Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - June - 2008 Issue
Arctic and Canadiana from Bjarne Tokerud Bookseller
Long-gone Upper Fort Garry in what is today Winnipeg.
The North Pole would eventually be reached, and Frederick Cook made the claim to being the first in his book My Attainment of the Pole. Being a Record of the Expedition that First Reached the Boreal Centre 1907-1909. With Final Summary of the Polar Controversy. Actually, this was not the final summary of the polar controversy. It goes on to this day, with most people discrediting Cook's claim, on the grounds of poor readings or simple fraud, and give credit to his rival Robert Peary. However, the controversial Cook, who landed in jail in the 1920s over a Texas oil scheme, still has his supporters. Regardless of whether he ever made it to the North Pole, Cook was a great and brave explorer, both in the far north and far south, and was greatly admired by the first man to reach the South Pole, Roald Amundsen, with whom he sailed to Antarctica in 1897-99. Item 10. $450.
Item 81 is a photograph of Upper Fort Garry circa 1878, a few years before most of it was demolished. The upper fort was headquarters for the Hudson's Bay Company in western Canada, located near the confluence of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers. The city of Winnipeg would grow up around the fort, and all but the main gate was destroyed in the 1880s to straighten Main Street. $1,500.
Bjarne Tokerud, Bookseller may be reached at 250-381-2230 or bjarnetokerud@shaw.ca.
