Fridtjof Nansen was a legend in Norway -- courageous polar explorer, humanitarian who earned a Nobel Peace Prize in 1922, champion of Norway's independence. He was also dashingly handsome.
Brenda Ueland was less legendary -- an early feminist, a disciple of exercise and a charismatic bohemian. That Nansen was enraptured by her is, for many, a revelation.
Revelation is the operative word in "Brenda, My Darling: The Love Letters of Fridtjof Nansen to Brenda Ueland," edited by Eric Utne. The letters to Ueland, who was Utne's step-grandmother, cover Nansen's final year, up until his death in May 1930.
Utne describes the letters as "some of the most passionate, candid and eloquent in the English language," which is quite a claim.
Certainly, they underscore a Norwegian saying that "when the old house catches fire, it burns with great heat," as noted in the foreword by Nansen biographer Per Egil Hegge. Nansen was 67 and Ueland 37 when they met once for a weekend in 1929, when an interview she'd sought took a lusty turn.
His letters counter the image of a repressed Scandinavian: "There is not a corner of my heart or soul which I do not wish you to look into. ... I have a feeling that I could talk to you about everything, as I never had before, and you would always understand."
But Nansen is not all talk. Many passages are "hot," to use his word, with talk of thighs and tremulous flesh and being "simply mad and wild with longing." He wishes for a few photos of her "quite naked," having sent his own nude photos.
In U.S. editions of "Brenda, My Darling," the photos are chastely cropped at Utne's direction. Not in Norway, where the publisher included them in their entirety. Norwegian newspapers published them as well, causing something of a kerfuffle from the shock of seeing a revered statesman posing in the nude. Yet it's Nansen's words that linger, words that at times make this most heroic of men sound besotted.
