Three very different books of the past several months took a willow switch to the reporting of American history. Only one of those is the subject of this review. The others were Shadow Divers (2004, author R. Kurston) and Puppetmaster: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover (2004, author R. Hack), both highly recommended and a little unsettling. History is history, but it may not be what we're told of it.

The third book, Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic, kept my eyebrows at high arch for much of its 448 pages. It is a work of history and iconoclasm. Masterfully researched, it paints a different picture of a North American hero, Arctic explorer, Manitoba-born William Stevenson, who, according to author Jennifer Niven, changed his name to Vilhjalmur Stefansson to capitalize on the persona of his Icelandic heritage.

My father, like a great many other Americans, admired Stefansson for his Arctic experiences, independent spirit and hardiness, particularly as evidenced in Stefansson's book, The Friendly Arctic, and for his compelling Chautauqua circuit oratory. In fact, my father, who was fascinated by polar exploration and, at least for a time, with Eskimo (Inuit) culture, corresponded briefly with Stefansson, then as now widely regarded as one North America's foremost explorers.

So, I implicitly inherited enamor of Stefansson, especially his ethnological detailing of Eskimo life. That enamor took a beating with Niven's brilliant book, The Ice Master (2000), documenting the ill-fated Canadian Arctic Exploration of 1913-14. It was pummeled by Ada Blackjack (2003). It vaporized when I read elsewhere that Stefansson assured his audiences and readers that adventure is for the incompetent (what self-serving rubbish).

Ada Blackjack was a 23-year-old Inuk seamstress hired out of Nome, Alaska, to accompany four young men (and a cat named Vic) to colonize remote, desolate and inhospitable, 7,300-square mile Wrangel Island in 1921, ostensibly to claim it for Great Britain or Canada, despite an internationally recognized claim to the island by Russia. Wrangel Island is in the Chukchi Sea, 120 miles off the coast of East Siberia. Behind the inadequately conceived and funded expedition was Stefansson, who had designs that were less imperialistic and altruistic than claimed. After one year, the men and Ada expected to be relieved by another party, led by Stefansson, who had never been to the place but regarded it publicly, like the rest of the Arctic, to be a friendly place.

What happened took more than a year and it wasn't relief. Ada Blackjack figured most prominently in the expedition's aftermath, but certainly was central to the drama on Wrangel Island. Enough said; this book deserves to be read for its gripping, well-documented narrative and for its correction of history. But read The Ice Master first.

Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic is available from Hyperion (http://hyperionbooks.com) for $32.95 hardcover or on line in used softcover for only a few dollars.