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Last of the Gentlemen Adventurers~Edward Beauclerk Maurice
"This is a great book about life at remote bases in Canada's far north as seen by a young English boy who went there by himself to see the world and got more than he could have bargained for. Beautifully written." --Sir Ranulph Fiennes
"As spare, gleaming, and exhilarating as the Arctic wastes and the gentle, stoic Eskimos who had mastery of this realm . . . The book evokes the frozen seas, whale hunts, snow plains and storms that intimidated those rash enough to brave this world, and the traditions, myths, and hunting skills that contoured a bygone way of life . . . His translucent prose is a sparkling and moving record." -- Times (London)
At sixteen, Edward Beauclerk Maurice impulsively signed up with the Hudson's Bay Company -- the Company of Gentleman Adventurers -- and was sent to an isolated trading post in the Canadian Arctic, where there was no telephone or radio and only one ship arrived each year. But the Inuit people who traded there taught him how to track polar bears, build igloos, and survive expeditions in ferocious winter storms. He learned their language and became so immersed in their culture and way of life that children thought he was Inuit himself. When an epidemic struck, Maurice treated the sick using a simple first aid kit, and after a number of the hunters died, he had to start hunting himself, often with women, who soon began to compete for his affections. The young man who in England had never been alone with a woman other than his mother and sisters had come of age in the Arctic.
In The Last Gentleman Adventurer Edward Beauclerk Maurice transports the reader to a time and a way of life now lost forever.
After serving in the New Zealand navy during World War II, Edward Beauclerk Maurice became a bookseller in an English village and rarely traveled again. He died in 2003 as this, his only book, was being readied for publication.
"If you like reality, The Last Gentleman Adventurer will be your cup of a delicious quaff of it. Savor it!" -- Edward Hoagland
"Maurice's memoir supplies a fascinating elegy to a vanishing world." -- Telegraph
"One of those rare writers who will be remembered for turning out one great memoir/travel book . . . He relates these events in a beautiful prose that is quaintly elegant in tone but never archly so . . . Not only a gentleman but a wonderful writer who limited his output to one book, and perhaps that is why it reads so beautifully." -- Sunday Tribune (Dublin)
"Maybe he was exceptional, but the charm of his book lies in its modesty; he makes no claims for himself. His concern was to make a record of some amazing adventures and a vanishing way of life; these are woven into an eye-opening narrative that is suffused with kindliness and an attitude to growing up more restrained but more humane than that prevailing today. A gentleman adventurer indeed." -- Times Educational Supplement
"A deceptively simple account of how he grew to manhood, shaped on one hand by the brutal elements of the Arctic, on the other by the compassionate communities of Inuit who understood them . . . This is a beautifully unadorned, homespun tale with a lack of self-consciousness rare in travel literature . . . I was charmed." -- Benedict Allen, Independent on Sunday
"As spare, gleaming, and exhilarating as the Arctic wastes and the gentle, stoic Eskimos who had mastery of this realm . . . The book evokes the frozen seas, whale hunts, snow plains and storms that intimidated those rash enough to brave this world, and the traditions, myths, and hunting skills that contoured a bygone way of life . . . His translucent prose is a sparkling and moving record." -- Times (London)
At sixteen, Edward Beauclerk Maurice impulsively signed up with the Hudson's Bay Company -- the Company of Gentleman Adventurers -- and was sent to an isolated trading post in the Canadian Arctic, where there was no telephone or radio and only one ship arrived each year. But the Inuit people who traded there taught him how to track polar bears, build igloos, and survive expeditions in ferocious winter storms. He learned their language and became so immersed in their culture and way of life that children thought he was Inuit himself. When an epidemic struck, Maurice treated the sick using a simple first aid kit, and after a number of the hunters died, he had to start hunting himself, often with women, who soon began to compete for his affections. The young man who in England had never been alone with a woman other than his mother and sisters had come of age in the Arctic.
In The Last Gentleman Adventurer Edward Beauclerk Maurice transports the reader to a time and a way of life now lost forever.
After serving in the New Zealand navy during World War II, Edward Beauclerk Maurice became a bookseller in an English village and rarely traveled again. He died in 2003 as this, his only book, was being readied for publication.
