Elisha Kent Kane, scion of a wealthy and influential
Philadelphia family, became a legend of 19th-century America.
Before he was 30, he had descended into a volcano in the
Philippines, infiltrated a company of slave traders in West Africa
and narrowly survived hand-to-hand combat in the Sierra Madre while
carrying a secret message from the president of the United
States.
Yet Kane would achieve his greatest fame by
exploring the High Arctic, an adventure that began when he sailed
in search of the lost expedition of Sir John Franklin and the open
water of an alleged polar sea around the North Pole. In the
mid-1850s, Kane pushed farther north than any other voyager, then
spent two years trapped in the ice before leading a desperate but
heroic retreat that only added to his legend. Kane also enjoyed a
secret love affair with a young Canadian-born spiritualist named
Maggie Fox, a celebrated spirit rapper deemed unsuitable by his
family. How this relationship combined with Kanes tragic early
death to deny him his rightful place in history is one of the most
dramatic aspects of the book.
Race to the Polar Sea tells the story
of a romantic adventurer driven by dreams of glory. It is a tale of
heroism, courage and conspiracy that evokes an age when the Arctic
seemed a white, booming emptiness, beautiful and unknowable.