Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 03/00) - For many, Arctic Journal II: A Time for Change is the long-awaited sequel to Bern Will Brown's Arctic Journal, published in 1998.

For those who haven't had the pleasure of reading the first years of Brown's Northern life, this will be a singular encounter with a soulful and enchanting writer.

And for those who idolize legendary adventurers and explorers -- men who have dedicated their lives to forever pursuing the unknown and pushing the boundaries of the so-called known world -- consider these historic giants toppled off their pedestals. Brown towers over the Shackeltons, the Franklins and the Stefanssons

Why?

Because by keeping faithful journals of his life in the Arctic, which began in 1948, he has captured the essence of a truly arctic life. Not only did he record his own daily existence in a simple, straight-forwardand restrained prose, he also recorded the lives of whole communities and the people who inhabit them.

Here we find the building of a mission, a lodge and a life in Colville Lake, to the northwest of Great Bear Lake. We find the daily details of caring for people, and the heart of a person who approaches life with a great deal of joy.

The subtitle, A Time for Change, is so fitting. The years of the journal (1955-99), indeed proved times of formidable changes for Northern lives. Further, as Brown sought and received dispensation from the Vatican to cancel his vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, his own life evolved with his marriage to Margaret Steen.

How he managed to find the time to keep the journals is astonishing. As a News/North reviewer put it upon the publication of Brown's first volume:

"Bern Will Brown is the kind of man that makes you embarrassed about how much time you spend in front of the television. His new book, Arctic Journal, is the memoir of a priest, a pilot, an artist, a linguist, a carpenter, a trapper and a hunter. How Brown found time to write down the events in his adventure-ridden life remains a mystery to someone who finds it difficult to get to work on time."

In October 1999, thieves stole the safe in which Brown stored his journals. Not finding the cash they hoped, they burned the journals. Luckily for us, Brown had already used the material for this second volume.

Arctic Journal II is an incomparable read.