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Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic
From the author of The Ice Master comes the remarkable true story of a young Inuit woman who survived six months alone on a desolate, uninhabited Arctic island
In September 1921, four young men and Ada Blackjack, a diminutive 25-year-old Eskimo woman, ventured deep into the Arctic in a secret attempt to colonize desolate Wrangel Island for Great Britain. Two years later, Ada Blackjack emerged as the sole survivor of this ambitious polar expedition. This young, unskilled woman--who had headed to the Arctic in search of money and a husband--conquered the seemingly unconquerable north and survived all alone after her male companions had perished.
Following her triumphant return to civilization, the international press proclaimed her the female Robinson Crusoe. But whatever stories the press turned out came from the imaginations of Ada Blackjack refused to speak to anyone about her horrific two years in the Arctic. Only on one occasion--after charges were published falsely accusing her of causing the death of one her companions--did she speak up for herself.
Jennifer Niven has created an absorbing, compelling history of this remarkable woman, taking full advantage of the wealth of first-hand resources about Ada that exist, including her never-before-seen diaries, the unpublished diaries from other primary characters, and interviews with Ada's surviving son. Ada Blackjack is more than a rugged tale of a woman battling the elements to survive in the frozen north--it is the story of a hero.
In September 1921, four young men and Ada Blackjack, a diminutive 25-year-old Eskimo woman, ventured deep into the Arctic in a secret attempt to colonize desolate Wrangel Island for Great Britain. Two years later, Ada Blackjack emerged as the sole survivor of this ambitious polar expedition. This young, unskilled woman--who had headed to the Arctic in search of money and a husband--conquered the seemingly unconquerable north and survived all alone after her male companions had perished.
Following her triumphant return to civilization, the international press proclaimed her the female Robinson Crusoe. But whatever stories the press turned out came from the imaginations of Ada Blackjack refused to speak to anyone about her horrific two years in the Arctic. Only on one occasion--after charges were published falsely accusing her of causing the death of one her companions--did she speak up for herself.
Jennifer Niven has created an absorbing, compelling history of this remarkable woman, taking full advantage of the wealth of first-hand resources about Ada that exist, including her never-before-seen diaries, the unpublished diaries from other primary characters, and interviews with Ada's surviving son. Ada Blackjack is more than a rugged tale of a woman battling the elements to survive in the frozen north--it is the story of a hero.
431 pages, Hardcover
First published November 12, 2003
278 people are currently reading
5342 people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Niven
25 books15.1k followersJENNIFER NIVEN is the #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author of All the Bright Places, Holding Up the Universe, and Breathless. Her books have been translated in over 75 languages and have won literary awards around the world.
An Emmy-award winning screenwriter, she co-wrote the script for the All the Bright Places movie— currently streaming on Netflix and starring Elle Fanning and Justice Smith. She is also the author of several narrative nonfiction titles and the Velva Jean historical fiction series.
Her latest YA novel, When We Were Monsters, was published September 2, and she has an adult novel-- Meet the Newmans-- releasing January 6, 2026.
Jennifer divides her time between coastal Georgia and Los Angeles with her husband and literary cats.
An Emmy-award winning screenwriter, she co-wrote the script for the All the Bright Places movie— currently streaming on Netflix and starring Elle Fanning and Justice Smith. She is also the author of several narrative nonfiction titles and the Velva Jean historical fiction series.
Her latest YA novel, When We Were Monsters, was published September 2, and she has an adult novel-- Meet the Newmans-- releasing January 6, 2026.
Jennifer divides her time between coastal Georgia and Los Angeles with her husband and literary cats.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 365 reviews
January 26, 2011
The title of this book is a little deceiving. While Ada Blackjack is featured prominently in the book, this is more the telling of all the explorers on the Wrangel Island expedition. As much detail is given to the other four explorers and their families as is given about Blackjack herself.
Ada Blackjack was an impoverished woman living in Alaska. Because of her limited income, she was forced to put her son in a home while she tried to earn money for the both of them. When she was hired on as a seamstress and cook for the Wrangel Island expedition, she had no idea what she would be getting herself into. Wrangel Island is a desolate piece of land in the arctic that is only reachable by boat in the summer months. It is possible to travel the ice floes in the winter to get there, but that is highly dangerous as well. The purpose of this mission, put together by Vilhjalmur Steffanson, was to prove that anywhere could be hospitable, and to claim (for his intention, not their's) the Island for the British (or Canadian, whoever would have him).
Steffanson enlisted four men to be among the first up there. These men were Fred Maurer (who had been there before), Allan Crawford, Lorne Knight, and Milton Galle. They gathered what supplies they thought they needed, and with all other help abandoning them before they left, took Ada as the only other person with them. A noticeable mention should be given to the dog team that they took with them, and the cat Vic.
After arriving on the Island things started on a positive note. But they soon discovered that the game because scarce through the winter. When their ship failed to show the following summer and supplies were running low, three of the able bodied men (Knight was sick with Scurvy) set off across the ice floes for help. Left on her own with Knight, and later completely alone, Ada had to try to survive on her own until her rescue over two years after they had first landed on the island.
The rest of the book details the controversy and lies spread about Ada. The books and papers plagiarized and sensationalized were also written extensively about. A good deal of detail about the four men's families and also Ada's life after the rescue was given as well.
Niven tells the story well. It is very detail oriented and presented much like a documentary. Her writing is clear and easy to understand and she describes the explorers well. I do think she tended to place too much focus on some of the details such as the papers and journals controversy. I would have much preferred to learn more about Ada. Also, while I appreciated the background on all the explorers, I think the title of her book was misleading as I expected the majority of the book to be about Ada, which to me it was not.
What Ada went through is remarkable. While she was only on her own for two months I know that I could never survive as she did. She had to rely on her own stamina and teach herself things in the harshest of conditions with no certain hope for rescue. That takes a lot of bravery. I am also glad that after all the ridicule and rumors spread about Ada, Niven takes the time to detail everything that happened and get the truth out. Reading this book has made me want to take a look at her other books and I definitely look forward to reading them. I highly recommend this work of non-fiction for any interested in the Arctic, or for anyone looking for a telling of a remarkable woman's plight.
Ada Blackjack
Copyright 2003
394 pages plus an epilogue, couple sections of pictures, end notes and map.
