The five 'prisoners' of the Arctic were Joe Boyle, a wealthy gold prospector; Vihjalmur Stefansson, who claimed to discover a tribe of blond Eskimos; Lady Jane Franklin, widow of famed explorer Sir John Franklin; John Hornby, whose obsessive quest for adventure took him to the Arctic's Barren Ground; and poet Robert Service. Their adventures read almost like fiction. All were loners, and obsessed by the North. Some descriptions of violence. 2004.