"If you like reality, The Last Gentleman Adventurer will be your cup of a delicious quaff of it. Savor it!" -- Edward Hoagland
"Maurice's memoir supplies a fascinating elegy to a vanishing world." -- Telegraph
"One of those rare writers who will be remembered for turning out one great memoir/travel book . . . He relates these events in a beautiful prose that is quaintly elegant in tone but never archly so . . . Not only a gentleman but a wonderful writer who limited his output to one book, and perhaps that is why it reads so beautifully." -- Sunday Tribune (Dublin)
"Maybe he was exceptional, but the charm of his book lies in its modesty; he makes no claims for himself. His concern was to make a record of some amazing adventures and a vanishing way of life; these are woven into an eye-opening narrative that is suffused with kindliness and an attitude to growing up more restrained but more humane than that prevailing today. A gentleman adventurer indeed." -- Times Educational Supplement
"A deceptively simple account of how he grew to manhood, shaped on one hand by the brutal elements of the Arctic, on the other by the compassionate communities of Inuit who understood them . . . This is a beautifully unadorned, homespun tale with a lack of self-consciousness rare in travel literature . . . I was charmed." -- Benedict Allen, Independent on Sunday
400 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2002
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February 13, 2021
What an adventure. Edward Maurical of the Hudson's Bay Company spent 1 year with the Inuit people in a remote outpost off the coast of Baffin Island. The title spells it all. He is The Last Gentleman Adventurer.
July 19, 2017
The Last Gentleman Adventurer – what book do I read now? What can possibly take the place of Edward’s gem. He was a true gentleman, worthy of admiration. The news today is so chock-full of disgusting examples of ignorant, selfish, cruel men. A man like Edward Beauclerk Maurice, a combination of humility, grace, and a reverence for the dignity of others is regrettably rare.
The following quotes are from http://www.ric.edu/faculty/rpotter/la... (a word of advice; don’t read this until after you’ve read the book. Spoilers, that aren’t exactly spoilers, will lessen the impact of the story.)
“Maurice himself would probably have winced at the title, which might seem to claim more credit and importance for himself than he believed was fair. He was deeply conscious of what he believed was his very modest role in a land, and among a people, whose qualities were far more astonishing than anything to which he — a shy schoolboy with almost no outdoor experience — could have laid claim to. His own title, Igloo Behind the Wind, was meant as a tribute to the Inuit, whom he admired and regarded as the real heroes of his book.”
The book was published posthumously. I can only hope than no one mucked with Edward’s writing for anything more than the title. (Marketing must have its way.) the events in the book occurred in 1930 - 1935. Edward arrived in Baffin Island at the age of sixteen. The crux of the book, when Edward, on his own at the age of twenty-one, managed the Hudson Bay Company’s trading post at Frobisher Bay, relates a story embracing all the finest qualities of human-kind.
Again, from the review by Russell A. Potter, “Although the back–story is missing from the book's publicity, Maurice had completed his book decades ago, only to find it rejected by publishers for several reasons, chiefly its length.” I find this flabbergasting. Idiots! Then again, Decca rejected the Beatles. Like the proverbial turtle on a post, how some people manage to rise to the level wherein they are granted the authority to make such profoundly blockheaded decisions is a complete mystery. “That it has finally reached print only just after his death at the age of 90, might seem to be bittersweet victory — but the real tragedy would have been had it remained unpublished. For “The Last Gentleman Adventurer” stands almost alone, not only among Arctic reminiscences, but among memoirs of any kind; its clarity and grace of tone seem like messengers from another, more eloquent world…and yet the emotional tone of the book is so unprepossessing, so utterly without affect, that the reader is hardly conscious of having been swept away.” And swept away I was. At one point in the story, I wept. I grieved along with Edward. I know, I know – empathy, the liberal’s curse. It has been my good fortune to have read several books capable of producing such emotion. It has been a good-while since the last.
Had Edward succeeded in having Gentleman Adventurer published in good-time, we may very well have been treated to more of his writing. Who knows, perhaps an unpublished MS remains hidden.
Edward Beauclerk Maurice was born in Somerset in 1913. After his experiences in the Arctic, he spent the war years in the New Zealand Navy, finally returning to England to live the rest of his years in Croydon and Sussex with his wife and three daughters. He had settled into the quiet life of a bookseller in a small English village and died in 2003. There is scant information on his life. A shame, as a man of his caliber is a rarity.
Bits and pieces:
Edward was in the last group of young men to be apprenticed to the HBC for war soon followed and then, post war, the world changed.
Edward’s father most likely committed suicide. Hard times followed. The fatherless family was left in dire straits. The apprenticeship offered Edward an honorable way out and better yet, the Arctic was of great interest to him.
At 16, Edward was released from a schooling regimen that aped a prisoner’s life.
His mother, sister, and two brothers all eventually wound up in New Zealand.