Review by M. Reynard 2010
Ada Blackjack was an impoverished woman living in Alaska. Because of her limited income, she was forced to put her son in a home while she tried to earn money for the both of them. When she was hired on as a seamstress and cook for the Wrangel Island expedition, she had no idea what she would be getting herself into. Wrangel Island is a desolate piece of land in the arctic that is only reachable by boat in the summer months. It is possible to travel the ice floes in the winter to get there, but that is highly dangerous as well. The purpose of this mission, put together by Vilhjalmur Steffanson, was to prove that anywhere could be hospitable, and to claim (for his intention, not their's) the Island for the British (or Canadian, whoever would have him).
Steffanson enlisted four men to be among the first up there. These men were Fred Maurer (who had been there before), Allan Crawford, Lorne Knight, and Milton Galle. They gathered what supplies they thought they needed, and with all other help abandoning them before they left, took Ada as the only other person with them. A noticeable mention should be given to the dog team that they took with them, and the cat Vic.
After arriving on the Island things started on a positive note. But they soon discovered that the game because scarce through the winter. When their ship failed to show the following summer and supplies were running low, three of the able bodied men (Knight was sick with Scurvy) set off across the ice floes for help. Left on her own with Knight, and later completely alone, Ada had to try to survive on her own until her rescue over two years after they had first landed on the island.
The rest of the book details the controversy and lies spread about Ada. The books and papers plagiarized and sensationalized were also written extensively about. A good deal of detail about the four men's families and also Ada's life after the rescue was given as well.
Niven tells the story well. It is very detail oriented and presented much like a documentary. Her writing is clear and easy to understand and she describes the explorers well. I do think she tended to place too much focus on some of the details such as the papers and journals controversy. I would have much preferred to learn more about Ada. Also, while I appreciated the background on all the explorers, I think the title of her book was misleading as I expected the majority of the book to be about Ada, which to me it was not.
What Ada went through is remarkable. While she was only on her own for two months I know that I could never survive as she did. She had to rely on her own stamina and teach herself things in the harshest of conditions with no certain hope for rescue. That takes a lot of bravery. I am also glad that after all the ridicule and rumors spread about Ada, Niven takes the time to detail everything that happened and get the truth out. Reading this book has made me want to take a look at her other books and I definitely look forward to reading them. I highly recommend this work of non-fiction for any interested in the Arctic, or for anyone looking for a telling of a remarkable woman's plight.
Ada Blackjack
Copyright 2003
394 pages plus an epilogue, couple sections of pictures, end notes and map.
Review by M. Reynard 2010
October 2, 2016
How could I not have had this on my list? I read this years ago but I will always remember the story of Ada Blackjack. I was really surprised that I'd somehow forgotten to add this to my list of favorite books.
This book was so fascinating to read. I really love survival stories and this one was hardcore. It's one of those books that I've had to pass on to other people and so far everyone I've passed this onto has loved it.
This was my first encounter with Niven. Really loved this book and hope more people will pick up Ada's story. Very well researched.
This book was so fascinating to read. I really love survival stories and this one was hardcore. It's one of those books that I've had to pass on to other people and so far everyone I've passed this onto has loved it.
This was my first encounter with Niven. Really loved this book and hope more people will pick up Ada's story. Very well researched.
August 30, 2012
The explorers, four young white men from the U.S. and Canada and Ada, a 23-year-old Inuit woman set out under a Canadian flag to claim a barren rock in the tundra north of the new Soviet Union for the British Empire. But with a lack of proper funding; a grandstanding, do-nothing Svengali of a leader; and an inexperienced crew, the mission was doomed from the start.
Niven's hero is the slight, shy Blackjack, who, though neither as worldly wise as her companions nor as self-sufficient, learns to take care of herself and a dying member of her party after the team is trapped by ice for almost two years and the three others decide to cross the frozen ocean and make for Siberia, never to be seen again.
By trapping foxes, hunting seals and dodging polar bears, Blackjack fights for her life and for the future of her ailing son, whom she left back home in Alaska, and for whose health-care expenses she agreed to take the trip. When she returns home as the only survivor, the ignoble jockeying for her attention and money by the press, her rescuer and the disreputable mission chief (who sat out the trip) melds with the clamor of city life (in Seattle and San Francisco), leaving both the reader and Blackjack near-nostalgic for the creaking ice floes and the slow rhythms of life in the northern frozen wastelands.
Niven's hero is the slight, shy Blackjack, who, though neither as worldly wise as her companions nor as self-sufficient, learns to take care of herself and a dying member of her party after the team is trapped by ice for almost two years and the three others decide to cross the frozen ocean and make for Siberia, never to be seen again.
By trapping foxes, hunting seals and dodging polar bears, Blackjack fights for her life and for the future of her ailing son, whom she left back home in Alaska, and for whose health-care expenses she agreed to take the trip. When she returns home as the only survivor, the ignoble jockeying for her attention and money by the press, her rescuer and the disreputable mission chief (who sat out the trip) melds with the clamor of city life (in Seattle and San Francisco), leaving both the reader and Blackjack near-nostalgic for the creaking ice floes and the slow rhythms of life in the northern frozen wastelands.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 11, 2025
Very interesting and sad story about Arctic explorers, all of whom died, except Ada who was hired to accompany the men as a seamstress, cook, etc. The man behind the expedition was a complete shyster.
August 15, 2021
In 1913, Vilhjalmur Stefansson led an ill-fated voyage into the Arctic. The team was separated and one group spent time on Wrangel Island, 200 miles northeast of Siberia and 400 miles northwest of Alaska. After essentially rescuing themselves, the survivors of the smaller group told stories of the rich wildlife they encountered on the island. Stefansson, a proponent of the idea of the “Friendly Arctic,” soon had dreams to claim the island for Canada and Great Britain and use it as a waystation for people making their way through the frozen north.
Stefansson sent a group of four young men and Ada Blackjack, a young Eskimo seamstress, to lead the way for colonizing efforts in 1921. (The author chooses to use terminology appropriate to the time period.) Russia had claimed Wrangel Island decades earlier but Stefansson felt that his earlier team’s extended occupation of the island called that claim into question. The 1921 team was too small, too untrained, and didn’t find the same amount of wildlife that the earlier crew did. When rescuers finally made their way to the island two years later, Ada Blackjack was the only person who had survived. Ada only told her story publicly one time but Niven has pieced together primary source material, newspaper articles, and interviews with one of Ada’s sons to present a record of that harrowing voyage.
