Searching for Franklin: New Answers to the Great Arctic Mystery Shortlisted for the 2024 John Wesley Dafoe Book Prize
Canadian author and historian Ken McGoogan has been nominated for the 2024 John Wesley Dafoe Book Prize for his work Searching for Franklin: New Answers to the Great Arctic Mystery. The award is presented by the J.W Dafoe Foundation and was founded in 1984 to recognize Canadian books and authors and memorialize Dafoe for his significant editing work in the 20th century. Forty-nine works submitted this year, and the winner will be awarded $10,000. More information on announcements and winners can be found on the website.
Searching for Franklin is a contemporary exploration of the legacy of nineteenth-century explorer Sir John Franklin and his two failed expeditions to the Arctic. While Franklin is often seen as a heroic Royal Navy man who sacrificed himself to discover the Northwest Passage, McGoogan takes an alternate perspective on the past by incorporating recent discoveries, rejecting the old orthodoxies and interweaving two main narratives. The first uncovers the truth behind the Royal Navy’s Arctic Overland Expedition of 1819 as a harbinger-misadventure, during which Franklin rejected the advice of Dene and Metis leaders and lost eleven of his twenty-one men. The second answers one of the greatest arctic mysteries: what was the root cause of the catastrophe that engulfed Franklin’s last expedition?
Ken McGoogan is an adventurer and Canadian author with sixteen published books under his belt. His bestselling titles include Searching for Franklin, Fatal Passage, Lady Franklin’s Revenge, and Canada’s Undeclared War: Fighting Words from the Literary Trenches. His accolades include the Pierre Berton Award for Popular History and the University of British Columbia Medal for Canadian Biography. He is also a fellow of the Explorer’s Club and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and sails as a resource historian with Adventure Canada. Born in Montreal, he has lived in towns and cities across the country before settling in Guelph, ON.