Charles Francis Hall was an extraordinarily erratic character, and his biography fits him. The Modern Library Edition has a Series Introduction, an Introduction, a Prologue, an Epilogue, an Afterword -- I'm amazed they didn't try to install a spacewarp.

To be sure, it can't be much fun to try to write a biography of a character whose life was a mystery, and whose death was a greater mystery.

Charles Francis Hall began life as a newspaper man, of a rather slapdash sort, but became obsessed with the search for Sir John Franklin and headed for the Arctic. He found a few relics and learned a few things, but hardly enough to justify his efforts. But he became familiar with Inuit ways -- and then became obsessed with the North Pole. So he set out on an expedition to reach it. In the process, he died, and the expedition went to shreds.

What happened? We don't really know. Author Chauncey Loomis managed to arrange for an autopsy of Hall's body, buried along the Greenland coast, and it revealed a heavy dose of arsenic. So we know why he died. But was it murder or medicine? And was he already sick? And how did things get so out of control anyway?

We still cannot answer these questions, and probably never will be able to. The good news is, Chauncey Loomis has gathered together most of what little information we have, and has added to it with his visit to the Hall grave site. But I can only wish that the resulting account were a little better organized and a little less burdened with sidebars. ( )

A fascinating look at 19th Century Arctic exploration, told through the life story of Charles Francis Hall, who went from being a typical middle-class merchant in the Midwest to becoming fatally obsessed with the Far North. Although the key question of Hall's death in the Arctic (accident or murder?) can't be truly answered, this was a very informative biography about a intriguing subject. ( )