Tundra

by Farley Mowat

Book by Mowat, Farley

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Canada

467 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Farley McGill Mowat was a conservationist and one of Canada's most widely-read authors.

Many of his most popular works have been memoirs of his childhood, his war service, and his work as a naturalist. His works have been translated into 52 languages and he has sold more than 14 million books.

Mowat studied biology at the University of Toronto. During a field trip to the Arctic, Mowat became outraged at the plight of the Ihalmiut, a Caribou Inuit band, which he attributed to misunderstanding by whites. His outrage led him to publish his first novel, People of the Deer (1952). This book made Mowat into a literary celebrity and was largely responsible for the shift in the Canadian government's Inuit policy: the government began shipping meat and dry goods to a people they previously denied existed.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship RV Farley Mowat was named in honour of him, and he frequently visited it to assist its mission.

Reviews

[Ayicia Naomi]

I really liked this collection of settlers being settlers (eye roll) in the Arctic. The racism was a tough truck through but there were some moments of awareness from the eyes of people interacting with Inuk, Dene, and Cree folks for the first time.
The sled dog stuff was very well described and I enjoyed the heartbreak what the caribou herds used to be. I appreciated the honesty reflected in this book even though some of it was really awful and terrible- interesting to see the whole perspective for a change

[Davis Legree]

Enthralling read...extremely sad at times, but a fascinating glimpse into an ancient way of life in the aptly named Barren Lands. The stories of Hearne, Franklin, and Christian were particularly interesting.

[LobsterQuadrille]

Not as many really interesting accounts here as in The Polar Passion, but I loved the excerpts from Thierry Mallet's Glimpses of the Barren Lands. They were written so beautifully, and I hope to read his whole book if I can find it somewhere.

[Rod Innis]

Some very interesting stories from history especially for a Canadian like myself.

[Alexander Weber]

Some of these stories are 5/5
Hearne and Franklin for instance. But many are tedious and boring.

[Owen]

The final volume in the "Top of the World" series, "Tundra" is a land-based, rather than sea- and ice-based version of the earlier books. Canadian author Farley Mowat completes a marvellous history of the Arctic by looking at some of the first recorded overland journeys into Canada's far north. This is country that Mowat came to know well. After the war he spent several seasons in the Arctic travelling the Barren lands with members of a branch of the Inuits, the Ihalmiuts, soon afterwards to be completely wiped out, mainly by contact with Europeans. Mowat tells the story of their demise in "People of the Deer" and a companion volume, "The Desperate People." "Tundra," on the other hand, is not Mowat's story, but is taken from primary sources, mainly diaries of those who did the travelling, and is a vivid and intense recounting of the up-river journeying of some of history's most adventurous travellers. Farley Mowat has done a great job of making this material accessible. If you have any interest in the Arctic, or Canadian history, or to some extent, the native peoples of Canada (Mowat has been criticised, probably unfairly, for his treatment of native people in his books), or if you just want a good plain adventure story, I highly recommend the three books in this series.

[Patricia]

Nobody can describe cold places like Farley Mowat.

[Charles]

I like Mowat's work a lot. He sometimes gets a little more socio-political than I care for but he is a very fine writer with a genuine feel for wild places.

[Richard Kravitz]

Don't remember anything about this book. Just on my list.