Stephen R. Bown's new book is Island of the Blue Foxes: Disaster and Triumph on the World's Greatest Scientific Expedition.From Bown's Q&A with Deborah Kalb:
Q: Why did you decide to write about the Great Northern Expedition?Learn more about the book and author at Stephen R. Bown's website and Facebook page.
A: I’ve had the idea to tell this story for over 15 years now, but I just didn’t think there was quite enough information to truly bring it alive. It was only in the last several years that additional information about the expedition has been uncovered in Russian archives and translated into English.
But the reason that I was initially interested in the story for so long is that it is simply the most incredible exploration story that I have ever read about.
It involves fascinating personalities such as Peter the Great, the famous naturalist Georg Steller (Steller Jay and Steller Sea Lion) and the legendary commander Vitus Bering (the Bering Strait). The expedition explored Siberia and pioneered the Russian discovery of Alaska. And that is just the background.
The real story, the human element, involves storms, scurvy and shipwreck on an uncharted, uninhabited island in the North Pacific. Then they survived a winter, spring and summer on a tiny island – building shelter and hunting for food even though their gunpowder had been ruined in the wreck.
What is fascinating to me is...[read on]
My Book, The Movie: The Last Viking.
The Page 99 Test: White Eskimo.
My Book, The Movie: Island of the Blue Foxes.
Writers Read: Stephen R. Bown (November 2017).
The Page 99 Test: Island of the Blue Foxes.
--Marshal Zeringue