The Polar Adventures of a Rich American Dame: A Life of Louise Arner Boyd

by Joanna Kafarowski

Overview

The first comprehensive biography of Louise Arner Boyd — the intrepid American socialite who reinvented herself as the leading female polar explorer of the twentieth century.

Born in the late 1880s to a gritty mining magnate who made his millions in the California gold rush and a well-bred mother descended from one of New York’s distinguished families, society beauty Louise Arner Boyd was raised during a glittering era.

After inheriting a staggering family fortune, she began leading a double life. She fell under the spell of the north in the late 1920s after a sailing excursion to the Arctic Ocean. Over the next three decades, she achieved international notoriety as a rugged and audacious polar explorer while maintaining her flamboyant lifestyle as a leading society woman. Yet despite organizing, financing, and directing seven daring Arctic expeditions between 1926 and 1955, she is virtually unknown today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459739703
Publisher:	Dundurn Press
Publication date:	11/28/2017
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Joanna Kafarowski, Ph.D., is an independent scholar and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, an Affiliate Member of the American Geographical Society, and a Member of the Society of Woman Geographers. She is an inveterate traveller and currently divides her time between Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, and Marple, Cheshire, England.

Read an Excerpt

She gripped the ship’s railing tightly with both rough-gloved hands while gazing sombrely into the sprawling darkness of the frozen night. Tall for a woman, broad-shouldered, wavy brown hair tucked under a snug cap framing a handsome face with piercing blue eyes, she could easily have been mistaken for one of the crew. Beneath her feet, the Hobby juddered and jarred as it made its way through the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean. The air was a constant thrum of men’s guttural voices, the clang of thick cables and ropes, the bursting swell of the ocean as the ship slammed through the seething waves, moving forward on its perilous mission. Though unaccustomed to life onboard ship, and only recently acquainted with northern waters, California native Louise Arner Boyd found herself profoundly moved and invigorated by the experience — and more than a little unsettled. Whether above or below deck, she was never alone. There were always experienced seamen keeping a watchful eye on the gently bred American socialite who had somehow become an integral part of one of the most desperate quests in polar history — the 1928 search for missing famed Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen.
She caught herself as the ship yawed abruptly to starboard. What was she thinking? Only a few weeks before, she had been dressed in a bejewelled gown, dining on lobster at Claridge’s in London, England, and dancing the quickstep at the Ritz. And yet here she was, wearing stiff leather boots and rough woollen trousers that itched like the dickens, standing unsteadily on the slippery bow of a ship sailing northward. There was so much for her to absorb — so much that the male crew members just took for granted. Louise spent hours poring over detailed nautical charts, checking the Hobby’s position with a sextant, and quizzing the officers; more than might be expected of a respectable society lady of a certain age. But, if she was going to contribute and really make a difference to this expedition, then she had to learn, and quickly, too. As Hobby’s hull rose and fell rhythmically, she mused to herself that this was not the trip to Greenland that she had originally intended. Who knew what winding, dreary path her life would have taken if the Amundsen tragedy had not intervened and disrupted her travel plans? As unlikely as it seemed, Miss Louise Arner Boyd of San Rafael, California, was never supposed to be discussing weighty matters with naval commanders on the high seas, recognized by all onboard as one of the leaders of a daring rescue mission of international significance.
During that summer of 1928, far above the frigid Arctic Circle, the weathered schooner Hobby, Louise, and the Norwegian crew, including Captain Kristian Johannesen and Captain’s Mate Astrup Holm, were sailing north in search of one of the greatest explorers of all time. Renowned for his bold exploits, geographic contributions, and endless brushes with death, Roald Amundsen had inexplicably vanished on June 18 during an effort to rescue the Italian explorer Umberto Nobile, who had himself gone missing in the airship Italia on its return flight from the North Pole. A Norwegian journalist noted tersely in a local Oslo paper, “It’s a terrible thought that the rescue of one explorer might end with the death of another.”
Louise’s first trip north had been an idyllic pleasure cruise a few years earlier. She had sailed with some intrepid friends around the rugged coast of Spitsbergen, Norway, and farther north, close to elusive Franz Josef Land. It was a fulfillment of a childhood dream. During her earlier trip to Spitsbergen, she had been overcome by joy at her first sight of the Arctic Ocean. She was entranced by the deepening silence late at night that was broken only by the heaving and jostling of the massive icebergs, the harsh crispness of the cold air that seared the lungs, that sense of absolute oneness with the primal core of the world. It stirred her blood just to think of it. To be honest, it was also the thrill of the mighty polar-bear hunt that attracted her. Like many adventurous women of her class, she craved the chase, the adrenalin-pumping rush that comes from sighting, stalking, and shooting one of the most fearsome beasts on earth. And she desired the kill as much as any man, when the blood-lust was upon her and the animal fell dead beneath her still-smoking rifle. But more than that, she went north because she wanted to know what was out there. She had to see it for herself. But leading a polar expedition and joining the ranks of fellow American polar explorers such as Elisha Kent Kane, Robert E. Peary, and Richard Byrd? Well, that happened by coincidence — or perhaps it was her destiny.
Just as the ship left Troms. harbour at the start of the rescue mission, newspaper headlines heralded, “Woman Joins Arctic Search — Miss Boyd To Assist Rescue” and “Miss Boyd Confident of Rescue Outlook. Californian Going in Search of Amundsen Is Huntress and Business Woman.” Were they really referring to her — a forty-year-old sophisticated woman-about-town? Forty! It had taken her quite by surprise.
She thought long and hard that year about what she wanted out of life. She wasn’t married and had no children — no ties at all. Her mother and father had passed away a few years earlier and she’d lost both of her brothers when she was young. No family then to judge or criticize or offer loving guidance and support. She was quite alone. There was no one to really care what she did so she just went ahead and did it. In the spring of 1928, her plans to hire a ship and travel north of Norway once more were well under way. But fate intervened when Amundsen was lost. Louise thought about the people closest to her and the pivotal events leading to this critical junction in her life.

