Posts by Ken McGoogan
More Arctic Journals of John Rae . . .
An expert review here of . . . The Arctic Journals of John Rae Selected and Edited by Ken McGoogan Victoria, BC: TouchWood Editions, 2012 312 pp. , $19.95 Reviewed by Russell A. Potter The welcome publication of the journals of Dr. John Rae, the man who filled in the last crucial blanks in the…
Read MoreWhy John Rae and NOT Sir John Franklin
So folks are (still!) debating the accomplishments of John Franklin and John Rae over at Russell Potter’s blog, where I have been driven to offer the following thoughts . . . .:http://visionsnorth.blogspot.ca/2012/09/a-navigable-northwest-passage.html Greetings, Russell. Nicely done. But we do not yet see eye to eye. We agree, I think, that John Rae discovered Rae Strait.…
Read MoreThe Arctic Journals of John Rae
The book is “selected and introduced” by yours truly. Copies have just arrived. To me, they look splendid — very handsome indeed.
Read More300,000 to gather in Ireland . . .
DUBLIN MIXES GUINNESS, JOYCE, AND THE STONE AGE Ireland by Ken McGoogan 300,000 people are set for the Gathering in Ireland. Some will be tracing their ancestors. Others will come to see the monasteries, or to follow in the footsteps of the writer James Joyce. Many will make their way to the Guinness Storehouse, where…
Read MoreOnline Course in Creative Nonfiction
That online course I teach through the University of Toronto? I call it The Art of Fact: An Introduction to Writing Nonfiction. It runs ten weeks, starting September 17, and sounds like this: The hallmarks of Creative, Literary or Narrative Nonfiction are truth and personal presence. The genre includes subjective and objective streams, and encompasses…
Read MoreMaking history in the High Arctic
Okay, this was last year. The story turned up on that fabulous website Travel Thru History. Next week, another voyage begins. Stay tuned. . . CANADIAN VOYAGE MAKES HISTORY Greenland by Ken McGoogan None of us expected our voyage to make history, not when we boarded the Clipper Adventurer in Kugluktuk (Coppermine), near the west…
Read MoreIrish archaeologist shows way to Viking site
“As archaeologist Ned Kelly stood in a field sixty kilometres north of Dublin,” the article begins, “describing how the Vikings founded a “longphort” or fortress-settlement at this spot nearly 1,200 years ago, I realized that he was talking about the ancestors of many Canadians, including possibly some of my own. Kelly, keeper of antiquities at…
Read MoreWhere Elisha Kent Kane spent two Arctic winters
The June issue of Up Here magazine contains a piece about visiting the spot on the coast of Greenland where explorer Elisha Kent Kane spent two years trapped in ice. Written by yours truly, it begins . . . . At last I could see how it unfolded. From where I stood, on a small…
Read MoreThe Arctic Journals of John Rae
So here’s an enticing book that has just gone to the printer: The Arctic Journals of John Rae. The finished work will surface in September. Before that happens, I will sail Into the Northwest Passage with Adventure Canada, bent on leading a zodiac-sortie to the spot where John Rae discovered the final link in the…
Read MoreIreland’s Islands
Ireland’s Islands. The Aran Isles, the Skelligs, Inishbofin, Tory Island. What, with Irish music all the way? Yup, it was quite the adventure.
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