Stephen R. Bown

Stephen R. Bown's new book is White Eskimo: Knud Rasmussen's Fearless Journey into the Heart of the Arctic. From his Q & A with Deborah Kalb:

Q: How did you end up writing about the Danish-Greenlandic explorer Knud Rasmussen?

A: It was my U.S. publisher. We were throwing around ideas after my book on Roald Amundsen, and she said, I remember [hearing about] Rasmussen…All ideas come from a meeting of minds. I often have ideas that are completely self-generated, but she latched onto it and said that would be fascinating…

Q: How would you compare the two explorers, Amundsen and Rasmussen?

A: They were from the same time period, and were overlooked Scandinavian explorers. But they were very different people. Roald Amundsen was an extremely goal-driven individual…

Rasmussen wasn’t really interested in geographical objectives, or being the first to do [something]. His interest was in…the exploration of people as much as the exploration of geography. He wanted to visit every known Inuit on the planet. There weren’t accurate maps of the world up there. [He studied] that...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Stephen R. Bown's website and Facebook page.

My Book, The Movie: The Last Viking.

--Marshal Zeringue