First of all, this isn’t a sequel to Niven’s book, The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk, but it is set partially in the same place and features a few of the same people. I haven’t read The Ice Master and I followed this just fine; I do feel that my understanding would have been a bit deeper if I’d read the earlier work first though. I’d recommend taking that approach.
I found this book absolutely fascinating. The remarkable thing about Ada’s survival is that she knew very little about surviving Arctic conditions. She was raised in the village of Nome. She’d seen some Inuit (the preferred term now) elders hunting and employing traditional skills when she was very young but she attended a missionary school, where she learned how to clean houses and sew. She never had the opportunity to learn the ways of her people so she was spectacularly unprepared for the conditions on Wrangel Island. And yet she survived.
My heart ached for this little expedition. The four young men (Lorne Knight, Milton Galle, Fred Maurer, and Allan Crawford) were all in their twenties and boyishly excited to embark on such a grand adventure. Only Knight and Maurer knew anything about Arctic survival. They did their best but when wildlife was scarce and a rescue boat couldn’t get to them because of ice floes the first summer, they didn’t stand a chance. The author includes passages from their diaries and letters from their families reassuring each other that their “boys” must be safe. These were hard to read, knowing that the group was suffering.
Stefansson, the backer of the expedition, is infuriating. He continually tells reporters and the families of the expedition members that the group is safe in the Arctic. He actually wrote a book called The Friendly Arctic, detailing his belief that reports of the inhospitable conditions of the far north are essentially fake news. His theory states that game is abundant and anyone with common sense can survive. What an insult to his young explorers.
The book goes on to describe Ada’s life after her rescue. That’s heartbreaking too. She was a very private person but everywhere she went, reporters recognized her and tried to interview her. Expedition leaders ordered her not to speak to reporters before leaving for the island or else they wouldn’t pay her. She was always afraid to speak to anyone about her experiences after that. She finally spoke out when the man who rescued her published some libelous rumors.
I highly recommend this book if you’re interested in stories of exploration and survival or stories of women history almost forgot. Ada and her other crewmates will earn your respect and admiration.
Stefansson sent a group of four young men and Ada Blackjack, a young Eskimo seamstress, to lead the way for colonizing efforts in 1921. (The author chooses to use terminology appropriate to the time period.) Russia had claimed Wrangel Island decades earlier but Stefansson felt that his earlier team’s extended occupation of the island called that claim into question. The 1921 team was too small, too untrained, and didn’t find the same amount of wildlife that the earlier crew did. When rescuers finally made their way to the island two years later, Ada Blackjack was the only person who had survived. Ada only told her story publicly one time but Niven has pieced together primary source material, newspaper articles, and interviews with one of Ada’s sons to present a record of that harrowing voyage.
First of all, this isn’t a sequel to Niven’s book, The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk, but it is set partially in the same place and features a few of the same people. I haven’t read The Ice Master and I followed this just fine; I do feel that my understanding would have been a bit deeper if I’d read the earlier work first though. I’d recommend taking that approach.
I found this book absolutely fascinating. The remarkable thing about Ada’s survival is that she knew very little about surviving Arctic conditions. She was raised in the village of Nome. She’d seen some Inuit (the preferred term now) elders hunting and employing traditional skills when she was very young but she attended a missionary school, where she learned how to clean houses and sew. She never had the opportunity to learn the ways of her people so she was spectacularly unprepared for the conditions on Wrangel Island. And yet she survived.
My heart ached for this little expedition. The four young men (Lorne Knight, Milton Galle, Fred Maurer, and Allan Crawford) were all in their twenties and boyishly excited to embark on such a grand adventure. Only Knight and Maurer knew anything about Arctic survival. They did their best but when wildlife was scarce and a rescue boat couldn’t get to them because of ice floes the first summer, they didn’t stand a chance. The author includes passages from their diaries and letters from their families reassuring each other that their “boys” must be safe. These were hard to read, knowing that the group was suffering.
Stefansson, the backer of the expedition, is infuriating. He continually tells reporters and the families of the expedition members that the group is safe in the Arctic. He actually wrote a book called The Friendly Arctic, detailing his belief that reports of the inhospitable conditions of the far north are essentially fake news. His theory states that game is abundant and anyone with common sense can survive. What an insult to his young explorers.
The book goes on to describe Ada’s life after her rescue. That’s heartbreaking too. She was a very private person but everywhere she went, reporters recognized her and tried to interview her. Expedition leaders ordered her not to speak to reporters before leaving for the island or else they wouldn’t pay her. She was always afraid to speak to anyone about her experiences after that. She finally spoke out when the man who rescued her published some libelous rumors.
I highly recommend this book if you’re interested in stories of exploration and survival or stories of women history almost forgot. Ada and her other crewmates will earn your respect and admiration.
October 2, 2010
If ever there was a woman who took the wrong job, Ada Blackjack qualifies for the honor. A 23 year old Inuit woman with a sick child, Ada agreed to accompany four so-called explorers to Wrangel Island north of Siberia, for $50.00 a month. The year was 1923. Although there had already been a failed attempt to live self sufficently on Wrangel Island, a silver-tounged adventurer, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, a Canadian, talked four young men into going back to study the wildlife and do weather experiments. Stefansson would not go. Ada was hired to be a seamstress and housekeeper, so to speak. Although, she was an expert seamstress Ada had been raised in the city by missionaries. She spoke and wrote English but had never learned the survival techniques of her native peoples. Suffice it to say, Ada got in over her head. But, gritty to the end, she taught herself how to trap and shoot after she was left alone with one of the dying explorers. Her name was besmirched after she was the only one rescued from a two year entrapment on the island. Jennifer Niven has researched this book with care and has given us a tale of valor and survival, as well as, deceit and treachery. Ada Blackjack stands as a true heroine in the end.
December 4, 2010
Needed a better editor- but an amazing story of strength and survival, ending in a very bittersweet sadness.
April 13, 2023
I was looking forward to reading this book, and it took me a while to locate a copy. I feel the writing was good and it was a good adventure.
The problem I have was the authors pretext was skewed.
