Join best-selling author Reid Mitenbuler to learn about Danish Arctic explorer, resistance fighter, and environmentalist Peter Freuchen in a book discussion of Wanderlust: An Eccentric Explorer, an Epic Journey, a Lost Age, out February 21 from Mariner Books!

Deep in the Arctic wilderness, Peter Freuchen awoke to find himself buried alive under the snow. During a sudden blizzard the night before, he had taken shelter underneath his dogsled and become trapped there while he slept. Now, as feeling drained from his body, he managed to claw a hole through the ice only to find himself in even greater danger: his beard, wet with condensation from his struggling breath, had frozen to his sled runners and lashed his head in place, exposing it to icy winds that needed only a few minutes to kill him… But if Freuchen could escape that, he could escape anything. And now his story is finally being told.

Meticulously researched and grippingly written, Reid Mitenbuler’s vivid portrait of the “Most Interesting Man in the World” chronicles how the wildly eccentric Dane’s insatiable curiosity drove him from the twilight years of Arctic exploration to the Golden Age of Hollywood, and from the burgeoning field of climate research to the Danish underground during World War II. In today’s program, Mitenbuler will discuss Freuchen’s jaw-dropping expeditions, survival of a Nazi prison camp, and recovery from a devastating injury, as well as the explorer’s restlessness and ideals, which were remarkably ahead of his time — championing Indigenous communities, environmental stewardship, and conversations that continue today.

This event will take place in-person at Scandinavia House. Registration is required; please sign up at the link above.

“This adventure story is impossible to resist” (Publishers Weekly).

About the Author

Reid Mitenbuler is the author of Bourbon Empire: The Past and Future of America’s Whiskey and Wild Minds: The Artists and Rivalries That Inspired the Golden Age of Animation. His writing has appeared in Air Mail, The Atlantic, Slate, The Daily Beast, and Whisky Advocate, among other publications. He lives with his family in Los Angeles.