Chauncey Chester Loomis Jr. (1930–2009)

• Published in: Arctic Vol. 62; no. 3; pp. 361 - 362
• Main Author: Martin, Constance
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Calgary Arctic Institute of North America of the University of Calgary 01.09.2009; Arctic Institute of North America
• Subjects: Authors; Careers; Deaths; Loomis, Chauncey Chester Jr (1930-2009); Personal profiles; Writers; United States; Great Barrington Massachusetts; United States > US
• ISSN: 0004-0843; 1923-1245
• DOI: 10.14430/arctic166

First published by Alfred Knopf in 1971, then by the University of Nebraska Press in 1991 and The Modern Library in 2000, [Chauncey Chester Loomis Jr.]'s study is now a classic in its field. Writing in the New York Times in 2001, the popular polar historian Sara Wheeler (2001:3) declared that, better than any subsequent writers on the subject, Chauncey Loomis "unravels the expedition brilliantly and also offers a concise intelligent introduction to the history of Arctic exploration?Refusing to be decisive about whether [Charles Francis Hall] was murdered, he states only that poisoning was among several possible causes of death. And why not? Thrillers might always have neat answers, but history usually doesn't. That's why it's interesting, isn't it?" A lifetime member of the Arctic Institute of North America, Chauncey became a visiting Fellow when he travelled to the University of Calgary in 1987 and gave a talk, entitled "The Unsolved Arctic Murder?" based on his expedition to uncover the grave of Charles Francis Hall. He also wrote many critical essays on Arctic subjects for The London Review of Books, including reviews of Barry Lopez's Arctic Dreams and Pierre Berton's Arctic Grail (Loomis, 1986, 1989). I knew Chauncey in grammar school in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and we remained friends throughout his life. His friendship and influence expanded my limited intellectual territory and finally led me to Arctic studies. Chauncey's academic career as a professor of English at Dartmouth College followed in the footsteps of his friend and mine, Alan Cooke of McGill University. A polar historian, Cooke, like Chauncey, believed in the preservation of small, specialized polar libraries modeled on the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge, such as the Stefansson Collection at Dartmouth College and the library of the Arctic Institute of North America. When I was searching for a suitable MA thesis topic in history and art history in 1975, Chauncey brought to my attention the move of the AINA library, including its collection of Arctic exploration watercolours, drawings, photographs, and artifacts, from McGill University to the University of Calgary. From that time on, he became not only my friend but my mentor, and we worked together on various projects dealing with the "Arctic of the Imagination." One such collaboration was an illustrated edition of Elisha Kent Kane's Arctic Explorations for R.R. Donnelley & Sons' Lakeside Classic series (Kane, 1996).