The 4 young men are considered heroes, as is the protagonist Ada Blackjack.
The boys were manipulated by a scoundrel by the name Vilhjalmur Stephensson. Stephensson had already abandoned his crew on an exhibition to Wrangel Island on the Kurlak. leaving the vast majority of crew to die from starvation.
Wrangel Island wasn't a new discovery, as it had been populated a number of times
most recently by the Kurlak expedition.
Knowing of the risk involved with this expedition he downplayed the dangers for his own financial gain. As far as the 4 young men as heroes? They didn't save anyone, they didn't discover new lands, their claim to fame is blindly following a con-artist to their death.
As far as Ada goes,I don't think she was particularly bright, there are a few references to her being a prostitute and alcohol abuser and was encouraged by the local ranger to leave town. Her first actions on the Island was to make advances toward the young men-particularly Crawford. The boys didn't reciprocate. Ada then contracted a condition called Arctic Hysteria which caused more bizarre behavior; which is ironic, because if anyone was use to the cold, it would be Ada coming from Nome.
She gave the men a hard time refusing to work at the beginning. She gradually came around and started making clothes, cooking and learning to use a rifle. 3 of the members left the party in search of food and rescue. ( Stephensson's supply ship never showed up) Leaving Ada with Lorne Knight who was sick from scurvy. Ada hunted game and nursed him but ultimately he died. Because of her fear she was she was unable to shoot a bear. If she had it could have saved Knights life. But she did what any decent human would do she fed and cared for him .Does this make her heroic? The book is a lesson in survival and who you trust and follow. I felt bad for the parents of the four boys, as they were also mistreated and misinformed. Ada ended up marrying 3 times, suffered from poverty most of her life, as she would blow her money or give it away, She died in a nursing home in her 80's. A surviver she was ,and a decent mother to Bennet and Billy yes, but a hero no.
The problem I have was the authors pretext was skewed.
The 4 young men are considered heroes, as is the protagonist Ada Blackjack.
The boys were manipulated by a scoundrel by the name Vilhjalmur Stephensson. Stephensson had already abandoned his crew on an exhibition to Wrangel Island on the Kurlak. leaving the vast majority of crew to die from starvation.
Wrangel Island wasn't a new discovery, as it had been populated a number of times
most recently by the Kurlak expedition.
Knowing of the risk involved with this expedition he downplayed the dangers for his own financial gain. As far as the 4 young men as heroes? They didn't save anyone, they didn't discover new lands, their claim to fame is blindly following a con-artist to their death.
As far as Ada goes,I don't think she was particularly bright, there are a few references to her being a prostitute and alcohol abuser and was encouraged by the local ranger to leave town. Her first actions on the Island was to make advances toward the young men-particularly Crawford. The boys didn't reciprocate. Ada then contracted a condition called Arctic Hysteria which caused more bizarre behavior; which is ironic, because if anyone was use to the cold, it would be Ada coming from Nome.
She gave the men a hard time refusing to work at the beginning. She gradually came around and started making clothes, cooking and learning to use a rifle. 3 of the members left the party in search of food and rescue. ( Stephensson's supply ship never showed up) Leaving Ada with Lorne Knight who was sick from scurvy. Ada hunted game and nursed him but ultimately he died. Because of her fear she was she was unable to shoot a bear. If she had it could have saved Knights life. But she did what any decent human would do she fed and cared for him .Does this make her heroic? The book is a lesson in survival and who you trust and follow. I felt bad for the parents of the four boys, as they were also mistreated and misinformed. Ada ended up marrying 3 times, suffered from poverty most of her life, as she would blow her money or give it away, She died in a nursing home in her 80's. A surviver she was ,and a decent mother to Bennet and Billy yes, but a hero no.
February 15, 2021
Ada Blackjack: A True Story Of Survival In The Arctic is about an Inuit woman in the 1920s who joined a team of Arctic explorers because they needed a seamstress/maid/cook for their expedition. Things went badly wrong in the Arctic. When a rescue ship finally reached the stranded explorers (two years after they left civilization), Ada was the only explorer still alive. I have massive respect for Ada. She didn’t know how to hunt or build shelters, but she figured it out real quick. Calling this book Ada Blackjack is slightly inaccurate because it’s about the entire expedition. For long stretches of the book, Ada fades into the background while the author focuses on the other explorers, their families, and the men who organized the expedition but didn’t go on it. I was kind of disappointed by the shifts in focus, but I understand why they happened. Ada rarely talked about her experiences in the Arctic. Other people never shut up about their theories of what went wrong. The author is just working with the information that’s available.
I loved the first half of the book. It’s a harrowing survival story. Even though I knew the outcome, I couldn’t put it down. The second half drags a little. It’s about all the backstabbing and finger-pointing that happened after the expedition failed. The pettiness is not as compelling as the survival story. Despite my complaints, I highly recommend this book if you’re interested in historical expeditions. I wish more people knew about Ada. I’d never heard of her.
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I loved the first half of the book. It’s a harrowing survival story. Even though I knew the outcome, I couldn’t put it down. The second half drags a little. It’s about all the backstabbing and finger-pointing that happened after the expedition failed. The pettiness is not as compelling as the survival story. Despite my complaints, I highly recommend this book if you’re interested in historical expeditions. I wish more people knew about Ada. I’d never heard of her.
Do you like opinions, giveaways, and bookish nonsense?
I have a blog for that.
January 16, 2021
Fascinating. Love books about the arctic, even though I hate the cold. Read most of this book on the sunny slopes of Mt. Kenya though, so that makes sense.
April 19, 2022
amazing story but writing dragged on wayyy too long
February 17, 2025
This is a story of survival, but it is really a story of heartache. Ada BlackJack was dealt a hand that she had little control over. She went to Wrangel Island with four men, but there were supposed to be other Eskimos as well. Eskimo was the term used in the book because of the time period. I don't know if she was Inuit or Yupik (there are alternate spellings), so I have been using Eskimo.
The man who set up the expedition didn't go. We learn about him and the men going. We learn about preparations and the time on the island. We learn about the aftermath as Ada BlackJack is the only survivor. All through, I'm rooting for this young woman. Her story didn't end at her rescue.
I listened to the audiobook, which didn't have the pictures or maps. I ended up borrowing the ebook from the library so I could see them. I'd like to give this 4.5 stars.
