White Dawn: An Eskimo Saga [Hardcover]

James A. Houston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1984

In 1896, three survivors from a whaling misadventure are nursed back to health by Eskimo villagers who share their food, women, and way of life with the strangers. In return, the foreigners introduce to the villagers the spirit of competitiveness that rules the white man's world. Map and drawings by the Author.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

James Archibald Houston, OC , D.Litt. , FRSA , LL.D (June 12, 1921 – April 17, 2005) was a Canadian artist, designer, children's author and film-maker who played an important role in the recognition of Inuit art and introduced printmaking to the Inuit. The name "Saumik" was attributed to him by Inuit, which means "the left-handed one".

Born in Toronto, Ontario, he studied art as a child with Arthur Lismer and was educated at the Ontario College of Art (1938–1940), Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris (1947–1948) and in Japan (1958–1959) where he studied printmaking. He fought in World War II with the Toronto Scottish Regiment receiving the Canadian Active Service Medal. After the war, he went to the Eastern Arctic to paint and lived there for twelve years. He was a Northern Service Officer and Civil Administrator of west Baffin Island. In 1962, he moved to New York and became Associate Director of Design with Steuben Glass.

A man who moved effortlessly and with great success between different activities, perhaps his biggest accomplishment was his work in the Eastern Arctic of Canada, developing Inuit art. In 1948, Houston traveled to a small Inuit community in Arctic-Quebec, Inukjuak (then Port Harrison), to draw and paint the Inuit and the Arctic landscape. He traded his own drawings, done on the spot, with a small carving of a seated deer, by Neoamiluk. Houston recognized its aesthetic appeal and returned to the Canadian Handicrafts Guild, in Montreal, with roughly a dozen small carvings done mostly in steatite. The Guild, which had tried as early as the 1920s to foster an Inuit-handicrafts market, was impressed with the carving; they were equally impressed by the man, himself. The Guild secured a Federal Government grant of $1100 and sent Houston back north in the summer of 1949 to make bulk purchases in various communities in the Eastern Arctic. When Houston returned to Montreal that fall, the Guild mounted their first exhibition of "Eskimo Carving". According to collector Ian Lindsay, the first exhibition was a complete sell-out. The Government put more resources into developing an art and handicrafts market in the Arctic, hiring Houston to live in Cape Dorset as the first "roving crafts officer", and tapping him to write promotional material for sales in the south. Fall sales exhibitions at the Guild became annual affairs, with lineups routinely stretching out the door and down the block, on Peel Street. By the late 1950s, the Government had sponsored tours of Inuit art through Eastern and Western Europe, South America, and the Middle East. After successfully launching Inuit sculpture, Houston introduced printmaking in 1957, which met with the same success. Houston lived in Cape Dorset with his wife Alma Houston until 1962, when the couple split, he moved to New York City.

He was the writer and producer of the 1974 film based on his novel, The White Dawn. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Peter Smith Pub Inc (June 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0844661236
• ISBN-13: 978-0844661230
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,013,301 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating juxtaposition of European and Eskimo culture., July 7, 1998

By 

Ronald Crowell (S. Oregon) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The White Dawn: An Eskimo Saga (Paperback)

James Houston, a noted glass designer (for Steuben) lived among the Eskimos as a civil servant for the Canadian government. He helped them organize coops for the distribution of their art. This book is about the sailors who are taken in by Eskimos after their ship sinks. It vividly contrasts the highly organized and friendly Eskimo society with the unruly and often cruel code of the European seafarer. Great reading from an author who knows! Also recommend his Spiritwrestler.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book on eskimo life, December 8, 1998

By 

Wendell C. Choinsky (Germantown,NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The White Dawn: An Eskimo Saga (Paperback)

I read this book many years ago as a child on a recommendation from my father. He gave me his copy of the book before he died. The book's details on Inuit life and how it is affected by the inclusion of the sailors makes for great reading. This should be required reading in school and for any Sociology course.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of My Top Five, September 30, 2008

By 

D. Donovan (Hiram, Georgia United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The White Dawn: An Eskimo Saga (Paperback)

"White Dawn" is one of the top five books I recommend (along with Goshawk Squadron, The Clearing, Time and Again and The Time Traveler's Wife). Different culture, different time, different people. Well done, easily read, and completely believable.