Vilhjalmur Stefansson was born in Canada but his parents brought him to North Dakota to live while he was still a small boy. Both parents had migrated from Iceland and often told him about this beautiful country. They taught him many old Icelandic sagas.

While Vilhjalmur was a boy, his family and friends called him Villie for short. He learned to read the Icelandic language from the family Bible and attended a country school. He worked on the family farm, herded cattle on the rolling prairies, and carried on other activities to earn money for an education.

He entered the University of North Dakota with only $67.88 in his pocket and milked cows and carried wood to earn his room and board. Later he graduated from the University of Iowa and did graduate work at Harvard University. At Harvard he obtained a grant to make a scientific trip to Iceland.

By now young Stefansson was certain that he wanted to learn more about the Arctic. Accordingly, he arranged to live with an Eskimo family for a number of years. He hunted and fished with Eskimos and dressed in animal skins. He ate raw fish and seal meat and learned to speak the Eskimo language.

In 1913 Stefansson was made Commander of a great expedition to explore the Arctic for the Dominion of Canada. His expedition included three ships and his personal staff included fifteen scientists. The major purposes of the expedition were to explore and map unknown northern lands and to obtain accurate information about the environment.

The expedition lasted five years. Stefansson and his men abandoned their ships and pushed northward over cakes of ice. They not only discovered new lands, but learned many new things about the climate and the plant and animal life there. They found the Arctic a very friendly and exciting part of the world.

Prior to and during World War II, Stefansson served as an advisor to the United States Armed Forces in the Far North. He spent much of his time teaching men how to camp and travel in Arctic regions. In his later years he assembled a great library on the Arctic which he donated to Dartmouth College.

This book has been written by Hortense Myers and Ruth Burnett, who have written other popular volumes in the Childhood of Famous Americans Series. They have done extensive research in order to provide an authentic story about this colorful northern explorer. Children will find the story intriguing.

From the dust jacket