The man who set up the expedition didn't go. We learn about him and the men going. We learn about preparations and the time on the island. We learn about the aftermath as Ada BlackJack is the only survivor. All through, I'm rooting for this young woman. Her story didn't end at her rescue.
I listened to the audiobook, which didn't have the pictures or maps. I ended up borrowing the ebook from the library so I could see them. I'd like to give this 4.5 stars.
May 5, 2010
I just read Velva Jean Learns to Drive and loved it. I looked up the author and found that she had written this nonfiction book as well which I read a year or so ago. I couldn't believe the same author wrote two such different but wonderful books! I loved the story of Ada Blackjack; it was truly fantastic. I don't know how I can better describe the book than the summary at Goodreads, so I'm pasting it below. You'll love it!
"It was controversial explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson who sent four young men and Ada Blackjack into the far North to colonize desolate, uninhabited Wrangel Island. Only two of the men had set foot in the Arctic before. They took with them six months' worth of supplies on Stefansson's theory that this would be enough to sustain them for a year while they lived off the land itself. But as winter set in, they were struck by hardship and tragedy. As months went by and they began to starve, they were forced to ration their few remaining provisions. When three of the men made a desperate attempt to seek help, Ada was left to care for the fourth, who was too sick to travel. Soon after, she found herself totally alone.
Upon Ada's miraculous return after two years on the island, the international press heralded her as the female Robinson Crusoe. Journalists hunted her down, but she refused to talk to anyone about her harrowing experiences. Only on one occasion - after being accused of a horrible crime she did not commit - did she speak up for herself. All the while, she was tricked and exploited by those who should have been her champions.
Jennifer Niven, author, narrates this true story, taking full advantage of a wealth of primary sources, including Ada Blackjack's never-before-seen diaries, the unpublished journals of other major characters, and interviews with Ada's second son. Filled with adventure and history - as well as photographs - Ada Blackjack is a gripping and ultimately inspiring tale of a woman who survived a terrible time in the wild only to face a different but equally trying ordeal back in civilization."
"It was controversial explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson who sent four young men and Ada Blackjack into the far North to colonize desolate, uninhabited Wrangel Island. Only two of the men had set foot in the Arctic before. They took with them six months' worth of supplies on Stefansson's theory that this would be enough to sustain them for a year while they lived off the land itself. But as winter set in, they were struck by hardship and tragedy. As months went by and they began to starve, they were forced to ration their few remaining provisions. When three of the men made a desperate attempt to seek help, Ada was left to care for the fourth, who was too sick to travel. Soon after, she found herself totally alone.
Upon Ada's miraculous return after two years on the island, the international press heralded her as the female Robinson Crusoe. Journalists hunted her down, but she refused to talk to anyone about her harrowing experiences. Only on one occasion - after being accused of a horrible crime she did not commit - did she speak up for herself. All the while, she was tricked and exploited by those who should have been her champions.
Jennifer Niven, author, narrates this true story, taking full advantage of a wealth of primary sources, including Ada Blackjack's never-before-seen diaries, the unpublished journals of other major characters, and interviews with Ada's second son. Filled with adventure and history - as well as photographs - Ada Blackjack is a gripping and ultimately inspiring tale of a woman who survived a terrible time in the wild only to face a different but equally trying ordeal back in civilization."
December 19, 2016
I should mention at the top that I did not choose this book but my girlfriend gave it to me as a gift, so going in I did not have any expectations. I suppose I do have some history reading stories about "the wilderness" if you count horror novels like those of Algernon Blackwood, but it isn't a subject that interests me particularly much. With this is mind I was particularly impressed with Jennifer Niven's writing, since she was able to draw me in so well even though the subject matter was not one I was predisposed to getting involved in.
The book does read much like a novel in its first two thirds. There is a lot of suspense, even though you know the ending already, but experiencing the details takes hold of you. Also, the second third reveals itself to be much more emotionally powerful then I would have thought. A lot of this comes from the personality of Ada Blackjack herself, who is painted as a simple, uneducated but smart and kind woman who is thrust into a situation that forces her to survive against all odds.
The final third of the book doesn't have that storytelling power. In fact, I imagine if this was ever adapted for the screen here is where it would end. There are a lot of threads here to follow, the grief of the families who lost their sons, the cruel and heartless efforts to make money and spin the tragedy by opportunists and Ada's attempt to recover from what happened and move on with her life. This is all compelling stuff, but Niven stumbles a little trying to turn real life into less of a messy series of events here.
The book does read much like a novel in its first two thirds. There is a lot of suspense, even though you know the ending already, but experiencing the details takes hold of you. Also, the second third reveals itself to be much more emotionally powerful then I would have thought. A lot of this comes from the personality of Ada Blackjack herself, who is painted as a simple, uneducated but smart and kind woman who is thrust into a situation that forces her to survive against all odds.
The final third of the book doesn't have that storytelling power. In fact, I imagine if this was ever adapted for the screen here is where it would end. There are a lot of threads here to follow, the grief of the families who lost their sons, the cruel and heartless efforts to make money and spin the tragedy by opportunists and Ada's attempt to recover from what happened and move on with her life. This is all compelling stuff, but Niven stumbles a little trying to turn real life into less of a messy series of events here.
August 25, 2010
this is supposed to be a true story and until i got about half way through i thought it rang true. but the part where ada is left with lorne knight i thought was too much-she is depicted as a frightened eskimo woman left alone to tend to one of the men who is sick with scurvy and who eventually becomes bed ridden. then she is able to shoot birds out of the sky-bring in game from traps that she taught herself to set. build a umiak from canvass- carve oars from drift wood--it is hard to believe she managed to exist six months while this man succumbed to the disease--why didn't ada have scurvy too. where did she get the tools to do all this construction. of course woman have more fat and probably could last longer that a man but the story left me wondering how she managed this for such a long time.i too wondered if there was a question of canabalism--something she was accused of in the press later.
November 20, 2017
Interesting account of four men and one woman who adventured Wrangell Island in the Arctic. The lone survivor was Ada Blackjack. Inspiring story about survival. Fallout was just as interesting. A little too much detail and redundancy but still interesting
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 23, 2023
Kind of all over the place. I wish I had understood what the thesis of this thing was from the start.
