"Sis casts a spell of enchantment . . . Jan Welzl never had a better friend." -- The Washington Post Book World

One hundred years ago a young man named Jan Welzl left his home in Europe and headed for the Far North. He rode off in a horse-drawn cart, traded the cart for a sled pulled by reindeer, and was gone for thirty years. Like Robinson Crusoe, he turned adversity into adventure and the wilderness into a dream, where anything could happen and anyone could be a hero.
In this reissue of one of his earlier works, award-winning author/artist Peter Sís explores the life of Czech folk hero Jan Welzl and re-creates his extraordinary Arctic odyssey. Mixing fact with legend, he paints the fascinating story of a little-known explorer and the native people who became his teachers and his friends. With maps, storyboards, panoramas, and even a myth told in pictographs, Peter Sís has concocted a visual feast.