The Last Speaker of Bear - by Lawrence Millman (Paperback)

About the Book

Four decades of expeditions in the north from Canada to Siberia

Book Synopsis

Four decades of expeditions in the north from Canada to Siberia

Review Quotes

"Lawrence Millman is that rare traveler - a person with guts and a sense of humor." -- Paul Theroux

Praise for The Last Speaker of Bear

"Though many of the essays are amusing, such as his run-in with 'Viking' marauders on a remote Icelandic island, climate change and its deleterious effects on landscapes, wildlife, and livelihoods are a common theme of his observations, and his anticipatory mourning for an Arctic close to vanishing forever serves as a potent reminder of the present reality." -- Library Journal

"Lovers of Arctic lands and wanderlust will enjoy these armchair adventures imbued with Millman's strengths of heart, mind, and humor." -- Booklist

"Captivating. A wonderful read." -- Bernd Heinrich, author of Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds

"I can't think of a better guide to the frozen north - its people and its culture and its plants and animals - than Larry Millman" -- Paul Theroux

"Whether delicately clearing his throat in a remote turf hut or sampling urumiit dropped from the wrong end of a ptarmigan, there is only one traveler in the past half century who has consistently revealed True North. If only we had been fortunate enough to have Larry Millman as our first visitor to the far northern edge of the world, before Western Civilization belched a parade of discoverers, explorers, and exploiters who canceled its cultures and cooked its climate." -- PJ Capelotti, author of The Greatest Show in the Arctic

"When you want to know the essence of a place, you go have a look. You look for a long time. You go home, think about what you've seen, hit the library, return to that place, learn about its plants, animals, geology, climatology, peoples. You ask questions of elders who have long been on the land, throw out half of what you think you know, start all over. Lawrence Millman has done all these things, an education that underlies this wise, spry account of a lifetime's travels in northerly places. No matter what your own home ground, you'll learn much from Millman's extraordinary book." -- Gregory McNamee, author of Aelian's On the Nature of Animals

"Everything Lawrence Millman writes is original, most of it is funny and far more of it than we deserve is profound and true. This is a necessary book for a broken time. You should read it." ⁠--​ ​Paul Kingsnorth, author of ​Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist and Other Essays

"Millman is a one-of-a-kind adventurer and storyteller. His keen observations and beautiful writing transport readers to the ends of the earth with a unique combination of illuminating insight, wit and humor. This fantastic book is full of stories that only Millman could tell." ⁠--​ Jonathan Reisman MD, author of The Unseen Body

Praise for Lost in the Artic

"Again and again, Millman extends a generous invitation for the reader to experience schadenfreude at his expense." -- The New York Times

"He has a gonzo intrepidness ... Millman is rightfully beloved by travel writers." -- Boston Globe

"Millman is a modern-day Rousseau." -- The Washington Post Book World

"Wild, offbeat adventure ... with viscera and wit. For the armchair explorer, this is a ticket to the bizarre and quirky." --

About the Author

Lawrence Milliam is an arctic explorer and mycologist. He has taught at Tufts University, the University of Iceland, University of Minnesota, Vermont College, and Harvard University (Extension) and is the author of sixteen books, including At the End of the World and Fungipedia. He has received a Guggenheim Award, Fulbright Fellowship, and Bush Foundation Fellowship. He has appeared in major media including National Geographic, the Atlantic Monthly, Smithsonian, Sports Illustrated, Outside, the Times Literary Supplement, the Boston Globe, the London Sunday Times, and the Journal of American Folklore. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.