I had not known of this story going in, so I didn't know what the outcome was gonna be, and it was really interesting reading this, having read many other polar exploration books already, thinking to myself "wow, they don't sound at all prepared for what they're proposing to do." Spoiler alert: they weren't.
What's crazy is like, one of them had already been on a previous, and very difficult expedition, and the "leader" of the expedition, who planned it and wanted the glory of the final outcome, was in the explorers club and had been on other trips himself. Like they for sure should have known better. The other two original members were both green and young and looking for adventure and glory (lol). They were told to hire several Inuit families to help them overwinter, hunt and make clothes, but when they couldn't find people to agree, they decided to set off with one woman, who was a city girl and didn't even know how to use a rifle (although she was a well known sewer at least). They only bought six months worth of food, knowing they would overwinter, and decided they would be able to hunt enough to keep them alive. It seemed very clear to me that rather than making the prudent decision to wait until the next season, they just wanted to go forward, too excited for the adventure etc to follow through with their planned preparations.
I have never read an exploration story where I wanted the people to die more. Wow what giant fucking pieces of shit these men were. Like for real. not gonna go into the details but they straight up tortured Ada.
No one in this situation was good. None of the explorers, none of the rescuers. Everyone was total trash, and wanted everything to enrich themselves, or give themselves credit for everything bring glory to themselves personally. Even Ada, though it seems the author wanted us to think she was just a naive, backwoods woman who was taken advantage of at every turn, wasn't necessarily. I am not sure if she was or wasn't but there were hints that she was also manipulative. One thing I will say about her, every single thing she did was to make sure she had money to get her ill son medical care, and to take care of her children.
The story dragged on for a long time after the expedition, some of which was interesting, but a lot of which became tiresome, as it just continued to reinforce how trash everyone was. Could have been edited down some imo, esp since I assume most people are going into this hoping for a polar adventure, which was at most, half the book.
Still, a good read in general, even though it really wasn't what I thought it was gonna be.
short spoilery tldr below:
I had not known of this story going in, so I didn't know what the outcome was gonna be, and it was really interesting reading this, having read many other polar exploration books already, thinking to myself "wow, they don't sound at all prepared for what they're proposing to do." Spoiler alert: they weren't.
What's crazy is like, one of them had already been on a previous, and very difficult expedition, and the "leader" of the expedition, who planned it and wanted the glory of the final outcome, was in the explorers club and had been on other trips himself. Like they for sure should have known better. The other two original members were both green and young and looking for adventure and glory (lol). They were told to hire several Inuit families to help them overwinter, hunt and make clothes, but when they couldn't find people to agree, they decided to set off with one woman, who was a city girl and didn't even know how to use a rifle (although she was a well known sewer at least). They only bought six months worth of food, knowing they would overwinter, and decided they would be able to hunt enough to keep them alive. It seemed very clear to me that rather than making the prudent decision to wait until the next season, they just wanted to go forward, too excited for the adventure etc to follow through with their planned preparations.
I have never read an exploration story where I wanted the people to die more. Wow what giant fucking pieces of shit these men were. Like for real. not gonna go into the details but they straight up tortured Ada.
No one in this situation was good. None of the explorers, none of the rescuers. Everyone was total trash, and wanted everything to enrich themselves, or give themselves credit for everything bring glory to themselves personally. Even Ada, though it seems the author wanted us to think she was just a naive, backwoods woman who was taken advantage of at every turn, wasn't necessarily. I am not sure if she was or wasn't but there were hints that she was also manipulative. One thing I will say about her, every single thing she did was to make sure she had money to get her ill son medical care, and to take care of her children.
The story dragged on for a long time after the expedition, some of which was interesting, but a lot of which became tiresome, as it just continued to reinforce how trash everyone was. Could have been edited down some imo, esp since I assume most people are going into this hoping for a polar adventure, which was at most, half the book.
Still, a good read in general, even though it really wasn't what I thought it was gonna be.
short spoilery tldr below:
October 7, 2020
Ada BlackJack an Inuit woman living in Alaska is talked into joining an expedition into the Arctic wilderness with four men. She was to be their seamstress and cook. She went because her situation was so desperate she was barely surviving on her own and had given up her sickly son. She ends up being the sole survivor of the expedition. The story of her ordeal and the treatment she received after returning to civilization was compiled from journals, letters, and other documents that the author Jennifer Niven was able to access. Ms. Niven created an interesting story that includes the backgrounds of the explorers and the shady organizer of the expedition Wilhjaimur Steffanson who wanted to claim Wrangel Island for England or Canada even though he had no backing from either country.
Ada had to learn to hunt and survive so she could return to her son. Though some later tried to portray her as a foolish woman and worse, her faith and fear saw here through.
Ada had to learn to hunt and survive so she could return to her son. Though some later tried to portray her as a foolish woman and worse, her faith and fear saw here through.
April 2, 2021
This is my favorite type of book - a historical tale of survival in the Arctic, with a dash of unsolved mystery. Masterfully written and well-researched, this book was hard to set down and is a story I will long remember. The surrounding deceit, greed, and political and media pressure remind us again that people have changed very little in the past 100 years.
December 11, 2023
Een soort onofficieel vervolg op Empire of Ice and Stone dat ik eerder dit jaar heb gelezen. Wederom een fascinerend verhaal over overleven op de Noordpool. Een redelijk groot deel van het boek gaat ook over de gevolgen van de mislukte reis voor de overlevende. Al met al een interessant boek maar vond Empire of Ice and Stone beter.
August 3, 2024
This is a very good book about a now nearly forgotten event and the people involved in a tragic attempt to colonize Wrangell Island in the early 1920s and claim it for Canada or Great Britain. It is actually two stories. One is the tale of the only survivor of the expedition and her growth as a person while waiting for her rescue, the other is the politics behind the expedition and the lies told to shift blame afterwards and the effect of this on the families of the 4 dead men. Ada Blackjack goes from heroine to potential murderess, back to heroine in the aftermath of her rescue. It is a study on human endurance on all levels.
June 29, 2016
I had not heard of Ada Blackjack before seeing this book. The story sounded interesting, and since it was on sale, I figured why not.
Blackjack was only of five people (and the only woman as well as the only Inuit) to go to Wrangel Island, a decision that seems to be an ill conceived attempt to prove a silly point as well as to gain a useless island from Russia.
