Narrative Of The Fifth Thule Expedition

By Rasmussen, Knud

New York: Putnam, 1927. First Edition. Lg8vo – 24.1cm, [xx], 388pp, 4 maps including one fold-out, 68 full-page black and white photographic images. Publisher’s blue cloth with bright gilt titles on spine and cover, tight un-cracked hinges, no foxing, folds or tears and no prior ownership markings. A very well-preserved copy of a most important narrative in Fine condition. — Arctic Bibliography 14179

This is the classic narrative by Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen documenting his most famous, and arguably the most significant, of his seven Arctic expeditions. Rasmussen was a pioneering ethnologist with a love for his Inuit peoples. In this 5th Thule Expedition, Rasmussen was the first to cross the Northwest Passage by dog sled during an expedition that spanned nearly four years and covered over 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) by dog team. His collections of Eskimo myths, legends and stories were later published in ten volumes containing 27 parts that became the definitive study of the origin of the ancient and modern Arctic Eskimo cultures spanning from Greenland to Alaska. Rasmussen died at the young age of 54 in 1933 following his 7th Thule expedition. This first English edition tells of a remarkable journey with lasting beneficial results. This is a translation of the 1925 Danish original titled Fra Gronland til Stillehavet.

In addition to Rasmussen, Scandinavian members of the expedition were Peter Freuchen, cartographer and naturalist; Therkel Mathiassen, archeologist and cartographer; Kaj Birket-Smith, ethnographer and geographer; Helge Bangsted, scientific assistant; Jacob Olsen, assistant and interpreter; Peder Pedersen, Captain of the expedition’s motor schooner, “Sea-King”.

$550.00 -