3.5
Ada Blackjack
ByPublisher Description
From a #1 New York Times bestselling author comes the remarkable true story of a young Inuit woman who survived six months alone on a desolate, uninhabited Arctic island.
In September 1921, four young men and Ada Blackjack, a diminutive 25-year-old Inuit woman, ventured deep into the Arctic in a secret attempt to colonize desolate Wrangel Island for Great Britain. Two years later, Ada Blackjack emerged as the sole survivor of this ambitious polar expedition. This young, unskilled woman—who had headed to the Arctic in search of money and a husband—conquered the seemingly unconquerable north and survived all alone after her male companions had perished.
Following her triumphant return to civilization, the international press proclaimed her the female Robinson Crusoe. But whatever stories the press turned out came from the imaginations of reporters: Ada Blackjack refused to speak to anyone about her horrific two years in the Arctic. Only on one occasion—after charges were published falsely accusing her of causing the death of one her companions—did she speak up for herself.
Jennifer Niven has created an absorbing, compelling history of this remarkable woman, taking full advantage of the wealth of first-hand resources about Ada that exist, including her never-before-seen diaries, the unpublished diaries from other primary characters, and interviews with Ada's surviving son.
Ada Blackjack is more than a rugged tale of a woman battling the elements to survive in the frozen north—it is the story of a hero.
In September 1921, four young men and Ada Blackjack, a diminutive 25-year-old Inuit woman, ventured deep into the Arctic in a secret attempt to colonize desolate Wrangel Island for Great Britain. Two years later, Ada Blackjack emerged as the sole survivor of this ambitious polar expedition. This young, unskilled woman—who had headed to the Arctic in search of money and a husband—conquered the seemingly unconquerable north and survived all alone after her male companions had perished.
Following her triumphant return to civilization, the international press proclaimed her the female Robinson Crusoe. But whatever stories the press turned out came from the imaginations of reporters: Ada Blackjack refused to speak to anyone about her horrific two years in the Arctic. Only on one occasion—after charges were published falsely accusing her of causing the death of one her companions—did she speak up for herself.
Jennifer Niven has created an absorbing, compelling history of this remarkable woman, taking full advantage of the wealth of first-hand resources about Ada that exist, including her never-before-seen diaries, the unpublished diaries from other primary characters, and interviews with Ada's surviving son.
Ada Blackjack is more than a rugged tale of a woman battling the elements to survive in the frozen north—it is the story of a hero.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesAda Blackjack Reviews
3.5
“Ada Blackjack. I’m so glad I finally read this. The bravery, intelligence, adaptability, self resilience, ingenuousness, and innate kindness this woman possessed. She survived not only poverty, domestic violence, colonialism, evil men who manipulated her after being rescued, but she was also the heroine of the Wrangle Island exploration. She lived off the land, fought off polar bears, learned how to hunt sea lions and birds all on her own. After her exploration party died trying to get help she cared for a cruel man, until he died of scurvy. She is a woman everyone should know about and revere. The best of us really.”“2.5 stars. It was dragged out way too long. The story was good but the writing? Not so much.”
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