Letter from Vilhjalmur Stefansson to Alfred J. T. Taylor, 19 April 1922

I don’t see how I overlooked so long replying to your letter of January 16th.

The information probably comes too late to be pertinent, but the lady we dined with in Chicago is Mrs. John Fletcher, of 2004 West Pacific Avenue, Spokane. I know she will like it very much if you will let her know when you are next in Spokane].

The cause of the Anderson attacks at Ottawa is too complicated a matter for correspondence. Essentially, it amounts to this: We had been friends in college and got along beautifully on my second expedition, as you will see from the book, "My Life With the Eskimo." After that he was married and his wife (apparently) began to explain to him a thing he had never himself noticed, - that I was becoming famous by stealing credit from him. When that point of view is once attained, you can see how jealousy will grow and how supposed grievances will accumulate. The rest of the story is found both in "The Friendly Arctic," and between the lines. It was only after my manuscript had been read by Sir Robert Borden (and several others, all of whom agreed) that I eventually decided the Collinson Mutiny would have to be dealt with. You have seen how I dealt with it.

It is especially interesting to note, first, that the Ottawa attacks all had for their main plank the contention that the mutineers were responsible to some officer over my head, and that I exceeded my authority in doing as I did in the North in ordering them around as I did. When, after much talk, the time came for them to submit written charges to the Minister of the Interior, they found in conversation with officers of the Department that they were not likely to get any support for their contention that they had had the legal right to disobey my orders. Accordingly, the fundamental plank of the charges, as they appeared in the newspapers, does not appear in the written charges as submitted to the Minister of the Interior. Those charges are, in a sense, that I am conceited, fond of newspaper notoriety, untruthful, fond of appropriating credit for what others have done, and in general a disreputable sort of person. In particular, they charge that I slandered them in my book, "The Friendly Arctic," and that I have made violent attacks upon them in that book. All of these charges you were in some position to judge from your personal contact with me, and from the two books, "My Life With the Eskimo" and "The Friendly Arctic."

At Ottawa the other day I saw the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior and explained to them our motives in forming the Stefansson Arctic and Exploration and Development Company, and the general idea behind our operations in Wrangell Island. They seemed well pleased and disposed to support us. However, I must go to Ottawa in a week or two, and then I can let you know more definitely. In the meantime, a frank letter from you to your friend, Dr. King, telling about our mee ting in Reno, Nevada and our motives and subsequent operations, would be in my opinion a good thing.

How about your proposed trip to England?

For the present, there is nothing to be done about the men at Wrangell Island.

I think we should pay taxes on the goods taken from the United States into Wrangell Island. On the whole, I judge I had better not write the Minister of Customs about this until either you or I have had a chance to talk with him, for the letter might get into the hands of some irresponsible clerk who might handle it in the wrong way.