I, Matthew Henson: Polar Explorer Review

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(More customer reviews)I love a book where you come away with knowledge of someone or something you had absolutely no idea existed. In I, Matthew Henson: Polar Explorer, I learned about Matthew Henson, who together with Robert Peary became the first men to reach the North Pole.
I, Matthew Henson is written by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Eric Velasquez. Through poetry, it tells the life story of Matthew Henson, an African American man with big dreams of exploring the world. Born in 1866, Henson lived in a time when African Americans had very limited opportunities in the world. Through hard work and a little luck, he accomplished goals most people only dreamt about. Written in lyrical first person verse, the hardships he encountered along the way (such as serving as a manservant, frigid weather, racism) are beautifully and realistically depicted:
"We had not survived the frigid cold
that broke some and killed others
to let our dream belt when hope
and cash ran low. While others gave up,
we returned to the polar region
and, guided by Eskimos, fetched
a prize from the ice cap-a meteor,
which Peary sold to raise funds."
Henson, Peary and four Eskimos reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909. While the book ends on a positive note, there's an extensive author's note at the end of the book which talks about the controversy that Henson and Peary experienced after their journey. Someone else claimed to have gotten there first, and then some authorities dismissed their accomplishment because of the color of Henson's skin. While eventually all was resolved, the book presents a realistic portrayal of the trials experienced by one African American at the turn of the century.

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Matthew Henson was not meant to lead an ordinary life. His dreams had sails. They took him from the port of Baltimore, around the world, and north to the pole.No amount of fear, cold, hunger, or injustice could keep him from tasting adventure and exploring the world. He learned to survive in the Arctic wilderness, and he stood by Admiral Peary for years on end, all for the sake of his goal. And finally, after decades of facing danger and defying the odds, he reached the North Pole and made history. At last, Henson had proved himself as an explorer—and as a man.

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Traitors & True Poles: Narrating A Polish-American Identity, 1880-1939 (Polish and Polish American Studies) Review

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(More customer reviews)"If America holds a collective portrait of the Polish immigrant landing at Ellis Island, exhausted, bewildered, clutching bundles and children, surrounded by queerly lettered trunks, what, in the popular imagination, do those trunks contain? The featherbed, embroidered linens, a treasured family photograph . . . a fistful of village soil . . . . Rarely, however, do we imagine a book among the carefully packed belongings . . . " (p. 15).
Popular stereotypes may envisage the Polish immigrant of the late 19th/early 20th century as an illiterate peasant who provided only brawn to the American Industrial Revolution. But the emigracja za chlebem also had a voracious appetite for reading. Karen Majewski, associate professor of Polish & East Central European Studies at Michigan's St. Mary's College, documents a lost page in immigrant history: the large book publishing industry that grew up in Polonian centers to serve the first and second generations of Polish immigrants.
The demand for books was great, evidenced by the number of titles that appeared. Writing their history is itself a challenge, because much of the primary source material has disappeared. Being in Polish, the books often didn't catch the attention of American libraries. Since book publishing was a sideline of the Polonian newspaper publishers, they kept costs down by printing on acidic paper that crumbled over time. Few of these books were sent to deposit collections like the Library of Congress. Few were copyrighted: some even couldn't be, because-as today-Polish "entrepreneurs" had no qualms about pirating books published elsewhere, calculating that an author in the old country was unlikely to fight for his intellectual property rights in Wisconsin.
Majewski devotes her book to a special niche of those writings: fiction published by Polonian authors for the Polonian market. She examines four different genres: crime and detective novels, sagas about immigration, short stories and novels containing social critiques, and romances. She also devotes an epilogue to Polish-language novels being published today by writers like Zofia Mierzyñska, recounting the lives and experiences of today's economic immigrants who overstay tourist visas and disappear into the underground economy.
The author advances a provocative thesis: that Polonian fiction was often a metaphor for intra-community debates about what it meant to be Polish in America. The emigracja za chlebem had come to America from a Poland that did not appear on anybody's maps. In many ways, the most open and public debate about Polish identity occurred not in Austrian-, Russian-, or Prussian-dominated Poland but in the "fourth partition," American Polonia. Majewski argues that many of the images of family, love, marriage, betrayal, and usurpation were also extended metaphors for what was taking place on the political level in Poland. As later under communism, Poles learned how to communicate effectively through a "'conspiracy of understanding'" invoking certain words, symbols, and associations. It was not mere coincidence that Pope John Paul II often spoke about the virtue of solidarity after the suppression of SolidarnoϾ. Majewski argues that the same phenomenon was operative in that early Polonian fiction.
Majewski's recovered a fascinating and forgotten page of American Polonian history. While not minimizing its scholarly value, it reads well and can be of benefit to general readers interested in matters Polish. Highly recommended.

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A Negro Explorer at the North Pole: The Autobiography of Matthew Henson Review

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(More customer reviews)Hats off to Dr. Counter and Invisible Cities Press for presenting Matt's amazing account of how he reached the North Pole with Peary. This inspiring work is presented with the dignity it deserves. (Unlike earlier reprints this one is complete with every word Matt put into the 1912 original.)
The publisher went all the way with photos! This has to be the ultimate Henson photo book with restored prints from such hidden jewels as Peary's rare "Secrets of Polar Travel". Here you see the Eskimos skinning a polar bear with paws that look to be 2 feet across! The pictures comprise a significant resource allowing the reader to see every detail of the dog sledges, ice trails, and even artists illustrations from the very rare 1910 Hampton's magazine series. Bravo!
The introduction is by Dr. Allen Counter of the Harvard Foundation. He is the world expert on Henson, a man whose deeds and accomplishment on behalf of Matt's memory have made history. He presents a perfect compliment to the original (1912) introductions by Commander Peary and Booker T. Washington. Much more than that, he gives us a cohesive narrative explaining many details about Peary and Henson that had been "murky". His scholarship (extensive research, reading Matt's diaries, etc.) lets us appreciate the historical context in which the North Pole was attained and why Henson was the key man that made it physically possible. Dr. Counter's 15-page intro will be much read in years to come. It is an outline of, hopefully, a full-length book on Matt that he should author someday to preserve his wealth of Henson knowledge. There is no one else in the world, writing about this subject, that is in Counter's league.
At long last Matt's 1912 work has been made available to everyone who wants to experience first hand Henson's excellent (and charming) account of reaching the Pole. In this respect he wrote a better, more intriguing, narrative than Peary did. Matt is an inspirational hero for all of us; a man of courage, humility, endurance, and great skill. He is still, to this day, a legend in the Arctic where the Inuit people adore him. His grandchildren live on in Greenland and speak with heart felt pride of Mari-Pahluk, "Matthew the kind one", the first man to stand on top of the world.

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When Commander Robert Peary reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909, one other American was with him-Matthew Henson, a black man from Maryland who had been Peary's faithful companion through 22 years of polar exploration. This is Henson's story in his own words, from his early years as a sailor to his meeting Robert Peary and their multiple expeditions to the North Pole. Filled with hair-breadth escapes from disaster and haunting evocations of life in the Arctic, this classic of exploration literature reveals Henson as the true hero of the journey, one who had been forced to accept a lower status because of his race. It was Henson who learned to speak the native tongue of the Eskimos, Henson who handled the dogs and broke the trail, and Henson who arrived first at the North Pole after being purposely left behind by Peary. New to this edition are rare articles and photos of the expedition that Henson published to set the record straight.

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