North of Unknown: Mina Hubbard's Extraordinary Expedition Into the Labrador Wilderness

"Randall Silvis is this country's most pitch-perfect stylist, and one of a few writers in his generation who will make a difference."--Pulitzer prize nominee William Allen A remarkable adventure, a love story, and a thrilling race are all front and center in this account of how one woman's devotion to her late husband's memory transformed Mina Hubbard from a rural nurse into the most celebrated female explorer of her time. In 1903, following an ambitious expedition to map the interior of Labrador, Mina's husband, Leonidas, died of starvation in a cold, boggy, wind-scoured landscape. The news devastated Mina, but even more devastating were the accusations by Dillon Wallace, Leonidas' partner, that the expedition failed due to his incompetence. The allegations so infuriated her that she launched her own expedition at a time when a woman's place was the home, not adventuring. The expedition took place at the same time that Dillon Wallace was launching his; so the race was on. Using her late husband's original route so as to vindicate both her and Leonidas, she and her Native crew discover a landscape that is at once alluring and formidable. Driven by her devotion, Mina wins the race, beating Wallace by a month and a half, and becomes in the process the first white woman to make contact with the elusive Naskapis Indians. Using original source material and the memoirs of the main actors of this remarkable drama, the author pieces together a page-turning narrative of the race between Mina and Wallace, as well as the fateful first expedition of Leonidas Hubbard.