Gain for the Canadians that is.
This book will make you want to find Dr Who, steal the Tardis, go back in time, and hit people upside the head.
While Blackjack was Inuit (Eskimo), she was raised in the city so the survival skills that many of people learned, she didn’t have. Her first husband was abusive, and her first son ill. She took a job as a seamstress to the men going to Wrangel Island. Once there, far from home, things went bad quickly.
It is to Niven’s credit that she doesn’t whitewash anything, though she presents it with a degree of understanding. While the men’s treatment of Blackjack at some points is reprehensible, Niven points out why the men might have saw it as necessary, even as she points out while Blackjack acted the way she did. The treatment of Blackjack after her rescue is less understandable. The best parts of the book are those chronicling Blackjack’s struggle to survive on the island, in particular her discovery of her strength.
The book does confront, though doesn’t entirely answer, questions about men and women were viewed, and the white man’s view of the Inuit, in particular of Inuit women.
May 21, 2014
The heroine in this amazing story is a young Inuit woman with a sick child, who goes on an expedition to an island above Siberia, thinking that she will be a seamstress for four young men, and make money for her child. She doesn't really want to go, but feels trapped and obligated and not up to the task of standing up to the man who hires her. After all, she is a quiet girl and it is the year 1921.....
Her adventures on this trek are told thru letters and diaries, and eventually by herself, as she becomes the only survivor of this mad journey to the Arctic. The author has done her research and created a page turner, as we share the hunger, fear, cold, weather, lack of privacy, sickness, and eventually starvation as we share this harrowing journey with these young men and woman.
It's a sad story, and such a shame for the young men who are duped into thinking that they were going to be famous explorers, and for Ada, who never really recovers from her experience..... It is also hard on the families who never recover from their loss.
I would definitely recommend this well written book, one that takes one into a world that most of us will never experience nor would ever want to. And it helps us all to understand a bit more the mind and drive behind those explorers who risk their lives to seek a new land......and to be the trailblazers of their time.
Her adventures on this trek are told thru letters and diaries, and eventually by herself, as she becomes the only survivor of this mad journey to the Arctic. The author has done her research and created a page turner, as we share the hunger, fear, cold, weather, lack of privacy, sickness, and eventually starvation as we share this harrowing journey with these young men and woman.
It's a sad story, and such a shame for the young men who are duped into thinking that they were going to be famous explorers, and for Ada, who never really recovers from her experience..... It is also hard on the families who never recover from their loss.
I would definitely recommend this well written book, one that takes one into a world that most of us will never experience nor would ever want to. And it helps us all to understand a bit more the mind and drive behind those explorers who risk their lives to seek a new land......and to be the trailblazers of their time.
March 30, 2008
Fascinating story, and unusual because of its setting and the fact that Ada Blackjack, an Inuit woman, was the heroine (at a time in history when a woman--especially a woman with a distinct ethnicity--was rarely credited with skills or abilities beyond the kitchen and parlor).
A sad and moving account of enthusiasm that cost lives: four men perished in an ill-advised attempt to "secure" Wrangell Island for Britain and Canada in the early 1920s, and lone survivor Ada Blackjack was both glorified and villified for her role in the project for the rest of her life.
It was especially sad to see the cultural clash between the men and Ada, and how each side misunderstood the motivations and beliefs of the other. Ada was raised in a traditional Inuit world of oral history and believed the stories she'd heard since childhood; the men were products of 19th century science and technology, and could not understand Ada's perception of the world they inhabited together. The photos taken on Wrangell Island and the letters from the parents are especially moving.
A sad and moving account of enthusiasm that cost lives: four men perished in an ill-advised attempt to "secure" Wrangell Island for Britain and Canada in the early 1920s, and lone survivor Ada Blackjack was both glorified and villified for her role in the project for the rest of her life.
It was especially sad to see the cultural clash between the men and Ada, and how each side misunderstood the motivations and beliefs of the other. Ada was raised in a traditional Inuit world of oral history and believed the stories she'd heard since childhood; the men were products of 19th century science and technology, and could not understand Ada's perception of the world they inhabited together. The photos taken on Wrangell Island and the letters from the parents are especially moving.
June 13, 2011
If you like history, especially stories of women, you'll like this one. The story of Ada, who went with four men to a remote island in the Arctic. When the relief ship didn't return, they spent 2 YEARS on this island. Three left for help and never seen again. One died of scurvy, and Ada was left for two months to fend for herself completely. Think polar bears, no food, lonliness... It's a fascinating story, though I skimmed the last 100 pages (after her rescue). Squabbling over story rights, which version was correct, etc. We are left to form our own opinion of her, but no matter what we think --- she did brave the odds to survive.
January 21, 2022
I’m ultimately glad I read this book but it was a 14 hour audiobook that easily, effectively, and intriguingly could have been told in about seven hours. I knew that’s a risk I would be taking because this was a true story and when you’re writing about a true story you don’t want to leave a single important detail out, however there were points it just dragged in dragged. I thought it was an Interesting story overall and I’m glad to have read about it.
April 29, 2016
When you read about the hardships of another person, there really are no words to describe the impact of that book. Everything seems trite and shallow. This is such a book. All that I can say is that I am amazed at the naivete of people of that era and also the callousness with which these explorers were treated.... Friendly arctic indeed....
May 19, 2023
”Stefansson could not manage a peanut stand, my husband always said.”
I read Buddy Levy’s fascinating Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk not too long ago (seriously, go read it if you haven’t, it’s great), and one of the things that struck me about that particular voyage was how irresponsible its benefactor, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, seemed during the entire thing. He lost a whole vessel immediately after getting started, shrugged his shoulders, and immediately fucked off to the arctic coast rather than travel with his one remaining boat. So when I read later on that he had the utter brass balls to try it again with an entirely different voyage and people went along with it, I had to know more. This book is about the second time grifter Stefansson tried to sell people on his idea of a friendly arctic and become That Guy who claimed a land in the name of Canada.
