Product Description
This reproduction was printed from a digital file created at the Library of Congress as part of an extensive scanning effort started with a generous donation from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.The Library is pleased to offer much of its public domain holdings free of charge online and at a modest price in this printed format.Seeing these older volumes from our collections rediscovered by new generations of readers renews our own passion for books and scholarship. ... Read more

Product Description
In the late spring of 1903 Leonidas Hubbard, an ambitious young writer, Dillon Wallace, a forty-year-old New York attorney, and George Elson, an Indian guide with no firsthand knowledge of their destination, set out on an adventure. Beset by delays, the men paddle past their intended route. When in early September they finally glimpse the vast waters of Michikamau from atop an unknown mountain, the cold winds have already begun. With almost no food left, the three begin a desperate struggle against starvation and the quickening pace of a cruel winter, heading homeward in a race for their lives. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A haunting portrait of friends lost and friendship found
A deeply moving misadventure. In getting lost, these three men discovered the soul of Labrador as well as the true meaning of friendship and survival. This book is a classic.

The lure of the Labrador wild
I have read this book several times, and would recomend it to anyone that enjoys an adventure story. I enjoy it even more than most as Leonidas Hubbard was my grandfathers first cousin.This book has been almost required reading in our family,(Hubbard).I hope the publisher will reprint it as we have many family members looking for a copy of the book.

Tired..Weak..Hungry..They fought until the end.Ive been ther
I have read a lot of teen adventure books. I recently read this one while I was on a rugged boys canoe camp trip. We went on a 7 week trip with 12 men to labrador. I purchased this bookbecause it was nonfiction and it was saying how these 3 brave, adventurousmen took a trip similar to the area i'll be going to. It talked about howmothernature just (threre's really no word for it but...)Destroys thesepeople and they fight back with courage and hope in succeeding this rawadventure. The three in progress of there adventure take care of eachother and keep eachother alive nad in this doing they become better than greatfriends almost brothers. I really don't want to ruin the book for you, buti suggest so strongly that you get a copy of this book, and oh yea thebeginning of the bookreally is boring because it tells you of how theygot to labrador in 1902 (they didn't have cars).

Thank God the author lived and his book is being reprinted!
I cannot say enough about the content and the form of this book.Itbeautifully informs the reader not only of the enthusiasm of two would-bewilderness pioneers, but also of the errors they did not know they had madealong the way to a tragic end.I get the feeling that the author, whowrote the book (according to the introduction) as a tribute to his lostmate, never overlooks or overplays any of the events that took place in thethen-unchartered terrain of eastern Laborador.The author also makes plainthat the voyage ended his youthful naivete by teaching him the necessity ofrespecting the natural world and of remembering our loves who slowly butsurely disappear from our lives.

In short, Lure Of the Laborador Wild,despite its drab title, is an engrossing work.It is quiet, clearlywritten and, in a matter-of-fact way, terrifying.It towers far above allother nonfiction adventure books I have read over the past ten years.

A true story of courage and friendship
Poorly prepared, two friends, and their half-indian manservant "George", decide to travel deep in to the interior of Labrador.The hardship they endure and the hard choices they make are a testimony to the resilience of the human spirit. This book gives great insight into what life was like in eastern Canada at the turn of this century. ... Read more

Product Description
The Labrador interior has long held the well-deserved reputation of being one of the most inhospitable places on earth. It is a patchwork of Canadian Shield granites and sphagnum moss, labyrinthine caribou trails and desolate subarctic barrens, all set against glacier-scoured hills stretching to an apparently limitless horizon.

In the late spring of 1903, Leonidas Hubbard, a young writer, and Dillon Wallace, a forty-year-old New York attorney, set off with George Elson, a native guide with no firsthand knowledge of their destination, to explore the incompletely mapped Lake Michikamau region of interior Labrador. Beset by delays, the men paddle past their intended route, the Naskaupi River, and head up the horrible Susan River instead. When in early September they finally glimpse the vast waters of Michikamau from the top of an unknown mountain, Labrador's cold winds had begun. With scant scraps of food remaining, the three begin a desperate struggle against starvation and the rapidly approaching and unforgiving winter as they race home for their lives.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

"Great Heart" is the ultimate tale of this adventure
I am an adventure traveler and canoeist, and an avid reader of adventure writing.This story was told best, last and forever in the book, "Great Heart:The History of a Labrador Adventure."It is written by experienced canoeists and guides James West Davidson and John Rugge.These talented authors create atmosphere, characterization and drama that is unforgettable.I have returned to the book many times.If the story of the Labrador adventure intrigues you, I implore you to read "Great Heart."

Every canoeist, from novice to expert, should also own their other book, "The Complete Wilderness Paddler."The authors use the story of a wild and wooly trip down the Class IV-V Moisie River in Canada as a way to teach everything from how to plan a trip to how to survive the torture of black flies.It is hilarious, brilliant, insightful, genius!You can read it over and over and learn new things about canoe camping.Even if you'd never set a paddle in a river, you'll love the graceful writing of Davidson and Rugge.

Where the heck are they?
A wonderful book, very readable and absorbing.The strength and courage of these three men is inspiring and can only be imagined.E.g., making a 40 mile portage, half starving, carrying a canoe and several hundred pounds of supplies and equipment, or having to wade across a river (up to their armpits) that was encrusted with ice along its banks and having their now-wet clothes start to freeze on their bodies while they try to build a fire.However, the 3-star rating is not because of the writing or the adventure:this version (Lyon Press, 2004) has no maps and no photos.Photos would have added another dimension to understanding the spartan hardships of such an adventure, not to mention conveying the author's meanings of barren, difficult, or heart-breaking - all of which I thought were understated.And oddly enough, these photos are readily available - a google search will locate many, and the Canadian Virtual Museum has 67.The photos along with the text would have added substantial impact to the question, "How could they have endured this?"