Favorite interesting note: Eskimo children were not disciplined out of fear that doing so would offend the child’s guardian spirit. The spirit would perhaps have been of a former grandparent. It was this spirit that truly looked after the welfare of the child and was therefore of supreme importance. It simply would not do to offend such a powerful force of good in the child’s life.
The first two years of Edward’s apprenticeship was spent at Pang, the foremost trading post of Baffin Island. It was at Pang that Edward learned the Inuit language and most of the skills he would need when he was sent on to Frobisher Bay where, as the lone white man, Edward ran the small post. His year at Frobisher Bay comprises the heart and soul of the book.
And that is the best way to phrase it as Edward’s book is full of heart and represents the essence of the human soul.
Edward’s strict upbringing in Victorian manners and morality provides many an amusing moment when he is cast headlong into a most alien culture. Being a young man, he adapted to a life with the beguiling ladies of the local clan. He describes those events most humbly. The ladies all had their eyes on the young kabloona. Edward was easily manipulated and clearly overmatched. Edward was aware of this “problem” but forever a step behind.
Baffin Island, from early October to late June, a shelf of ice extended for miles from its shores assuring total isolation for nine months of the year. No radio transmitter, poor reception on an old beat up radio receiver, only one station that would broadcast once a week for ten minutes, no aircraft, a world that in the depth of the Arctic winter would shrink to a five-meter circle around the stove. Death, disease, and the ever-present dangers of life at its most extreme makes for an absorbing tale. Oblivion could easily be but a step away
From the New York Times book review, “Mr. Maurice flinched only once, after being served chunks of seal meat from a pot in the tent of a hunter and realizing, soon after, that the cooking vessel also served as a chamber pot for the baby of the family. "I lay awake considering the implications of this discovery for a long time," he writes, "but finally fell asleep, taking cold comfort from the thought that it is only possible to die once." Ah yes, the forever efficient Eskimo viewed the baby’s chamber pot and the family cooking pot as a needless redundancy. In truth, the level of cleanliness varied from household to household as well as from clan to clan. The area was vast, the population miniscule. One was always working from a very small sample size.
Being of a kind heart, the hunting and trapping were not something that Edward regaled in but he did his duty as lives depended on fresh meat and the furs of the white Arctic fox were the whole purpose of being for a Hudson Bay trader.
Edward’s story had many a dramatic moment but never felt contrived. His writing of his Arctic romance with the endearing Innuk, beneath the aurora borealis, was heartfelt and done with a deft touch. This very human book left this reader with a sliver of hope for the future. If only we could learn to choose leaders that display a such a sense of empathy and respect for others. Why is that so difficult?
Of the Inuit women, many excelled in the same skills as the men; hunting, trapping, handling the dogs, setting up camp. And then there were their own gender specific duties; the sewing and softening of the skins to fashion warm clothing and the never-ending, demanding chore of maintaining the oil lamp. A clever and resourceful woman was a man’s first need. A truly successful hunter would have two wives. The first wife would generally assist in choosing the second wife.
Favorite paragraph; page 361, “That same day Rebecca came over to say that she thought some of the dogs ought to be fitted out with boots to protect their sensitive pads from injury on the rough ice. She and Innuk went through the team one by one to decide which of them were in need of this protection concluding that Rebecca should make eight pairs of booties.” Bless the dogs.
The following quotes are from http://www.ric.edu/faculty/rpotter/la... (a word of advice; don’t read this until after you’ve read the book. Spoilers, that aren’t exactly spoilers, will lessen the impact of the story.)
“Maurice himself would probably have winced at the title, which might seem to claim more credit and importance for himself than he believed was fair. He was deeply conscious of what he believed was his very modest role in a land, and among a people, whose qualities were far more astonishing than anything to which he — a shy schoolboy with almost no outdoor experience — could have laid claim to. His own title, Igloo Behind the Wind, was meant as a tribute to the Inuit, whom he admired and regarded as the real heroes of his book.”
The book was published posthumously. I can only hope than no one mucked with Edward’s writing for anything more than the title. (Marketing must have its way.) the events in the book occurred in 1930 - 1935. Edward arrived in Baffin Island at the age of sixteen. The crux of the book, when Edward, on his own at the age of twenty-one, managed the Hudson Bay Company’s trading post at Frobisher Bay, relates a story embracing all the finest qualities of human-kind.
