First we took Manhattan . . .
What a time we had in New York City! I gave my keynote on Return to Rae Strait and surprised even Matthew Swan with some of my revelations. I don’t think he realized that, with Louie Kamookak, I visited Rae Strait in the High Arctic for the first time back in 1999. We erected a…
Read MoreNew Jersey ten, UPS zero
Lots of nice people live in New Jersey. We got to know quite a few of them while we stood in line for two hours outside the UPS office. There was the woman who, after she learned that we were Canadians, and also that we had a cab waiting, insisted that we should move to…
Read MoreAnglo-a-no-no: Enough, already!
From Canada’s History magazine By Ken McGoogan The “Anglos” made headlines again this autumn. The Quebec election made it inevitable: how would the “Anglos” vote? Could the “Anglos” make a difference? As it turns out, the answer was a qualified yes: the separatist Parti Quebecois was held to a minority victory. Meanwhile, I found myself…
Read MoreSaturday Night at the Explorers Club in New York City
That is when the climactic event happens, Dec. 1: yours truly giving a talk called Return to Rae Strait. It draws on my book Fatal Passage. I’ll talk about explorer John Rae and visiting Rae Strait, where he built a cairn marking his discovery of the final link in the Northwest Passage. After my talk…
Read MoreRoald Amundsen: The Last Viking . . .
In the Globe and Mail of Nov. 17, our hero reviews the new biography of Roald Amundsen, called The Last Viking. Author: Stephen Bown. Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre . . . By Ken McGooogan In 1905, when he was preparing to sail out of Gjoa Haven in Canada’s High Arctic, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen buried…
Read MoreTime for a Confederation of Canadian Writers?
What we need here in Canada is a Confederation of Canadian Writers.This is not my idea, but I like it. Merilyn Simonds, chair of the The Writers’ Union of Canada, has been marking TWUC’s 40th anniversary by meeting union members across the country. In Toronto the other night, she mentioned that Calgary authors have voiced…
Read MoreOur Hero brings John Rae to Explorers’ Club
Our Hero is looking forward to giving a talk called Return to Rae Strait at the Explorers’ Club in New York City. It happens Saturday evening, December 1, as part of the club’s inaugural Polar Film Festival. This past August, for the first time in 13 years, Ken revisited the site where he erected a…
Read MoreMore 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.
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