Four men and Ada Blackjack were hired by Stefansson to return to Wrangel Island, claim the land in the name of Canada, and survive there for six months before a relief vessel was sent for them with more supplies and to give them an opportunity to come home. They depart (with way too little supplies, under Stefansson’s direction), the relief ship never makes it through, and it isn’t until a year and a half that Ada Blackjack is discovered as the expedition’s only survivor. The story is told from diary entries left by the four men and Ada, as well as first hand accounts from family members and Ada Blackjack herself. Stefansson’s “friendly arctic” was a sham, to nobody’s surprise.
Unfortunately, despite Ada Blackjack’s name being the title character of this book, it really is about the entire expedition and the aftermath. Ada was brought along as the expedition’s seamstress and cook, outlived everyone else on the expedition, and for her struggles had her name dragged through the press as being useless, a prostitute, among other things. Stefansson did nothing to dispel these lies, and in fact withheld the diaries of the expedition members for a long time in order to drive up book sales, sell more lecture slots, and generally make a larger name for himself than was strictly necessary. As his expedition basically amounted to nothing, he was also unable to pay the families or Ada Blackjack herself what they were due.
It's an interesting book, but I recommend reading about Stefansson’s Karluk expedition first, if only to get the full impact of Stefansson’s bombastic incompetence going into this. While this was a neat book in its own right, the expedition itself doesn’t have nearly as much drama as some of the others I’ve read. Most of the interesting bits of this book to me came after the expedition when the families of the deceased start confronting Stefansson, and he has to face the consequences of his actions (or not). It’s less an arctic expedition book and more an account of Stefansson’s downfall.
November 3, 2025
[Ada Blackjack's original diary is not on Goodreads so reviewing it here instead.] Amazingly moving to read Ada's own perspective on the day-to-day aspects of solo survival. She was an Iñupiat woman who joined four men on an expedition to Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean. When rescue failed to arrive the following year, three of the men attempted to walk across the frozen sea to Siberia and never returned. One who was sick stayed behind, and Ada did all the work to care for them both until he died six months later. She then managed alone on the island (with Vic the cat) for two months until a ship finally came.
[April 2nd, 1923] " I don't know how much I would be glad to get home to folks."
[April 21st, 1923] "[Knight] started to cruel at me every time he say something against me. He says Black Jack was good man and was right in everything and was right to treat me mean. And saying I wasn't good to him he never stop and think how much it's hard for women to take four mans place, to wood work and to hunt for some thing to eat for him and do waiting to his bed and take the shit for him ... If I be known dead, I want my sister Rita to take Bennett my son, for her own son and look after every things for Bennett she is the only one that I wish she take my son don't let his father Black Jack take him, if Rita my sister live. then I be clear."
[June 16th, 1923] "I just write noted in case Polar bear tear me down or case I fall in some thin ice because I am hunting pretty near every day Knight is very sick ..."
[June 26th, 1923] "I was taking walk over to little Island and I found three sea gull eggs in one nest. and I cook them for my lunch I take and tea and Saccharine. I had a nice picknick all by myself."
[August 8th, 1923] "Now I see the ocean is pretty clear so it looks like it I was going to see boat coming ... I thank saviour Jesus that keep me getting from loneliness."
Read via the Dartmouth Digital Collection.
[April 2nd, 1923] " I don't know how much I would be glad to get home to folks."
[April 21st, 1923] "[Knight] started to cruel at me every time he say something against me. He says Black Jack was good man and was right in everything and was right to treat me mean. And saying I wasn't good to him he never stop and think how much it's hard for women to take four mans place, to wood work and to hunt for some thing to eat for him and do waiting to his bed and take the shit for him ... If I be known dead, I want my sister Rita to take Bennett my son, for her own son and look after every things for Bennett she is the only one that I wish she take my son don't let his father Black Jack take him, if Rita my sister live. then I be clear."
[June 16th, 1923] "I just write noted in case Polar bear tear me down or case I fall in some thin ice because I am hunting pretty near every day Knight is very sick ..."
[June 26th, 1923] "I was taking walk over to little Island and I found three sea gull eggs in one nest. and I cook them for my lunch I take and tea and Saccharine. I had a nice picknick all by myself."
[August 8th, 1923] "Now I see the ocean is pretty clear so it looks like it I was going to see boat coming ... I thank saviour Jesus that keep me getting from loneliness."
Read via the Dartmouth Digital Collection.
September 1, 2024
I could hardly put this book down. An older book but well worth the read if you’re a fan of polar exploration.
I recently read Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Larluk by Buddy Levy which told the tale of a polar expedition organized by Vilhjalmur Stefansson which proved to be disasterous, with 11 deaths, most of which occurred on Wrangel Island above Siberia due to starvation. At the end it discussed the living members and noted that Fred Maurer went on to join another of Stefansson’s expeditions, this time to colonize Wrangel Island - the very place he almost died a few years prior. I was curious about this expedition not only to see how Maurer could go from criticizing Stefansson to volunteering for another expedition, but also to learn more about the sole surviving member of the colonization expedition: Ada Blackjack.
The title of this book is a little misleading in that it doesn’t solely revolve around Ada Blackjack; however, I think it does an excellent job of telling the complete story of how this expedition came about, how each member was chosen, the experience on Wrangel Island, and the aftermath.
Personally, I am not a fan of Stefansson at all so it was interesting to read about the public opinion at the time (and see more people begin to see his true colors) and how the situation changed over the months and then years. I also enjoyed the follow ups with all the families of the men as well as Ada and her family.
I recently read Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Larluk by Buddy Levy which told the tale of a polar expedition organized by Vilhjalmur Stefansson which proved to be disasterous, with 11 deaths, most of which occurred on Wrangel Island above Siberia due to starvation. At the end it discussed the living members and noted that Fred Maurer went on to join another of Stefansson’s expeditions, this time to colonize Wrangel Island - the very place he almost died a few years prior. I was curious about this expedition not only to see how Maurer could go from criticizing Stefansson to volunteering for another expedition, but also to learn more about the sole surviving member of the colonization expedition: Ada Blackjack.
The title of this book is a little misleading in that it doesn’t solely revolve around Ada Blackjack; however, I think it does an excellent job of telling the complete story of how this expedition came about, how each member was chosen, the experience on Wrangel Island, and the aftermath.
Personally, I am not a fan of Stefansson at all so it was interesting to read about the public opinion at the time (and see more people begin to see his true colors) and how the situation changed over the months and then years. I also enjoyed the follow ups with all the families of the men as well as Ada and her family.
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