Again, from the review by Russell A. Potter, “Although the back–story is missing from the book's publicity, Maurice had completed his book decades ago, only to find it rejected by publishers for several reasons, chiefly its length.” I find this flabbergasting. Idiots! Then again, Decca rejected the Beatles. Like the proverbial turtle on a post, how some people manage to rise to the level wherein they are granted the authority to make such profoundly blockheaded decisions is a complete mystery. “That it has finally reached print only just after his death at the age of 90, might seem to be bittersweet victory — but the real tragedy would have been had it remained unpublished. For “The Last Gentleman Adventurer” stands almost alone, not only among Arctic reminiscences, but among memoirs of any kind; its clarity and grace of tone seem like messengers from another, more eloquent world…and yet the emotional tone of the book is so unprepossessing, so utterly without affect, that the reader is hardly conscious of having been swept away.” And swept away I was. At one point in the story, I wept. I grieved along with Edward. I know, I know – empathy, the liberal’s curse. It has been my good fortune to have read several books capable of producing such emotion. It has been a good-while since the last.
Had Edward succeeded in having Gentleman Adventurer published in good-time, we may very well have been treated to more of his writing. Who knows, perhaps an unpublished MS remains hidden.
Edward Beauclerk Maurice was born in Somerset in 1913. After his experiences in the Arctic, he spent the war years in the New Zealand Navy, finally returning to England to live the rest of his years in Croydon and Sussex with his wife and three daughters. He had settled into the quiet life of a bookseller in a small English village and died in 2003. There is scant information on his life. A shame, as a man of his caliber is a rarity.
Bits and pieces:
Edward was in the last group of young men to be apprenticed to the HBC for war soon followed and then, post war, the world changed.
Edward’s father most likely committed suicide. Hard times followed. The fatherless family was left in dire straits. The apprenticeship offered Edward an honorable way out and better yet, the Arctic was of great interest to him.
At 16, Edward was released from a schooling regimen that aped a prisoner’s life.
His mother, sister, and two brothers all eventually wound up in New Zealand.
Favorite interesting note: Eskimo children were not disciplined out of fear that doing so would offend the child’s guardian spirit. The spirit would perhaps have been of a former grandparent. It was this spirit that truly looked after the welfare of the child and was therefore of supreme importance. It simply would not do to offend such a powerful force of good in the child’s life.
The first two years of Edward’s apprenticeship was spent at Pang, the foremost trading post of Baffin Island. It was at Pang that Edward learned the Inuit language and most of the skills he would need when he was sent on to Frobisher Bay where, as the lone white man, Edward ran the small post. His year at Frobisher Bay comprises the heart and soul of the book.
And that is the best way to phrase it as Edward’s book is full of heart and represents the essence of the human soul.
Edward’s strict upbringing in Victorian manners and morality provides many an amusing moment when he is cast headlong into a most alien culture. Being a young man, he adapted to a life with the beguiling ladies of the local clan. He describes those events most humbly. The ladies all had their eyes on the young kabloona. Edward was easily manipulated and clearly overmatched. Edward was aware of this “problem” but forever a step behind.
Baffin Island, from early October to late June, a shelf of ice extended for miles from its shores assuring total isolation for nine months of the year. No radio transmitter, poor reception on an old beat up radio receiver, only one station that would broadcast once a week for ten minutes, no aircraft, a world that in the depth of the Arctic winter would shrink to a five-meter circle around the stove. Death, disease, and the ever-present dangers of life at its most extreme makes for an absorbing tale. Oblivion could easily be but a step away
From the New York Times book review, “Mr. Maurice flinched only once, after being served chunks of seal meat from a pot in the tent of a hunter and realizing, soon after, that the cooking vessel also served as a chamber pot for the baby of the family. "I lay awake considering the implications of this discovery for a long time," he writes, "but finally fell asleep, taking cold comfort from the thought that it is only possible to die once." Ah yes, the forever efficient Eskimo viewed the baby’s chamber pot and the family cooking pot as a needless redundancy. In truth, the level of cleanliness varied from household to household as well as from clan to clan. The area was vast, the population miniscule. One was always working from a very small sample size.
Being of a kind heart, the hunting and trapping were not something that Edward regaled in but he did his duty as lives depended on fresh meat and the furs of the white Arctic fox were the whole purpose of being for a Hudson Bay trader.
Edward’s story had many a dramatic moment but never felt contrived. His writing of his Arctic romance with the endearing Innuk, beneath the aurora borealis, was heartfelt and done with a deft touch. This very human book left this reader with a sliver of hope for the future. If only we could learn to choose leaders that display a such a sense of empathy and respect for others. Why is that so difficult?