But the lack of a map is intolerable.Maps are referenced half a dozen times by Wallace in the first half a dozen pages: their inaccuracies, their incompleteness, and the details his map now provides.Since a major navigational failing of the expedition is due to an inaccurate map from the Canadian Geological Survey (circa 1896 - and also available online via the CGS website), its absence is unforgivable.Another CGS map that got Hubbard so excited because "Unexplored Territory" was written across northern Labrador is another "must have" exhibit.Without a map, the reader has no idea where these men started, where they wanted to go, where they got lost or how they returned, or can understand the sad realization that a dream predicted an accurate route to safety but was ignored.

I spent more time online looking up maps of Labrador, trying to find the various missteps of the explorers (e.g., the Nascaupee, Susan, and Beaver Rivers) than I did reading the book.If you don't want to get lost reading this incredible adventure, then buy a version of this book that contains maps.I found this version of the book very frustrating.

A truly sincere classic
I couldn't put this book down once I started and really enjoyed the read. It has a place on my shelf of classics and just a very real story that is captured extremely well in words.

And I thought the Boundary Waters was tough
I'm ordering a second copy to give to my fellow canoers who head for the boundary waters canoe area wilderness. We travel with up to date equipment and maps. The fellows in this book "winged" it with what was then state-of-the-art gear. This book is a great contrast between wilderness canoe travel from this century to the last century.
The account is truly chilling at times. You are tempted to exclaim "these guys must have been nuts!!" But their journey was truly an adventure. Few of us would have the stones to attempt this today.
If you do any form of wilderness trekking or canoeing, you will really like this book.

Lure ofthe Labrador Wild
Dissappointed that this edition did not have the pictures or maps of earlier edition(s?). I returned it and will search old book sellers for an earlier, and more COMPLETE, edition. ... Read more

Product Description
In 1903 Leonidas Hubbard was commissioned by an outdoors magazine to explore Labrador by canoe.Joined by his best friend, Dillon Wallace, and a Scots-Cree guide, George Elson, Hubbard hoped to make a name for himself as an adventurer.But plagued by poor judgment and bad luck, his party turned back and Hubbard died of starvation just thirty miles from camp.Two years later, Hubbard's widow, Mina, and Wallace returned to Labrador, leading rival expeditions to complete the original trek and fix blame for the earlier failure.Their race made headlines from New York to Nova Scotia-and it makes fascinating reading today in this widely acclaimed reconstruction of the epic saga.The authors draw on contemporary accounts and their own journeys in Labrador to evoke the intense drama to men and women pushed beyond the limits of endurance in one of the great true adventures of our century.Amazon.com Review
In 1903 Leonidas Hubbard set out to cross the Ungava-LabradorPeninsula, and to forge a name for himself as an adventure writer. Hetook a friend, a guide, a canoe, a ton of equipment, and scads ofnaive hope. Months later, the friend and guide staggered out of thesnow, and Hubbard starved to death in his tent, too weak to attemptthe 30-mile trek to safety. And that's just Part I. James WestDavidson and John Rugge narrate with simple dignity, making vividlytangible the wretchedness of mosquitoes, the panic of no food, and therocky tangle of the Labrador wilderness. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Lost in Labrador
The authors not only present a well written history of an ill conceived adventure;they actually "re-created" each harrowing step, mile after mile canoeing and portaging over the same route. In a manner of speaking it is a well written "first hand" account of a tragic mis-adventure from a century past. Well worth reading and always relevant to those who enjoy the wilder places in the north.

The finest adventure tale ever written
I am an adventure traveler and canoeist, and an avid reader of adventure writing.There are a number of books that purport to tell the story of the ill-prepared Labrador Adventure, but it was told best, last and forever in the book, "Great Heart:The History of a Labrador Adventure."It is written by experienced canoeists and guides James West Davidson and John Rugge.These talented authors create atmosphere, characterization and drama that is unforgettable.I have returned to the book many times.Every canoeist, from novice to expert, should also own their other book, The Complete Wilderness Paddler.The authors use the story of a wild and wooly trip down the Class IV-V Moisie River in Canada as a way to teach everything from how to plan a trip to how to survive the torture of black flies.It is hilarious, brilliant, insightful, genius!You can read it over and over and learn new things about canoe camping.Even if you'd never set a paddle in a river, you'll love the graceful writing of Davidson and Rugge.

S.K. Lapius
This is a great read. There is little written about this turn of the century, "last frontier" of North America where even today natives will tell you that you can't get there from here. The grueling hardship and trajedy are well portrayed - as are the portraits of each individual. It truly takes the 3 books written about this seminal journey and adds information from the diaries and other writings of the various figures involved; and, this is artfully done by shifting voices. The book flows well and holds suspense to a surprising degree even to those who know the eventual outcome.

Good adventure story
This book tells the story of two expeditions across Labrador. The first took place in 1903 by three men, on which one of them, Leonidas Hubbard, died. Three years later, his wife, Mina, made the same journey successfully. These accounts are well written and make good use of the original journals.

Annoying novelistic style
As you can see from other reviews, most people seem to really like this book. I, however, got a few pages in and found I had no use for it, even though I generally go for just this sort of story. The authors of "Great Heart" use a novelistic narrative style, filling in from their imagination all manner of little details that they obviously could have no way of knowing. I'm apparently enough of a purist that I want my narratives based on reliable source material, not imagination. When an author begins to fictionalize, how can one ever know where the boundary between fact and fiction lies? This doesn't seem to have bothered most of the reviewers, but you might want to stay away from the book if you're similarly picky. ... Read more