rivers) than I did reading the book. If you don't want to get lost reading this incredible adventure, then buy a version of this book that contains maps. I found this version of the book very frustrating.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And I thought the Boundary Waters was tough, September 8, 2006

By 

Michael A. Glass "Bent shaft paddler" (Michigan's U.P.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lure of the Labrador Wild (Arctic Adventure) (Paperback)

I'm ordering a second copy to give to my fellow canoers who head for the boundary waters canoe area wilderness. We travel with up to date equipment and maps. The fellows in this book "winged" it with what was then state-of-the-art gear. This book is a great contrast between wilderness canoe travel from this century to the last century.
The account is truly chilling at times. You are tempted to exclaim "these guys must have been nuts!!" But their journey was truly an adventure. Few of us would have the stones to attempt this today.
If you do any form of wilderness trekking or canoeing, you will really like this book.

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly sincere classic, November 7, 2007

By 

Walter C. Skrzypek "Magua" (Falls Creek, Pa) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lure of the Labrador Wild (Arctic Adventure) (Paperback)

I couldn't put this book down once I started and really enjoyed the read. It has a place on my shelf of classics and just a very real story that is captured extremely well in words.