Finding John Rae

Resource Information

The work Finding John Rae represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of Missouri-St. Louis Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Finding John Rae

Statement of responsibility

Alice Jane Hamilton

Creator

• Hamilton, Alice Jane, 1950-

Author

• Hamilton, Alice Jane, 1950-

Subject

• Arctic Regions
• Arctic regions -- Discovery and exploration | British
• BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Historical
• Biographies
• Canada
• Creative nonfiction
• Creative nonfiction
• Discovery and exploration, British
• Hudson's Bay Company
• Hudson's Bay Company -- Biography
• Inuit -- Canada -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
• Inuit -- Social life and customs
• 1800-1899
• Northwest Passage -- Discovery and exploration | British
• Rae, John, 1813-1893
• Rae, John, 1813-1893
• Rae, John, 1813-1893 -- Travel -- Arctic regions
• Scotland
• Surgeons
• Surgeons -- Scotland -- Biography
• Travel
• John Franklin Arctic Expedition, 1845-1851
• Arctic Ocean -- Northwest Passage

Genre

• Creative nonfiction
• Biography
• Biographies

Language

eng

Summary

This creative nonfiction biography of the celebrated Arctic explorer Dr. John Rae begins in 1854 when, on a mapping expedition to the Boothia Peninsula, Rae discovers the missing link in the Northwest Passage. On the same trip, a chance encounter with an Inuit hunter leads him to uncover the tragic fate that befell the officers and crew of the long-missing Franklin Expedition when, starving on the ice, they resorted to cannibalism. When the Scottish-born scientist and Hudson's Bay Company Chief Factor reports the shocking details about the men's demise to the British Admiralty, he is publicly belittled by such well-known Victorian society figures as the novelist Charles Dickens and Sir John Franklin's widow, Jane. From then on, Rae's life becomes a restless journey of soaring hope and bitter disappointment, as he attempts to restore his good reputation with the British public, defend the integrity of the Arctic natives who brought him detailed testimony about the evidence of cannibalism, and rebuild his shattered identity. Rae's search for what has been lost takes him to Hamilton, Lower Canada, across Rupert's Land to the Pacific Coast, to the Faroe Islands, across Greenland, and then finally home to the Orkney Islands where yet another turn of events catches him by surprise

Biography type

individual biography

Cataloging source

NLC

Dewey number

917.1904/1092

Index

no index present

LC call number

G635.R25

LC item number

H36 2017

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

• dictionaries
• bibliography

Target audience

juvenile