Of the Inuit women, many excelled in the same skills as the men; hunting, trapping, handling the dogs, setting up camp. And then there were their own gender specific duties; the sewing and softening of the skins to fashion warm clothing and the never-ending, demanding chore of maintaining the oil lamp. A clever and resourceful woman was a man’s first need. A truly successful hunter would have two wives. The first wife would generally assist in choosing the second wife.
Favorite paragraph; page 361, “That same day Rebecca came over to say that she thought some of the dogs ought to be fitted out with boots to protect their sensitive pads from injury on the rough ice. She and Innuk went through the team one by one to decide which of them were in need of this protection concluding that Rebecca should make eight pairs of booties.” Bless the dogs.
December 6, 2011
I love this book,
I love going with Edward Beauclerk Maurice, back into the nineteen twenties, being stuck in the arctic circle of Foxland and Baffin Island, and making a go of living among the eskimos. It takes me away from anything current, or business as usual in life, just being transported into snow makes me sleep well at night. I love the dogs, the women, the austerity of the life in the arctic.. the descriptions of the meat and the igloos, the cache' of food, the hazard..the peace.
Transported from the warmth of my bed.
I will miss the cold and the ice white.
The sweet bachelor, and the era.
I love going with Edward Beauclerk Maurice, back into the nineteen twenties, being stuck in the arctic circle of Foxland and Baffin Island, and making a go of living among the eskimos. It takes me away from anything current, or business as usual in life, just being transported into snow makes me sleep well at night. I love the dogs, the women, the austerity of the life in the arctic.. the descriptions of the meat and the igloos, the cache' of food, the hazard..the peace.
Transported from the warmth of my bed.
I will miss the cold and the ice white.
The sweet bachelor, and the era.
March 7, 2016
Apparently written when the author was in his 90's, about his life 70 years ago in the frozen north - if true (and it seems quite authentic), he had quite a memory and an eye for detail.
Maurice catapulted rather impetuously from English boarding school to the Hudson's Bay Company. He started out fairly mature, but definitely and subtly becomes a very responsible man within a couple of years.
His memories of the Eskimos - "the People" - are the main subject of his story, although there is seriously detailed information about the geography and basic survival skills needed in the Arctic.
I was disappointed that, after holding out for traditional moral standards for a long duration, he eventually fell into the "temporary spouse" pattern of the Eskimos. It seems he decided that what is right in one culture is not necessarily right in another.
I'd have loved another story about how he left and ended up in New Zealand. He may have had the story in him, but passed away before writing it.
Towards the end the details of hunts and such got a little tedious for me. That may be my failing. In any event the ending disappoints. He has indeed gotten too involved with the Eskimos, but sails away rather abruptly as he knew he always would. It struck me as rather soul hardening, rather than positive or enriching. Perhaps he felt that way, too, as he wrote fairly wistfully about his experiences seventy years later.
Maurice catapulted rather impetuously from English boarding school to the Hudson's Bay Company. He started out fairly mature, but definitely and subtly becomes a very responsible man within a couple of years.
His memories of the Eskimos - "the People" - are the main subject of his story, although there is seriously detailed information about the geography and basic survival skills needed in the Arctic.
I was disappointed that, after holding out for traditional moral standards for a long duration, he eventually fell into the "temporary spouse" pattern of the Eskimos. It seems he decided that what is right in one culture is not necessarily right in another.
I'd have loved another story about how he left and ended up in New Zealand. He may have had the story in him, but passed away before writing it.
Towards the end the details of hunts and such got a little tedious for me. That may be my failing. In any event the ending disappoints. He has indeed gotten too involved with the Eskimos, but sails away rather abruptly as he knew he always would. It struck me as rather soul hardening, rather than positive or enriching. Perhaps he felt that way, too, as he wrote fairly wistfully about his experiences seventy years later.
February 7, 2014
This book took forever for me to read because I kept setting it aside for more "shiny" books. But even so, I did eventually finish it because it really was perfect bedtime reading- nothing too gosh-awful happened, though there are plenty of tragedies described in it's pages. You see, this is about a sweet English teenager who is compelled by poverty to sign up to go work in frigid Innuit country and stay there in astonishingly spartan conditions facing all sorts of dangers on a daily basis. Though he certainly suffered a lot, the feeling I most noticed was one of genuine affection for the natives and respect for their culture and ingenuity. Of course it's all true. It all happened between the wars. He was a lovely person and I think surprised them all with his knack for language and getting along with the Innuit so successfully.
