stefansson-wrangel-09-32-079r

THE WRANGEL ISLAND DOCUMENTS 357

told in the diary upon which we base the narrative from Chapter
XI to the end.

To those who read Chapter X we must apologise for, its frag-
mentary nature. This book was already in type and about to go
to press when Mr. Noice, through his attorney, offered us a retrac-
tion, explanation and apology which would serve to make unneces-
sary for us the presentation of extensive evidence, and the deduc-
tions therefrom, to prove that in his newspaper narrative of the
Wrangel Island tragedy certain things stated as facts were not facts
and certain important opinions and conclusions therein were either
unwarranted by the evidence or directly contradictory to it. The
date of publication had already been announced and a delay was
disadvantageous to the publishers. We agreed, nevertheless, to
hold up the book and to omit evidence of a certain type aggregating
many pages and to rewrite others. This was not only laborious and
expensive but certain to impair the unity of a book which should,
of course, in the first place have been a simple narrative of a roman-
tic and tragic adventure, but which through the force of circum-
stances had had to be written in part as an exposition and argument
to disprove Mr. Noice’s widely circulated newspaper story and to
remove from the public mind the firm and unfavorable impressions
which we knew had been created by it. As against these reasons for
allowing the book to stand as originally written, were the advan-
tages of a retraction both to us and to Mr. Noice. For us the ad-
vantage was that to some minds no disproof can be as conclusive
as an explicit retraction by the originator of the account that has
to be discredited. To Mr. Noice the advantage was that he could
present along with his retraction such explanation and apology as he
cared to make and through which he might hope to receive from;
the public a verdict less severe than otherwise.

Although we have removed or rewritten perhaps half of the pres-
ent chapter, we have not found it practicable to tone it down into
the mood which we might have had if Mr. Noice’s retraction had
been in our possession before we commenced to write. We have said
already that we hope that a considerable number of our readers will ommit chapter X and appendices IV and V
We want to urge upon those who read them that in
their own minds they soften, as they read, the harsher statements and
implications. By turning to Mr. Noice’s signed statement in Chap-
ter XIV of this book, they can see that he gives the explanation