Race To The Polar Sea: The Heroic Voyage Of Elisha Kent Kane

by Ken McGoogan

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

Genres: Biography, Adventure, Nonfiction, 19th Century, History, Travel

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[LibraryCin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elisha Kent Kane travelled from the US to the Arctic in search of Franklin’s lost expedition in the mid-1800s. This covers not only this “trip” (where he and his crew were trapped for a couple of winters), but the bulk of Kane’s life, as well. He studied to become a doctor, but found he wanted to sail to the Arctic (despite being prone to seasickness). He loved a woman whom his family did not think was “good enough” for him, and things did not go well for the two of them, though she loved him, as well.

It took a long time for me to get interested in this (I have no explanation as to why this was). I was more interested in the second half of the book. The author looks at multiple sources detailing the expedition, as some of the crew did not think highly of Kane and others had no problem with him. The author did look at some of these specific sources at the end of the book to discuss.

[Dale Bentz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like Hillary, Shackleton, Peary, Amundsen, Scott, and others, Kane should perhaps be a household name, but honestly, I had never heard of him before reading this informative account. This is probably true for most people, who will likely enjoy this tale of adventure, romance, peril and narrow escapes, encountering unknown cultures, family squabbles, courage, and leadership.

[Dave Sandiford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kane was perhaps the last hero of Antebellum America. He had the good form to die shortly after his greatest adventure. He had the bad luck to be completely forgotten shortly after by his adoring country.
The book starts slowly. With a pedantic review of Kane’s sickly youth and early career. Once the Arctic takes its place as the antagonist the book becomes compelling.

[L.J. Sentivanac · Rating 1 out of 5]

I must admit, I didn't make it very far into this historical snoozer. If it gets to be a "heart-pounding" thrill ride, it gets there much too late.

[Luke Froelich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life of elisa kent Kane , very interesting, about the man no one ever heard of. Read

[Melanie Hepburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first 10 pages were dry. I nearly stopped; glad I didn’t.

His second journey to the Arctic was a riveting account.

[Jordan Mullins · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was like reading Elisha Kent Kane’s travel log and ship manifest. Detailed and dry in parts; heavy on factual encounters.

[Audra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 2nd book I've read by Ken McGoogan, and it's just as good as the first (Fatal Passage). It details the life and particularly the exploration work of Elisha Kent Kane, an American who participated in a rescue expedition for Sir John Franklin and then led another. He was iced in off the west coast of Greenland for two winters and survived due to his recognition that the Inuit knew how to survive and their only hope lay in emulating them. His tale is the arctic equivalent of Shackleton's.

As I had found previously, Ken McGoogan's research work is first-rate and his writing is both clear and interesting. In this particular instance he was fortunate/persistent enough to run down some primary source material that had not been seen in decades.

This left me with the urge to read Kane's own book (2 volumes) and I hope I can find it somewhere.

[Fowie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had never heard of Elisha Kent Kane before, but am now convinced he was a real-life Indiana Jones type adventurer. The stories (factual!) about his life are amazing, and this book does a good job of telling the important ones as build-up to his greatest: the race to the polar sea. Kane did an amazing amount of exploring and should be a well known hero. Due to circumstances at the end of his life and mostly after his life though, he is hardly known. That's sad, true, but the entire book takes on the tone of wanting to singlehandedly exonerate Kane and make him an American hero. Sure, he should be, but he's not. I'd rather that the book just tell me his stories and let me decide for myself instead of trying to convince me that he really was a hero. I could see from his deeds that he was, I didn't need three or four chapters at the end explaining why people who don't think he was are wrong...

[Jane Griscti · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story is about Elisha Kane, an American from Philadelphia, who embarked on an Arctic expedition purportedly to search for the lost British Franklin expedition and find the 'Open Polar Sea'. McGoogan sees Kane as an unsung hero; a point which he pushed to the point of annoyance, interjecting frequent references to Joseph Campbell's 'Hero of a Thousand Faces' and counter arguments to Kane's detractors.

The man was an adventurer who used his family connections to advance himself; he did spend some harrowing months in the Arctic and published a well received book on his observations including a great deal of information on the weather conditions, state of the ice and the lives of the native peoples he encountered; however, he found neither Franklin (after a cursory search) nor the alleged Open Polar Sea (as it doesn't exist). Found him to be a very unsympathetic character typical of his time.

[Carol · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like this book. After reading many chapters, I just kept wondering if this "larger than life" description of Elisha Kane is really correct. Although I marked this book as read, I was not able to completely read the book.

[Skai Leja]

Kane was an amazing character, and the rigours of early arctic exploration and the kinds of people drawn to it are fascinating

[Paul Colver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Largely a character study of Elisha Kent Kane though also a great description of the journey and the Arctic. In depth and well written. I never cease to be amazed at the things we men do.