February 22, 2021
I loved this book, for the beautiful writing by a true gentleman, for the descriptions of the harrowing dangers, as well as the stunning beauty, of the remote North of the 1920's, for the immersion in the everyday life of an "Eskimo" encampment, for the sensitive and clear description of the eskimos who became his dear friends, and who come through as real people, with names and unforgettable personalities. For a story of adventure which describes the true life of these remarkable people in more intimate terms than any other I have read (and I've read several), and if you read only one book about the life of the people of the North, let this be the one.
June 11, 2017
This is an outstanding memoir about an outstanding guy. Both the end of the book and the introduction, with comments on how the Inuit communities Maurice describes no longer exist, are quite saddening since the rest of the book is basically a feel good story about rather nice and cozy adventures in the Arctic with incredibly friendly natives. I just wish there would have been pictures!
July 18, 2009
This book is about a young British man, who at age 17, in the year 1930, signs a 5-year contract with the Hudson Bay Company to manage stores in Northern Canada. He thinks that to do his job properly, he must learn the Inuit language and customs. It's a coming-of-age book, but also a reflexion of a way of life that is no more. I think this one will stay with me for a long time.
May 18, 2021
It was book group selection or I probably wouldn't have finished it as it got rather slow. I was expecting more about indigenous culture but focus was on himself & the more gossipy or titilating aspects of the natives.
October 8, 2008
Interesting stuff. The quaint, restrained nature of the narrative is both charming, and in some ways, frustrating, as Maurice is certainly not one to Eskimo Kiss and tell.
July 10, 2014
I picked this up on a whim, and ended up really enjoying this story of a young Englishman who signs on with the Hudson Bay company during its waning years.
September 14, 2018
A truly remarkable memoir. One of the best books I've read this year.
With no prospects and no money, Edward Beauclerk Maurice signed on with the Hudson's Bay Company. He was 16 years old. He sailed across the Atlantic from England for the first time, and after a period of training in Montreal, he was sent to his first posting: Pangnirtung on Baffin Island. In those days, these settlements were completely cut off. One ship a year brought supplies, mail, and news of the outside world.
That first year sees him falling through ice and nearly falling off cliffs, but he also falls under the spell of the Inuit, and begins to learn their language. The book really comes alive in the second half, when Maurice is placed in charge of the Hudson's Bay Company post at Ward Inlet in Frobisher Bay. He lives and hunts with the Inuit, sets out trap lines, helps the community survive an outbreak of influenza, takes a native "wife", and is given the name Issumatak, "he who thinks."
The ending left me with a profound sense of loss. As Maurice sails away from Ward Inlet to his next post, leaving behind the friends with whom he shared such hardships and joys, and knowing he will never see them again, we close the last page knowing that this is also the story of a lost world.
Sadly, this was Edward Beauclerk Maurice's only book. It was being prepared for publication when he died in 2003. He poured his entire life into it, and what a life it was.
With no prospects and no money, Edward Beauclerk Maurice signed on with the Hudson's Bay Company. He was 16 years old. He sailed across the Atlantic from England for the first time, and after a period of training in Montreal, he was sent to his first posting: Pangnirtung on Baffin Island. In those days, these settlements were completely cut off. One ship a year brought supplies, mail, and news of the outside world.
That first year sees him falling through ice and nearly falling off cliffs, but he also falls under the spell of the Inuit, and begins to learn their language. The book really comes alive in the second half, when Maurice is placed in charge of the Hudson's Bay Company post at Ward Inlet in Frobisher Bay. He lives and hunts with the Inuit, sets out trap lines, helps the community survive an outbreak of influenza, takes a native "wife", and is given the name Issumatak, "he who thinks."
The ending left me with a profound sense of loss. As Maurice sails away from Ward Inlet to his next post, leaving behind the friends with whom he shared such hardships and joys, and knowing he will never see them again, we close the last page knowing that this is also the story of a lost world.
Sadly, this was Edward Beauclerk Maurice's only book. It was being prepared for publication when he died in 2003. He poured his entire life into it, and what a life it was.
October 19, 2022
This is the memoir of Edward B. Maurice and the five years he spent at several outposts in the far north near Baffin Island in the early 1930s as he worked for the Hudson Bay Company. Only 16 years old when he left England, he knew absolutely nothing about survival in the Arctic. By the time he finished his contract, he spoke Inuit fluently, had provided for the outpost as a successful hunter including whale, polar bear, and caribou, and survived several years of near-death experiences as he learned the dangers of the area.
