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The exhumation of the body of a crewman from an ill-fated hunt for the
Northwest Passage by a pair of Edmontonians heralded a new trend in
exploration literature.
In 1981, University of Alberta anthropologist Owen Beattie, scientists and
author/filmmaker John Geiger led their own expedition to discover why the
1845-48 Franklin Expedition had gone so awry ... and left no survivors
among the 129 crewmen.
The Franklin Forensic Project travelled to Beechey Island, a tiny island
in the Northwest Territories north of Baffin Island. There, Beattie,
Geiger and their crew exhumed from the permafrost the well-preserved body
of 20-year-old John Torrington, performed some tests on the remains, and
reburied his corpse. Their findings made an impact on both the scientific
and literary worlds, when they concluded that many of the crew had died
from exposure to the lead solder sealing the expedition's tins of
preserved meat, soup and vegetables.
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Arts Alberta #120
On this third and
final Franklin Expedition, there were |
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Beattie and Geiger's work was first detailed in The Edmonton Sun in 1984,
where Geiger worked as a journalist. The pair also published a book in
1987 and a documentary film on their expedition the following year, both
entitled Frozen in Time.
The book would prove to be a best-seller worldwide, with several
foreign-language editions, and foster a new interest in Franklinalia.
There would, for instance, be an influence felt not only in the world of
exploration literature, but in popular culture as well. Singers such as
James Taylor and the rock group Iron Maiden would incorporate the work of
Beattie and Geiger into their lyrics. Canadian authors Mordecai Richler
and Margaret Atwood would use aspects of the project in a novel (Solomon
Gursky Was Here), and short story (The Age of Lead, from Wilderness Tips),
respectively. And in Germany, novelist Sten Nadoly would write in 1997,
The Discovery of Slowness; Elizabeth McGregor of Dorset, England would
follow in 2001 with The Ice Child, her novel spawned directly from
Torrington's photographic image.
Beattie and Geiger would continue their literary work together, releasing
Buried in Ice, a children's edition of Frozen in Time; a second Arctic
true-life mystery Dead Silence, in which they would uncover the 1719 fate
of James Knight's 40-man gold and copper-seeking expedition; and editing
an upcoming book of essays on exploration and adventure. Beattie still
teaches anthropology at the U of A, and Geiger has continued a journalism
career at The Edmonton Journal and The National Post.
