"Kabloona" by Gontran de Poncins in collaboration with Lewis Galantiere, illustrated by the author, published by Reynal & Hitchcock, New York. 1941. First Edition.

Hard boards,beige cloth spine, dark-green cloth boards [beige cloth is stained: see photos], 5.3/4" x 8.3/4"; the endpapers are maps, 339 pages with several illustrations + c.15 pages with monochrome photographs on glossy paper, very good condition.

De Poncins relates his 15 months spent among the Inuit people of the Arctic. He is initially appalled at their uncivilized lifestyle but eventually morphs from a "Kabloona" (a white man) to an Eskimo.

"No other book about the Far North is written with so much sympathy, vividness and dramatic imagination.” [The New Yorker]

"Kabloona is the Inuit word for "white man." If you are at all intrigued by silly Westerners traveling unprepared into the Arctic and being surprised at the survivability of the natives and their own ineptitude this is one for you. Gontran de Poncins was a wealthy traveler who decided in the 1930's that he wanted to get to meet some of the Inuit population before they were corrupted by Western civilization. He had no training in Arctic conditions and, perhaps fortunately, took some time getting to the remote Inuit populations. Not trained as an anthropologist he none the less does an interesting, if not admirable, job of contrasting the natives with "civilized" people and he spends enough time with them to fully comprehend their way of life." [a review]

US: Priority (c 2-4 days) ----------- $12.50
Canada: Priority (c 2-6 weeks) -- $32.50
World: Priority (c 2-8 weeks) --- $44.50