Name: The Man who Ate His Boots
ISBN: 9780307263926

Anthony Brandt

Documents the experiences of nineteenth-century adventurers who searched for the Northwest Passage, describing the sixteenth-century myths that inspired their pursuits and the ways in which many met tragic ends when confronting the harsh Arctic elements.

The Tragic History of the Search for the Northwest Passage

The Man who Ate His Boots

Patrick Book

This is a pretty remarkable, exhaustive accounting of one of mankind’s greatest follies. The insistence that the northwest passage must be navigable just because certain people thought it should be is nothing short of astounding. The fact that the British never learned a damn thing that could’ve helped them survive from the Indigenous peoples of what would become Canada is astounding. The cost of the repeated missions to the north is astounding. The whole damn thing is astounding.

The Man who Ate His Boots The Tragic History of the Search for the Northwest Passage