Table of Contents

• Illustrations
• Maps
• Prologue
• Part One: An Unlikely Heroine
• Chapter One: An Adventuress is Born
• Chapter Two: Shaped by Adversity
• Chapter Three: “Diana of the Arctic”
• Part Two: The Call to Adventure
• Chapter Four: Chasing Amundsen
• Chapter Five: The Ice Queen Cometh
• Chapter Six: Greenland Beckons
• Chapter Seven: An Obsessive Pursuit
• Part Three: Scaling the Heights
• Chapter Eight: Contributing to Science
• Chapter Nine: Honour and Glory
• Chapter Ten: The North Pole And Beyond
• Epilogue: The Legacy of Louise Arner Boyd
• Acknowledgements
• Appendix
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Photo Credits
• Index

Editorial Reviews

The early twentieth century was arguably the golden age of polar exploration and Louise Arner Boyd, heir to a fortune and raised a society woman in San Francisco, defied expectations to follow her dream to explore the most remote and dangerous regions on the planet. Joanna Kafarowski has given us a fascinating account of an adventurous spirit following an unconventional path.

author Stephen R. Bown

Vividly written, exhaustively researched, and long overdue, this evocative biography brings to life a forgotten female explorer who cries out for greater recognition. What a wonderful addition to Arctic exploration literature.

author of Lady Franklin's Revenge and Dead Reckon Ken McGoogan

Joanna Kafarowski’s comprehensive biography of Boyd is a long-overdue examination of this wealthy and generous socialite, gifted photographer, and goal-oriented and determined expedition organizer.

Arctic journal

The early twentieth century was arguably the golden age of polar exploration and Louise Arner Boyd, heir to a fortune and raised a society woman in San Francisco, defied expectations to follow her dream to explore the most remote and dangerous regions on the planet. Joanna Kafarowski has given us a fascinating account of an adventurous spirit following an unconventional path.

author Stephen R. Brown