The Polar Adventures of a Rich American Dame: A Life of Louise Arner Boyd

by Joanna Kafarowski

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The first comprehensive biography of Louise Arner Boyd - the intrepid American socialite who reinvented herself as the leading female polar explorer of the twentieth century.


Born in the late 1880s to a gritty mining magnate who made his millions in the California gold rush and a well-bred mother descended from one of New York's distinguished families, society beauty Louise Arner Boyd was raised during a glittering era.


After inheriting a staggering family fortune, she began leading a double life. She fell under the spell of the north in the late 1920s after a sailing excursion to the Arctic Ocean. Over the next three decades, she achieved international notoriety as a rugged and audacious polar explorer while maintaining her flamboyant lifestyle as a leading society woman. Yet despite organizing, financing, and directing seven daring Arctic expeditions between 1926 and 1955, she is virtually unknown today.
  • ISBN10 1459739701
  • ISBN13 9781459739703
  • Publish Date 28 November 2017 (first published 4 November 2017)
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country CA
  • Imprint Dundurn Group Ltd
  • Format Paperback (US Trade)
  • Pages 368
  • Language English