Arctic sun on my path; the true story of America's last great polar explorer.

G635

2005-001308

1-59228-672-0

Arctic sun on my path; the true story of America's last great polar explorer.

Knutsen, Willie and Will C. Knutsen. (The explorers club classics series)

The Lyons Press, [c]2005

334 p.

$14.95 (pa)

Willie Knutson spent his childhood in Norway listening to the call of the Arctic, reading and thinking constantly about becoming an explorer in the proud tradition of his countrymen. By the time he grew up and got his chance at the great white north it was already 1936; a lot of exploring had already been done, but exploration technology still consisted primarily of awkward things carved from wood. Willie had the advantage of all those years of planning his life near the Pole, and until he escaped Nazism he lived on the ice. Then he became one of the Frozen Chosen for the American Coast Guard, an adventure that led to many others across a long life spanning over nine decades. Here Knutson recounts it all to his son with a humility and quiet humor that probably explains why he stayed alive and warm in the coldest place on earth.