I enjoyed his easy-going writing style which made this an enjoyable read. He explained many processes we would naturally be unfamiliar with, such as building an igloo, driving a dog sledge, and whale hunting. His firsthand accounts of the various aspects of Inuit culture were intriguing, and his own bumbling care in trying to help the Natives in the midst of sickness, starvation, and family squabbling were both heartbreaking and intuitive. He ends up living with an Eskimo woman in the last year of his contract, but he is incredibly vague about the depths of their relationship.
I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in other cultures and adventure. This would also make a great resource for teacher book lists in Arctic exploration. Definitely on my "read it again" list!
I enjoyed his easy-going writing style which made this an enjoyable read. He explained many processes we would naturally be unfamiliar with, such as building an igloo, driving a dog sledge, and whale hunting. His firsthand accounts of the various aspects of Inuit culture were intriguing, and his own bumbling care in trying to help the Natives in the midst of sickness, starvation, and family squabbling were both heartbreaking and intuitive. He ends up living with an Eskimo woman in the last year of his contract, but he is incredibly vague about the depths of their relationship.
I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in other cultures and adventure. This would also make a great resource for teacher book lists in Arctic exploration. Definitely on my "read it again" list!
October 16, 2018
Almost didn't read this because I usually don't enjoy books about travel/living in the arctic since they all seem to be about being hungry/starving, losing toes or other appendages, eating their dogs, the miserable cold, etc. This memoir on the other hand was about a young man who needed to make money but obviously also wanted a bit of adventure since he joined the Hudson Bay Company rather than go to become a farm laborer in New Zealand like his brothers had. And while he talks about the cold & the need to hunt to have enough food to make it though the year until the annual boat comes to the station, it is mostly about a young man going from someone who the Inuit call `the boy' to the person they call `one who thinks' & about the people both Inuit & Hudson Bay Company employees who he befriends along the way. Absolutely wonderful book - so glad I didn't put this back & not read this!
July 12, 2023
“Coming of age in the arctic” of course meaning that a young employee of the Hudson Bay company becomes the soul saviour within an Inuit camp/fur trading post and just happens to acquire a harem of women who praise him for doing the bare minimum and are hopelessly devoted to and dependant on him.
There were many interesting portions of this slow-paced book and I enjoyed the scenes of community events and a lot of the way of life depicted here.
Don’t get me wrong, it was a cool book and based on the real life of Edward Beauclerk Maurice, but a few parts I wasn’t so sure about including inaccurate language and it took me forever to read due to the amount of words packed onto the pages. But I will say, reading it while making my way through a winter season at a remote camp had me relating to the circumstances and romanticing my own situation.
There were many interesting portions of this slow-paced book and I enjoyed the scenes of community events and a lot of the way of life depicted here.
Don’t get me wrong, it was a cool book and based on the real life of Edward Beauclerk Maurice, but a few parts I wasn’t so sure about including inaccurate language and it took me forever to read due to the amount of words packed onto the pages. But I will say, reading it while making my way through a winter season at a remote camp had me relating to the circumstances and romanticing my own situation.
July 17, 2017
An adventure story that is appealing on a number of different levels, Maurice's story also serves as an unusual ethnography of the Innuit people, not written from the point of view of a social scientist for whom the people of the two villages he lives in are informants, but from that of a businessman and neighbor who wants to help his friends, clients, and suppliers. The events take place in Hudson's Bay during the early 1930's, and In the end, what seems most exotic is European civilization, suffering the Great Depression, and the rise of totalitarian governments while the resourceful and friendly Innuit put their whole energies into simply staying alive. A bonus: the book is extraordinarily funny in places.
April 29, 2022
This is a great read of a way of life that no longer exists. I am completely biased as the author was my late father in law. He sadly died a week before his 90th birthday in August 2003 and six moths before the book was published. He never got to see the wonderful reviews in The Times, Independent etc.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the reading the comments and reviews made by so many readers. Edward respected the Inuit and their way of life in such a harsh and unforgiving environment. I have, in recent years, been to both Pangnirtung and to see the HBC's archives in Winnipeg. It includes Edward's hand-written daily entries in the posts on both Baffin Island and then on Southampton Island. He was an extraordinary man and has left a remarkable legacy.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the reading the comments and reviews made by so many readers. Edward respected the Inuit and their way of life in such a harsh and unforgiving environment. I have, in recent years, been to both Pangnirtung and to see the HBC's archives in Winnipeg. It includes Edward's hand-written daily entries in the posts on both Baffin Island and then on Southampton Island. He was an extraordinary man and has left a remarkable legacy.
