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Biography & Autobiography Historical

John Franklin

Traveller on Undiscovered Seas

by (author) John Wilson

Publisher
Dundurn Press
Initial publish date
Jan 2001
Category
Historical, General, General
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780968816615
    Publish Date
    Jan 2001
    List Price
    $15.95

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Where to buy it

Out of print

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Description

John Franklin explored and charted Canada’s arctic seacoast in 1819-1822, 1825-27, and 1845. On the first expedition he nearly starved and on the third he died. None of his men survived the third expedition, but the search for clues to their fate helped open up the North and his celebrated Canadian song and stories.

About the author

John Wilson was born in 1951 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He did his early growing up on the Island of Skye and in Paisley, near Glasgow. From 1969 to 1974, he attended the University of St. Andrews where he took an Honours B.Sc.. in Geology and never played golf once. He took a position with the Geological Survey of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). In his two years there, he mapped rocks, dodged land mines and watched the country sink ever deeper into civil war. Shortly before he was due to be called into the army, John retreated back to Britain on his way to the safety of Canada. He settled on Calgary where geology was booming and the only danger was freezing to death in January. In 1979, he moved to Edmonton to take up a post with the Alberta Geological Survey. In 1988 he sold a feature article to the Globe and Mail. This fueled a smouldering mid-life crisis and he took up freelance writing full-time. With some success, John mined the experiences of his travels for articles, journalism and photo essays. He even began to express himself poetically and, with a young family, began writing children's stories. He moved to Nanaimo and then Lantzville on Vancouver Island. John has been widely published by a number of Canadian presses, with his acolades including a shortlisting for the Governor General’s Award.

John Wilson's profile page

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