August 22, 2022
My review is taken from a thank you note sent to a friend that lent me a copy of the book:
I just finished Edward Beauclerk Maurice’s “The Last Gentleman Adventurer, Coming of Age in the Arctic.” Thank you so much for the loan of this most enjoyable memoir! I found it richly satisfying! It’s hard to believe this is EBM’s only contribution to the literary world! More so that he didn’t live to witness its final distribution to an appreciative public!
To have the chance to immerse oneself into another culture, as Maurice did, with total acceptance and appreciation to their ways, is so heartwarming. Add to that the unique ability to write so elegantly about the experience, gives one a superb memoir!
Again, many thanks!
Reid
I just finished Edward Beauclerk Maurice’s “The Last Gentleman Adventurer, Coming of Age in the Arctic.” Thank you so much for the loan of this most enjoyable memoir! I found it richly satisfying! It’s hard to believe this is EBM’s only contribution to the literary world! More so that he didn’t live to witness its final distribution to an appreciative public!
To have the chance to immerse oneself into another culture, as Maurice did, with total acceptance and appreciation to their ways, is so heartwarming. Add to that the unique ability to write so elegantly about the experience, gives one a superb memoir!
Again, many thanks!
Reid
January 23, 2024
A personal and intimate story which captures the culture and way of life in the artic circle during the 1920's. An enthralling record of one person's experience with the Hudson Bay Company and the Innuit people from a particular moment in time. I don't need sweeping histories or laborious contextual details. I love this book for its simple personal story, powerful in both ordinariness and extraordinary difference from life as it is now. So many historical personal stories are just wrought with nothing but despair or triumph; but this one is filled with thoughtfulness. I finished the book quickly and was left sad, inspired, thoughtful and wishing for more. I wish there were more books like this, rich with daily moments of a world now lost, preserved for us in this telling.
January 20, 2021
I thoroughly enjoyed reading “The Last Gentleman Adventurer” by Edward Beauclerk Maurice, a recounting of the years the author spent in the Canadian Artic working for the Hudson’s Bay Company and living with the Inuit in the 1930s. I’ve always been an avid traveler and love reading about exotic far-flung destinations. I appreciated getting an intimate look into the lives of the Inuit through the eyes of Mr. Maurice, who immersed himself in their language and culture, and ended up opening his heart to his new “family.” Almost 100 years have passed since his Arctic adventure, and so his book also serves as valuable documentation of a culture that no longer exists in the modern world.
March 1, 2018
Marvelous! An illuminating account of an enterprising Englishman in the early 20th Century as he navigates the customs and norms of Inuit life in the Arctic. Edward Beauclerk Maurice’s unfettered narrative on his years spent under the employment of the Hudson’s Bay Company transports the reader to the furthest navigable corners of Frobisher Bay skidding alongside dogsleds, battling waves on seal hunts and most vividly sitting in tents and snow houses as he builds relationships with the Inuit.
July 18, 2018
A fascination book depicting in most vivid authentic colors a lost world.
The honest first hand account of the humble, simply human author is fascinating, bringing to life true Arctic experience.
One of my favorites!
The honest first hand account of the humble, simply human author is fascinating, bringing to life true Arctic experience.
One of my favorites!
April 1, 2019
Great book
A wonderful read, what a great person the author was, so glad he wrote this remarkable story of his days working for the Hudson Bay Company
A wonderful read, what a great person the author was, so glad he wrote this remarkable story of his days working for the Hudson Bay Company
March 19, 2020
Really interesting, especially if read as a companion piece to Farley Mowat's 'People of the Deer'.
December 28, 2020
An absolutely engrossing memoir.
December 2, 2021
A very nice book. Recommended.
November 29, 2022
Very good historic coming of age memoir!
January 25, 2025
I like this book. Throughout the reading, I clearly imagined the life of the Eskimos in the north of Canada, the nature of those places. I had the best impressions from Edward Maurice himself.
September 8, 2025
Very honest candid look at Innuit life and culture before snowmobiles etc. A coming of age tale in one of the harshest environments Earth can produce.
July 14, 2022
I was completely swept away by this memoir of an apprenticeship with the Hudson Bay Company right before WWII. The author takes us with him to a remote sealing outpost, and describes his coming of age among the Inuit. He learns the language of the indigenous sealers and hunts with them and records detailed observations about their way of life, already on the cusp of change. Highlights for me--exchanging stories--introducing the tale of Snow White, which the Inuit greatly enjoy, especially with the prop of a pocket mirror. Also the way Maurice gets an Inuit name. He starts out called something like Boy Who Falls Off of Cliffs, but gets a grown up name as he proves himself to the tribe. This is a fascinating book as memoir, adventure story, and ethnography. I loved every page.
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